Something people may not understand about homeschooling....

I have noticed that many people think that the decision to homeschool is the first and only step. You then casually select a box that delivers all your supplies and it immediately starts teaching your kids. You sit down at the table for select periods of time 5 days a week and drudge through a public school style textbook. Guess what I tried that. It didn't work for us. 

The truth is EVERY part of my week is intentional and planned. I don't just by chance take the kids to the park everyday it is purposely thought out. Outside play is just as important for our school day as reading or math. Therefore I purposefully make sure it happens everyday. 

My grocery list scribbled in cursive is actually planned. Summer reads me the list as we walk through the store and she needs the practice reading cursive. 

Every activity is weighed by cost and purpose. We can not do everything although I would love to. I would love for the kids to have piano lessons, right now is not the time so we work with the recorder. ( I lovingly played the alto for five years so I can actually teach it easily.) not just a random decision but a thought out one that I believe is best for our family.

I have read each book in our home library. (Besides a collection of animal ark that is a family heirloom of sorts) before placing books in the library I give them great thought I do not have to like them but I do have to approve of them. That way when I say go grab a book to read I know that their choices are ones I would approve of. 

I have found if I do these things and many others when we actually sit down to do school the kids are prepared for the work. Nothing surprises them or overwhelms them because I have casually introduced the topics in our daily lives. Adjectives are easily identified in the schoolwork after spending the previous week playing mad lips and 20 questions. Division no problem after giving them the responsibility of dividing the goldfish evenly at snack ( mommy always eats the remainder even in written out problems the kids remember this) 

The " school" days have become so much easier now that I spend just as much time planning our actual daily life as I did our school lessons.