The Making of a homeschooler Pt 1

Welcome to a series of posts on the making of a homeschooler.  I am introducing this with some background on yours truly; how I first became introduced to homeschooling.  I am going to be sharing my thoughts and hints, links and problems I have encountered and how I am solving or solved them in the course of this series.

 

The Making of  a Homeschooler...... 

 

One family I grew very close to many years ago homeschooled their children... the children are now adults and getting married, soon they will start having children of their own...  it makes me feel very old.  I liked being a "Mother's Helper" and asked and was granted the opportunity to take on some of the "teaching" of the children.  I loved it and to this day remember those times with fondness.  I was just 20 and in college myself at the time.  The ages of the children ranged from about 5 years to 9 years back when I first started.  In the early days I "taught" once or twice a week, about an hour at a time.  It was much like how I teach Bear today, project based.  Of course there are differences...  I am more in tuned to following how my child learns best, and more willing to step outside the box, but that's only normal.  It was a wonderful opportunity and preparation for my life today, twenty years later. 

The things we did were "fun" things, and I doubted the learning we actually did at the time.... mostly because of the FUN we had. 

We learned music basics!  I was taking a class at the time that was for teachers.  It taught classroom teachers how to teach music in the elementary classroom, back when I wanted to be a teacher.  I took everything I learned in each of my classes and applied it where I could in my own little class.  We sang songs, learned counting of notes, talked about and listened to all types of music, and even played the recorder.  The children picked it up and did very well at it. 

We were reporters!  I bought each of the children little "reporter notebooks" and we started a project that was a neighborhood newspaper of sorts.  We sat down and decided on a name for our publication.  We decided who would edit, what sections would be covered, who would write what, what stories would be included, we even had someone drawing comics for the funnies section.  It was fun and I like to think this taught a lot of things to the children in a fun way.  My goals for the project included working together, language arts, spelling, and art.  One of the children is an accomplished author, with several published works.  Maybe this project gave her encouragement in that regard, maybe it didn't, but it didn't hurt her talents that's for sure. 

Later when the children were older and another sibling was added we made a video complete with commercials that the children wrote and performed.  It was so much fun!  Our theme was Farm Day!  This project appealed to the six year old as much as the six-teen year old.  The older I have grown the more the idea of thinking outside the box and finding fun and creative educational projects to encourage learning has become important to me.....  One of the reasons I love homeschooling my daughter. 

What is your background?  What made you decide to homeschool if you do homeschool?