My husband and I decided that we would homeschool our children before our oldest was born. I can’t recall the conversations that led us to that point, but I feel like it was a pretty easy decision back then. We don’t love the school system here (or the public school system in general, to be honest) and we can’t afford private school. Homeschooling seemed like the obvious answer to us. We had a whole list of things we were excited about, and really, I doubt that list has changed much - I’m sure we’re still excited about a lot of the same things.
The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM) was my starting point - I learned so much from that book. I remember thinking, “Yes! This is it! This is exactly what I want for my kids! I wish I had been educated this way!” But for me, research never stops with one idea. I read about Charlotte Mason, and thought we might head that direction for a while. I looked into Montessori and Waldorf, and decided they weren’t for us. Then I found The Latin-Centered Curriculum (LCC) and discovered that it was everything I loved about TWTM and that it made even more sense to me. I was ecstatic.
Then life happened - kid got older, second kid was born…I stopped reading. Well, I never really stop reading, I suppose I just took a long break. When I came back to homeschool research, I started with Unschooling, which I had previously been very much opposed to. The more I read, the more fascinated I became. I tossed all of my ideas about classical education (a la TWTM and LCC) out the window, and decided that we would become Unschoolers. I was certain of it. Then I wasn’t. I realized that I need the discipline of curriculum and schedule - otherwise we’d just sit around and do nothing. Not saying Unschooling isn’t great for some families…it’s just…not for me.
Insert more “life” here (and another long break from reading and research). All of the sudden, my friends with kids Beast’s age started registering their little ones for Kindergarten…and we didn’t. I flipped out just a little bit. It was scary, really - before then, homeschooling was a “someday” thing. It was theoretical. Then, we didn’t register our kid for Kindy and…it became a real thing. There was a (small) flurry of panic-stricken research, then I got overwhelmed…and gave up. Somehow, we decided that the best thing for him would be to keep him in preschool (which he loves) for his 5 year-old year, and do Kindy at home alongside it. We planned to start Kindy in June (after preschool ended last year) but didn’t, largely because I kept putting off making curriculum choices.
Eventually, I came back to Classical Ed. I love the idea of integrated studies - literature and history and whatnot together makes so much sense to me. I’m drawn to elements of both TWTM and LCC, and we’ll probably use both to structure our school. For now, I’m content with just doing “the basics” with Beast while he’s in preschool, to give him a good foundation to start “real” school next year.
