Homeschooling thoughts...

So I'm here at the homeplace, and I'm typing from a computer that looks upon one of a few tall bookcases crammed with books. These books have titles like, "Books Children Love," and "The Gift of Music," and "Teaching Children." This room, now filled with miscellaneous craft materials and magazines that my mom can't bear to throw out, used to be our homeschool room.

David got up early this morning, and he came down here to do his Bible study. After he was done with that, he started looking around for something to read. And as we're here, "A Survivor's Guide to Homeschooling," seemed appropriate. Hey, it looked better than Dobson's "The Strong Willed Child." Guess who she got that book to deal with?

So he started reading it, and we talked about it a little bit as he was taking his shower. He liked some of her thoughts, especially some of the more practical stuff like how being a good neighbor can help keep your neighbors from calling the cops when they see your children outside at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

This led to an interesting conversation with Mom about homeschooling. My mother started homeschooling in 1986, the first year it became legal in North Carolina. There was no internet, and there were few resources available, mostly A Beka and Bob Jones stuff, neither of which I cared for much. One of the first books she ever read was Raymond and Dorothy Moore's "Homeschooling for Excellence," and that shaped her philosophy originally. Mostly what she knew was that she didn't like my teacher for 1st grade and that she could probably do this thing better herself. She also knew that she was only going to sign on for one year at a time. She kept her one year at a time policy until we both graduated from high school. =) We were such little angels to teach every single day, soaking up her knowledge like little sponges and gazing with awe upon her illustrious and exalted personage as our esteemed teacher. Hah!

And now she's down here pontificating in my ear again. =) I think I'm going to let her write a guest post... Coming soon...