Ok, so we want to homeschool! What now?!
First, we had to decide what curriculum to use. Anyone who has homeschooled for any length of time knows there are 1.5 gazillion amazing curriculum choices out there to pick from. No pressure. Your child’s academic success is all that’s on the line. 😛 I almost gave up before starting just because of the plethora of available programs. It helps to ask people who have been there for advice. This narrows it down greatly and gives you a good idea of what methodology might work best for your family.
My mother in law told me about Sonlight, and it appealed greatly to me. I felt my daughter would do well under a literature based program. She is already reading quite well, so we had her read through the grade 1 readers just for fun as she finished her kindergarten work. She blew through 2 a day. And then begged for more. She will be reading the level 2 readers for this school year. I think that will work out well. Sonlight recommends a few different options for math, handwriting, language arts, and electives. We are pairing the Sonlight core Curriculum with Miquon math, A Reason For Handwriting, and Explode the Code language arts. I will spend a day exploring each of these and why I like them so far later on in the month.
Now let me tell you a little secret. I was homeschooled all the way from K-12th grade. I love homeschooling. But I had a faulty thought. (Oh the things you think when you are young, newly married with an infant.) I thought it would be an easy process to begin. I have quickly realized it is a huge commitment. My mother is still homeschooling my younger siblings. She has 5 graduates, and 5 still at home being homeschooled. My mother in law has 5 graduates, and 2 still at home. It has been a 25+ year commitment for each of them.They have my utmost respect for even attempting homeschooling, let alone sticking with it for so many years. Even if you only homeschool one child, that is a 12 year commitment. I want to stick with this and do well! I am praying that I will have the strength and unselfishness to be able to pour into my children and give them a solid start scholastically.
Tomorrow I will be going over our basic daily structure, to set the stage for how to do homeschooling with three children 5 and under. 🙂
SurrenderedMama 
It’s great to hear the perspective of someone who has seen the other side of homeschooling! Thank you for sharing all this.
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It’s amazing to me how as mothers we really need to “network” and hold each other up in different ways! So thankful for the women who have come around me and supported and encouraged me!
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