Dreams into Goals
I’m asked frequently why I homeschool, and it’s never a short answer. There are so many reasons. Sometimes I hesitate to tell people why we choose this form of education, because inevitably, those who choose “traditional” education feel judged based on the choices we’ve made for our family. But that’s not what homeschooling is about for us.
We believe each family should choose what is best for their own kids when it comes to education (and anything else, for that matter). In our case, homeschooling fits for so many reasons. Here are just a few:
Homeschooling gives us freedom of time and movement. We love to travel, so the ability to pack up and go any time we want is a big plus. When we went on our first cycling adventure, we left in May. We packed up and went—no need to notify anyone, no need to make up lessons, no stress. When we went on our grand RV adventure, we left at the end of August.
I was a school teacher, and I personally don’t like many of the policies that as teachers we were obliged to comply with in Ontario. The system, in my opinion, is failing many kids in reality by refusing to fail them on paper, among other issues.
I have children across the learning spectrum, from gifted to having delays, and as a homeschooling parent, I’m able to cater to each of their needs while being able to slow down or pick up the pace whenever needed, without concern for 30 other kids (yep, the ridiculous class sizes are another reason for choosing the homeschool route).
With homeschooling, I’m spending my children’s formative years by their side, helping them to navigate the world while learning the values that make our family a strong unit.
There are many other reasons that homeschooling is right for us. If you’re considering this way of educating your children, it’s my hope that you’ll find some inspiration and helpful tips on this blog.
Homeschooling can get pretty expensive when you get excited about all kinds of curriculum and when you add in all the extra-curriculars that homeschoolers love to participate in. But homeschooling doesn’t have to break the bank. In the age of information, resources are abundant, and you can learn almost anything online for free.
Continue reading “Free Homeschooling Resources: The Ultimate List”
I’m starting my homeschooling planning for September. While I see the appeal and benefit of unschooling, it’s not the right choice for our family, for a variety of reasons, so we do have some planning involved in our school life.
I’m starting (perhaps a wee bit late) to prep our homeschool lessons for the upcoming school year. First things first: I must remember to send our letter of intent this year. Second things second, I like creating my own curriculum, as that was my favourite thing when I was still a school teacher. Creating lesson plans is definitely part of the fun of teaching for me. I figured I might as well share my curriculum with you guys! This year, I’m doing a “home economics” curriculum, and one of its main features will be teaching kids about money management.
One of the expectations of the Ontario Elementary Curriculum in almost every grade is that children be made aware of their heritage and be encouraged in their traditions. Let me be honest: as an immigrant, homeschooling mother, I’ve been doing a terrible job of this.
Continue reading “Homeschooling: Brazilian Heritage Lessons”
If you’ve been reading the blog even semi-regularly in the past year, you know that I wrote about our RV trip a lot. I also wrote about multi-niche writing quite a bit, as this is what I’d been doing as we travelled all over Canada and the US from August 2008 to the late spring of 2009. I severely neglected all other parts of this website during the past year, and I’m itching to get them going again.
One of the topics I’d like to start writing more about is homeschooling. I’d like to share some of my lesson plans with you guys, talk about the challenges and joys of homeschooling, and generally share our experience educating our kids.
While I do write for myself quite a bit (my several journals are proof), and I have lots of ideas on what to write, I want to make sure that readers are getting the most out of this blog, too. So I’d like to know: what would you like to read about homeschooling? Is there a topic in this area you really want to learn more about? Drop some suggestions in the comments or email me at mariana@dreamsintogoalswriting.com.
Homeschooling posts will come out every Thursday.
Continue reading “Technology has a place in your homeschool”
Homeschooled kids often learn in different ways and at a difference pace than their public school counterparts. For this reason, many people don’t understand what homeschooling actually is, and what homeschooling parents actually do. This causes all kinds of weird assumptions… and sometimes us homeschooling parents end up listening a little too closely to the critics.
Continue reading “Is Your Homeschooled Child Falling Behind?”
As everyone is gearing up for “back to school,” I’m gearing up for a trip to London, ON, to see one of my cousins who is coming to Canada for the first time. Me and my kids get to pick him up in Toronto on our way to London to spend time with our family. We’ll probably do some school while we’re in London, but we won’t get back into the real swing of things until the second week of September.
Continue reading “*Not* Back to School: How This Homeschooling Family Does September”
