Getting Started - My Thoughts

     I have started writing a blog a few times now without publishing. We have been getting into the groove, learning, having fun and enjoying our time together!

     I began writing a blog about what homeschooling means for us. I got some books from the library about homeschooling and have been reading up a bit. I learned that what we plan on doing is called "eclectic homeschooling", a combination of structured and unstructured learning. When I first began thinking about what homeschooling was going to look like for us, I imagined that we would have more structure than we have now. I'm okay with it, as one of my most important goals for this year is not to stress out about it. I admit that I got a little bit anxious our second week when I felt like we hadn't achieved as much structured learning as I anticipated, but I'm realizing that our structure will become more established with time as we figure out what works best and what we need. I also really resonate with the principles of unschooling, which is unstructured learning. Unstructured learning is initiated by the child, and then built upon by the adult. This could also be called "natural learning". Charlie and I have been doing this for years.

     As I've been paying more attention to how I teach Charlie, I'm feeling grateful for being raised by teachers. Both of my parents and my two close grandparents were all teachers, so I grew up around education. Things were always explained; we were always learning. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house growing up, and this was a place for references. Whenever I asked my grandmother for the definition of a word, she confidently and sweetly encouraged me to look in a dictionary and tell her the definition. What my grandmother taught me was how to teach myself, to be determined, and to have confidence in myself. These are some of the values of unstructured learning. You don't need a curriculum for that. While I agree with the discipline of structured learning, I also see how natural it is for children to learn by exploration.

     I've been contemplating how to achieve balance between structured and unstructured learning in our homeschool, and perhaps the line between them is more blurred than I thought. Maybe structure isn't limited to lesson plans and curriculums, but simply means having some sort of consistency in the way we learn. This seems to happen organically based of family lifestyle, values and goals. I've found that we have grown to establish some core values in our school based on my goals and Charlie's interests.

     I feel really grateful to have a supportive community. It means a lot to have so many people interested in what we're doing and happy to share their knowledge of education and life with children. So many people that I know and meet are supportive of our life as homeschoolers. Everyone seems inspired by it and also has inspiring things to say about the connection and growth Charlie and I are experiencing together. The response from our family has been so encouraging, and we also have a great local community of homeschool families.

     I know I've only shared thoughts so far, but I'll soon be sharing more about what we're up to during the day and how and what we're learning, (as well as more of my thoughts about homeschooling!)

<3
Addie

Today is our first day homeschooling. Charlie and I worked together over the past few days to come up with a name for our school, and we've named it! I created this blog to document our discoveries in an effort to share with our community and remind ourselves what fun we've had! I hope this serves as a useful resource for other homeschooling families.

About Us

We live in Western North Carolina just outside of Asheville. We spent five years in West Asheville and  are so happy to have some woods around us now to explore and enjoy (we moved in May). Charlie is five years old, and this is our first year homeschooling. Charlie spent the last two years at Dandelion Hill, a Waldorf school in West Asheville, which we loved!!

Our goals for this year's education are somewhat liberal. I have many ideas of what we'd like to learn about, and know from experience that most things we end up learning about happen naturally. We end up somewhere, or read about something, or something happens that has Charlie asking questions or me thinking of ideas about how to expand on that learning. I intend on using lesson plans and workbooks and referencing curriculums because I think those things are absolutely helpful and educational. It seems as though our structure will vary each week, and I'm going to allow some time for us to figure out what works best. I also plan on taking many local field trips!

What to Expect

I am super excited about this blog. I'm really thrilled that we've decided to homeschool, and so many things that we learn happen spontaneously. I have grown a great appreciation for the internet and how much information it holds. I love that if I want to learn more about something, I can read someone's blog about how they figured it out. This is what has inspired me to blog! This is my first blog ever, so bear with me as I learn! I plan on sharing all sorts of things that happen throughout our days such as lesson plans, crafts, experiments, books, places, recipes, etc.

Thanks for visiting!

<3 Addie