Choosing a Homeschooling Curriculum

Initially, the idea of choosing a homeschooling curriculum felt really overwhelming to me.  Some people love the thrill of making decisions when there are a plethora of options.   They enjoy pondering whether eggshell or ecru is the best color for their living room walls.  I'm not one of those people.   I find too many choices to be stressful.  I vacillate.  I doubt myself.  Oh dear, how would I ever choose the right curriculum for my kids who mean so much to me?!  Surprisingly, it came together pretty seamlessly.  It was exciting!  Fun, even!

I started with a Waldorf homeschooling class.  I've been drawn to Waldorf philosophy since those long convos with my friends back when Jude was a babe.  If nothing else, I could incorporate some of what I learned into my days with Evie.

From that class, I learned I actually don't resonate with many of Rudolf Steiner's philosophies.  Still I like a lot of what Waldorf education represents: a better late than early approach to learning, an emphasis on creativity, fables and fairy tales, handwork, music and art, a focus on rhythm, spending lots of time outdoors and in nature, limiting screen time and allowing lots of time for unstructured play.  Yet, I don't believe these philosophies belong only to Waldorf education.

There was one entire session of the class devoted to rhythm and that was so helpful.  Also, the class gave me the confidence that homeschooling could work for our family.  The teacher encouraged us that this could be a natural extension of what we already do.  We love to do things together as a family from art time, to nightly read alouds, to weekend hikes.  I've always been my kids' teacher.  

Meanwhile, I had my own personal sherpa (as Dan calls her) guiding me through the mountainous terrain of homeschool curriculum: Rachel from Stitched in Color.  I 'met' Rachel last summer when I participated in her Handstitched class.  It was fantastic.  I was/am impressed by how creative she is while remaining so well-read, thorough and practical. That's a unique combination!  She writes a series on her blog called Homeschool Chronicles.   Reading it, I was drawn to her homeschooling style and emailed her asking a few questions.  She was so generous with her time.  We exchanged lots of emails and had a couple of phone conversations, too.  In the end, in addition to feeling so grateful, I suggested she create an Intro to Homeschooling class.  And guess what?  She did!  I love people like that - people who just go for it!  It's so inspiring! If you have any interest in homeschooling, I recommend you check out the class (here),  I know it's going to be fantastic... and it starts tomorrow!

So, here's what we've settled on thus far.

For Indigo, we chose Oak Meadow.  Oak Meadow could be considered Waldorf-inspired.  It incorporates the things I love about Waldorf philosophy, without including the things I don't.  It's mainstream enough that it meets the requirements of even the strictest states.  Indigo is an incredibly artistic child and this curriculum seems like it was made for her.  It's also open-and-go, meaning all of the lessons are planned out for me, which was a must.   We do plan to supplement the math portion of the curriculum with Singapore Math.

Oak Meadow was not a good fit for Jude.  He's doesn't enjoy drawing or art very much, even though he's incredibly creative when it comes to things like legos or snap circuits.  That's the great part about homeschooling.  I can choose a curriculum that suits his learning style and his temperament.  Our style for Jude turned out to be eclectic.  Rather than sticking with one complete curriculum, we chose what we felt was best for him in each subject area. We plan to use Singapore Math.  Singapore Math is a rigorous math program, based on the national math curriculum in Singapore.  After this curriculum was introduced in Singapore, students experienced a dramatic improvement in math proficiency demonstrated by international assessments.

For Language Arts we settled on Michael Clay Thompson Grammer, Vocabulary, Poetry and Writing.  This language arts curriculum is rigorous yet also creative and fun.  We plan to alternate one month of MCT Language Arts with one month of Brave Writer- the Arrow.  We've chosen this handwriting program.  We're leaning toward Sequential Spelling for spelling. I'm thinking I'll work from Indigo's social studies, science and health curriculum and adapt it to Jude's level.

Spirituality is central to our family.  We pray together every night at dinner.  Even Iris joins us, which is the cutest thing ever.  We sponsor three kids through Compassion International.  That has been an amazing experience for our family.  Our Compassion kids write to us about how they would like us to pray for them.   We try to do that at dinner time.  We also read from a kids' bible and really love this one. We plan to continue doing what we're doing in that regard.  I'd like to add some memorization of longer Scripture passages in the mix, too.  I think the Beatitudes would be a great place to start.

