So Many Choices

I have spent some of the summer contemplating what we are doing in our home education. If I am picking the right curriculum. If I am using the right tools to educate. I went to a massive homeschooling conference with tons of curriculum all claiming to be the best.

It made me think. It made me question. It made me wonder. Just a little. I have a bunch of homeschooling friends and most of them are doing something different than me. Some parts are the same but others are different. When we discuss what we are doing, I do sometimes have a fleeting thought if I am making the right choices. Teaching the right things. In the way they need to be taught.

We discuss school because we want to make the best choices for our kids. For our families. We want to know what works and what doesn't. Is a certain workbook or story worth the cost? Homeschooling moms are a wealth of information and are very willing to share their thoughts.

I have questioned what I am doing. I have thought "should I be doing something different?" I think that thought every time I hear something cool that someone else is doing. But, then I realize I can't do everything that sounds cool. Because there is A LOT of cool stuff out there!

So, then I start running different teaching techniques and tools through a sieve in my brain. How do I like to teach? How do I enjoy teaching? How do I want them to learn? What do I feel is important for them to learn? What is my ultimate goal for education? What am I willing to do during the week to get school done? What are our weeks like with a hubby that works shift work? How does service to each other and others outside our home fit in? What do I want the kids to do for extra curricular activities? What do they enjoy learning? How does each one learn? What do they want to do for fun?

It can be a challenge, not getting caught up in what everyone else is doing. I think it is human nature to question what we do. It is important, because it allows assessment and change. When necessary. All my homeschooling friends do something different from me. And from each other. Homeschooling is as unique in each family as each family themselves.

I got a timely email from a site called Simply Charlotte Mason and there have been two very applicable quotes that have solidified my choice for the way we do school. Here they are:

"The mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body" (Vol. 6, p. 105).

"The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum" (Vol. 6, Preface).

In a nutshell, this is how we do school. This is the path I have taken. And it works for us. For today. . .