Homeschooling .....

As many of my regular readers know we have begun homeschooling our daughters. (Mia is in the 8th grade this year and Amaris is in the 6th.) Although we have discussed homeschooling for several years, it was not until recently that we decided it was the right time to begin.

Now, for a bit about us...We are a family of 6 and we have 1 pet, Ripely, our Min. Schnauzer. We have just this year purchased a new to us home and put it on our land. (You can read more about it here.) Now, that we are a bit settled, we are beginning our homeschool journey. Our oldest son, Travis, is a sophomore this year and decided he wanted to just finish high school in the county's public school system. Mia and Amaris decided during the school year last year that they wanted to come home and be homeschooled. And Jed, our youngest at 2 years old, will be homeschooled exclusively.

Since we are in our first month of homeschooling I am still doing lots of research. We are looking at how to homeschool without purchasing many materials (for our small budget) and the internet is a wonderful source of lots of information... just sorting it all out is taking many more hours than I first anticipated....LOL!

I opted not to join the local homeschool group after learning that most of the parents had much younger students than my girls. I feared they might not enjoy being the oldest of the group (esp. since we are new at this). However, our children are very active in our Youth Program and the Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes program at our congregation, and I don't fear any "social skills" difficulty.

I have had some great encouragement from my best friend Denita and from a wonderful friend from church that homeschooled her daughters. I feel as if I can call or e-mail either of these wonderful ladies and pour out my distress and anxiety over this new beginning. I also hope that I may learn from reading others blogs and posts.