So that is where we find ourselves today.  I plan to be flexible.  If something doesn't work for our family, we can change it.  If you've been there, done that and have advice for a newbie like me, I'd love to hear it!  :)

Oliver + S Popover Sundress

I was initiated into sewing using the big box fabric store patterns.  To say that didn't work out so well for me would be an understatement.  Thankfully, I was pointed in the direction of Oliver + S.  I started with their {free} Lazy Days Skirt pattern.  It came together beautifully and easily.  It looked professional.  It was a joy to sew.  It was almost too good to be true!  I was hooked!

At that time, pillowcase dresses were all the rage.  I liked the idea of sewing a simple dress for my (at that time) only daughter.  But I didn't love the shapelessness of the pillowcase dress.  Oliver + S had just the solution: the popover sundress.

Another free pattern, this dress is easy to sew and just right for those hot summer days ahead.

I had ordered this Alexander Henry print with Evie in mind.  She loves to talk about Ethiopia and she also really loves zebras.  (She likes to ask me if she can ride one someday!) But the zebra heads were much larger than I had envisioned, so the scale was too large for Evie's little body.  I decided it would work better on Indigo, since she's taller.  And Evie gets all of Indigo's dresses anyway, so it seemed like a win-win.  Given the scale is so large, I wanted to use it on a simple, A-line shape.  That made the popover sundress a good option.

I was running low on cobalt fabric for the contrasting binding, so I headed over to the Oliver+S forums to ask whether I really needed to cut it on the bias or if I could get away with cutting it on the crossgrain.  They informed me that it was important to cut the fabric on the bias in order for the straps to lay properly.  They suggested I place my pieced seam in the underarm so it wouldn't be visible.  Those ladies know their stuff!  That's what I did and it came together beautifully.  I highly recommend the Oliver + S forums!

Unrelated, my 20 year old niece is staying with us for almost an entire month!  The kids are having so much fun hanging out with their cousin (except for Iris, she's still terrified of her!)  :)  My niece is dairy and gluten free, so if anyone has any fab gluten-free recipes, I'd love to hear them.  We don't do much dairy, so I've got that one covered!  ;)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

My interest in education was ignited when I had the incredible opportunity to work as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Wisconsin in the undergraduate school of business.  I was in Organizational Behavior and the professor I worked under was obsessed with teaching the material in a fun and memorable way.  (I really do mean obsessed, in the very best way.)  We often had long discussions about how students learn best and how we could make management principles come to life for them.  I had 150 students per semester - 5 classes of around 30 students each.  While I enjoyed teaching classes each week, my favorite kind of teaching was one-on-one during my office hours.  Seeing those light bulb moments where the student really grasped the material was so rewarding.

After Jude was born, I quit my job at the university, but my interest in education only grew stronger.  Lucky for me, one of my closest friends was an education major in college, as was her uncle who she was living with at the time.   Her aunt had an interest in education as well. All of us had young babies.  We'd spend hours talking about the various educational theories and platforms: homeschooling, Montessori, Waldorf, charter and magnet schools, as well as traditional education.  I learned so much.

Growing up, three of my aunts made the decision to homeschool their children.  My cousins are all a decade or more younger than I am, and at that time homeschooling was totally fringe and countercultural.  My aunts got a lot of push back, comments implying their kids would be social freaks.  They followed their hearts.  I have so much respect for that choice - to follow what you believe is your path for your family, even if it's not a popular or well-accepted choice.  (For the record, most of my cousins are now adults and are delightful people to be around!  The longitudinal studies are bearing out that the socialization issue is not an issue at all. Homeschooled kids are faring as well or better their non-homeschooled counterparts socially, while reporting a great sense of well-being.)

Homeschooling has always been on our radar, but we felt it had to be right for Dan and me and it also had to be right for our kids.  I don't believe there is one right way to educate children.   I don't understand the heated discussions that imply there is only one path for every family.  This is largely a personal decision based on individual personalities and what works for the family as a whole.  In the past, we've given our kids the choice as to whether they would like to be homeschooled and they chose traditional schooling instead.   This was fine with us.   I adore teachers and believe their work is a calling.  Isn't educating our children amongst the noblest of professions?  (They definitely deserve to be paid more!)  Now we are in a place in our family where homeschooling feels like the best, most reasonable choice for everyone.   The kids are on board.  We are on board.  At this point, we aren't committing to doing it forever.  We're going to try it for one year and see how it works for our family.  And we are all really, really excited about that decision.

My next post?  How we chose our curricula.  (It was easier than I expected!)  Being able to customize our children's educations to their specific learning styles, all at an affordable price- especially compared to the private schools in our area-was a major factor in our decision.