Comments on: Paradigm shift: Curriculum is not something you buy

By: Mama N

Mama N

In reply to Velta. Thank you for sharing this. It was bold of you to be so honest. You have helped me!

By: Carrie

Carrie

Today my daughter asked me to teach her to sew. We were supposed to be doing math and a million other things. Because of this and other things that have been working on my heart we put the books down. Instead we created, we bonded, I practiced patience at her imperfect attempts. It was both stressful and freeing.

By: Maria Mirolyubova

Maria Mirolyubova

In reply to Mary Ann.

Dear Mary Ann,
I wanted to say thank you for sharing the link to TheHomeSchoolMom site!!!! It is such a treasure chest!!! Our family has moved to the US from Ukraine a year and 8 months ago and all this time–I am very embarrassed to admit!–I have been procrastinating to figure out how to properly organize MYSELF first of all about homeschooling my now 6-year-old daughter and a 2.5-year-old son. I’m Russian and my husband is American and so far my homeschooling was Russian based. I need to switch now to the legal requirements of the state of Texas and put all my ducks in a row!!! Aaaaahhhh!!! I’m running out of time which is entirely my fault, of course… Again, I would like to say THANK YOU to all those precious people who worked on putting this glorious site together to help new people like me get started on this very exciting journey of homeschooling!!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

By: Donna

Donna

In reply to Debby. Us exactly! Sometimes I worry we're not doing enough. Then when she takes the CAT test at the end of the "school year" (required by our state), she scores at least 3 or 4 yrs above grade level!

By: Bridget Wilson Hall

Bridget Wilson Hall

In reply to Melanie Rice.

I think that’s the whole point – the projects she does would possibly (even probably!) not be suitable for your children. You need to look at your children, their ages, their strengths and weaknesses and MOST importantly of all imho their interests… then what might interest them, follow up what they’ve been doing, build on a strength or help with a weakness…
I think this is typically more hard work that just folksong a book but more fulfilling in the end both for you AND your children…

By: Jessica

Jessica

Beautiful! I totally agree. Thanks for conveying this idea so eloquently. We embrace life learning by volunteering at the animal shelter during the “school day”. My aspergers child has a heart of gold, a deep passion for animals, and social awkwardness. When he helps with those shelter animals, he blossoms. He helps people pick out cats to adopt, he educates strangers on animal care while making eye contact (difficult for him) and he learns what real sacrificial love is. There is always time in our curriculum for that.

By: priest's wife (@byzcathwife)

priest's wife (@byzcathwife)

This is so true- I teach college ESL part-time and I am forever developing my classes- you can never just choose a book and be done with it…That is one reason teaching/helping students learn an exciting thing!

By: Debby

Debby

I love this post. People look at me like I am crazy when I say that we don’t use any specific curriculum, but that we learn what is interesting to us. I think that they think this means we don’t do anything. But in actuality we do so much more. We get to go as deep or as shallow into any topic that we want and my children keep the knowledge and build off of it instead of forgetting unimportant details that might be on quiz. We still have history, science, math, etc. but it isn’t on a worksheet or in a book. It is our life.

By: Sheri

Sheri

This is one of the best homeschooling posts I’ve read in a long time! Wow. Amen and Amen! Thank you for sharing your heart and so, so much truth!

By: kate

kate

wow, man. i just had a major melt-down today about all the worry…am i doing enough, too much? do the kids have enough “lesson” time? too much? and i really needed this perspective today. so badly. THANK YOU!