When my husband and I decided back in December of 2013 that we would homeschool our children , I had an idea of how I thought it should look. I pictured planned out and scripted lessons, textbooks, and very specific subjects, like Math, English, Spelling, and Science. I began to explore my options and came up with a couple of complete curricula that looked interesting. Complete curricula, the open-and-go kind, tend to be pricey. Before I committed a huge chunk of change, I did a little more research. A lot, actually.

I liked the idea of the Classical model. I liked Charlotte Mason’s ideas about education. I liked unit-study styles that approached a topic from all angles and subjects, and I loved literature-based programs. My own style was starting to feel a bit eclectic. But that didn’t feel very good at the time. I wanted to belong to a group that shared the same educational ideology, the same philosophy. I wanted a homeschool “identity.”

I decided to go with a unit study, literature-based approach, while at the same time following the Classical progression through the ages. I thought that idea made sense. I felt comfortable with that.  I had enough hand holding but still had the freedom to allow for my children to explore their own interests.

All the while I was exploring methods, philosophies, and curricula, I was undergoing a mental transformation as well. My reasons for wanting homeschool were evolving. Originally, I wanted to homeschool DD (my sons were too young for school at this point, so DD was the main consideration) out of fear. I was intimidated by the system. I was afraid of sending my child to be among strangers every day. I was afraid for my daughter’s feelings. She was being regularly mistreated by a few classmates that found her too different to accept as one of their own. She would get off of the bus everyday crying. I was afraid that DD’s self esteem was on a freefall to rock bottom. I was afraid that her zeal for life and learning was going to get squelched by traditional school. I had fear after fear and it took me further and further from my goals…

As my reasons for homeschooling started to evolve, to turn from fears to desires, so did my plan. You see, when you fear something, you tend to run away from it. You shield your eyes. Run for cover. Your fear paralyzes you. It makes you freeze and you are unable to see anything but that which you fear.

An interesting thing started to happen. As I consciously let go the fears that were binding me, my confidence in myself as a homeschooling mom began to grow. I felt like I didn’t need, or want, as much hand holding. The identity I was making for myself became ok. I was in charge! And as my confidence in my decisions grew, my confidence in my kids’ decisions grew as well and I began to let go of some of the control over our learning. I started to give my kids choices.

It started small, like “Do you want to do Math or History?” Now, sometimes entire days are spent chasing rabbits down trails. Figuratively, mostly. We still manage to get the basics, like Math, Reading, and Writing in on a regular basis, but the rest interest driven and as we desire. And field trips are just as important as days spent at home reading.

We also like to add lots of “enchantment” to our days, even when using our more laid-out curricula. I give all the credit for this to Julie Bogart from Brave Writer. Her encouragement and inspiration has been instrumental in transforming my view of homeschooling from one that looks more like “school” as we know it to a place of more enchantment, more freedom, more fun.

So although we love our curriculum choices (eg. Brave Writer for Language Arts, Moving Beyond the Page for a complete, literature based program, All About Reading for Reading, and Right Start Math) we also think that the World is our school. Life is learning.

Every day is different in our “school” and that’s exactly the way we love it…