Homeschool Advice

   You may be visiting this blog for the first time, or maybe you have read some of my stuff before. I know that I am not real consistent with blogging, but I hope that what I do get out there is interesting and enjoyable to you. I love to learn and just want to share my knowledge and experiences with others. As always comments posted below each post is appreciated and feel free to tell me what you think.

I know that especially for those just starting out homeschooling it is essential to see homeschooling from other points of view as well as find out what other homeschooling families do. Learning about how others succeed and struggle is an important part of how we learn from each other, blogging is a great way to share this information with others. Like all homeschoolers we have good days and not so good days. We have the same stress as anyone else and need to find solutions to normal everyday problems. 

I hope that by sharing with you my experiences you can learn form my struggles as well as my successes. We are constantly learning everyday that is what life is all about and I will never claim to know it all. We learn with our children and everyone else we are in contact with and our children do the same. We can only do our best, when that is not good enough we must learn and grow so that our best can become even better.  

Things have been pretty tough at times and not just with homeschooling but with normal and some not normal everyday stress and issues that need to be and are being dealt with. I am not going to lie, I feel like quiting all the time especially these days. It has been five years since we have been with our charter school program for our homeschooling and we are headed to our sixth year. At this point my kids have never been to school other than some of the classes and events that are available with the charter program. 

I started with the program for support since I didn't know anything about homeschooling nor did I know anyone who was doing it. I only knew that I wanted to do this for my kids! We started with kindergarten and it was pretty good at first we kept up with the work and my son caught on real fast to all the lessons. He learned to read very well in Kindergarten and we were a little more structured then, as much as we were not. Sure I was still dealing with all the family stress, kid stress, and behavior problems but we were coping and learning better ways to do some things.

These days I find it very hard to keep on a schedule and even harder to get my kids to participate in workbook lessons and it boars me too so who can blame them! I think that myself and my kids are just sick and tired of workbooks and desk work. I feel that we lack the hands on stuff my kids really need. For me this is the hardest part especially when tired and the other stresses in my life just really drain me to tears. I find that I have very little left for my children's needs.

This is not a good place to be in for a homeschooling mom but personally I am working through it. I want to learn new and better ways to learn with my kids. Ways that inspire more learning that is fun and enjoyable for the whole family. After five years of homeschooling with a charter pubic school and trying to "do school" with my kids it doesn't seem like it's working anymore. For the last year I have been learning more about the unschool philosophy it seems more natural and I like that.

My kids don't love learning and that is not OK with me. They love hands on stuff and the smiles on their faces is reward enough. Many times I feel like the only home school mom that has kids who don't like school! Something is wrong with this picture. I am sure that many people can relate and I know that I am not alone in this. I guess that is why I have this blog and am writing this now.  Feel free to share in the comment area below.

I am definitely going to do more reading about unschooling and I will pass more good info along in the next blog posts.

How Children Learn (Classics in Child Development)

Learning All The Time

Here are some articles about unschooling that I read lately.

PBS Unschooling 101

Rejoicing Unschool Philosophy

Beginner's Guide To Unschooling

Until next time thank you for reading my first entry of the Home School Log here at the Homeschooling Works blog. Your time and feedback is always appreciated.

Joanne Utke