The @intentionalhomeschooling question of the day is “What Inspires You to Homeschool?”.
This question is really hard for me to give without going into details of my educational upbringing and the teacher training I went through. In a nutshell school was rarely a place I enjoyed, occasionally a place I learned, and often traumatic. There were a few good lectures, assigned books, and a handful of teachers that cared, but most of it felt like a dysfunctional system and I was a cog in the wheel. Despite building character through adversity, very little of it was nurturing to body, mind, or spirit.
I wanted more for this kid that I love so fiercely. I didn’t want him to be sitting against a wall at recess for enthusiastically speaking out of turn in class. I wanted him to be able to spend hours uninterrupted when he was focused on something wholesome that he enjoyed. I wanted the divine spark inside of him to be fanned, not extinguished.
Homeschooling always seemed unattainable to me when he was little. I’d watch 19 Kids and Counting when I was 40 weeks pregnant and just be kinda mesmerized that a mom could teach her own offspring. In the same way that healthcare does little to empower the patient, education is something we’re taught is best left to others. I didn’t value the 3 1/2 years of college I’d successfully completed IN education as “good enough”.
As each year passed and we watched James head off to school I could see that joy fading. I started talking to parents that homeschooled, reading lots online, ordering curriculum catalogs just to browse, and hoping that if we did take the leap we’d be successful.
While my educational philosophy was shaped over years, some books that have really supported me the past few years and really just made me not feel like I was the only human who had ever felt like our educational system is broken were: Better Late Than Early, Home Grown by @lazymillhillfarm , Dumbing Us Down, and Teach Your Own.
Better Late Than Early
