Begin the Beginning

Always best to begin at the beginning!

Answer the questions - what, why, how, who, when.

We're going to homeschool our daughter. Why - because I'm an idealist who believes that I can have what I want - a family that works together on many fronts that isn't afraid to say we are sheltering our children from the society that has gone so far so fast. Yes, I went through public schools - got a good education that was bolstered by both my natural inquisitiveness and my desire to please others.

The problem for me lies here - twenty years ago I was exposed to way more than I'd like my kids exposed to and that was twenty years ago. Also - kids in my generation were still expected to show respect - kids now, not so - trust me I was a teacher, I know!

Can we do it? Yes - we live busy lives, but I've always thought if you really believe in something, you can make it happen. My wife and I are both trained and licensed teachers, but we certainly don't rest on our pedigree to think we can do it - we rest on the fact that we know Emma is counting on us.

Will it be hard - I imagine for us, it will be hard. It won't be hard to come up with great lessons and curricula (again we both taught and I own two educational companies), rather it will be hard to stay disciplined like I know we will need to.

I hope it will draw me to pray more than I do today. I hope that I will be challenged into thinking and doing in new ways - but most of all, I hope it will allow us to stay close as a family.

Our biggest fears - the socialization aspect of no school (then again, one thing we fear most about schools is the socialization factor).

Anyway, I probably didn't answer all I said I would, but I wanted to get this post down - the beginning is always the hardest.

Oh yea, since I'm not sure I'll have any readers on this blog, I plan to use it as a personal ideal and filing cabinet so for my sake:

Virginia Homeschoolers Org
How I do social studies for school teachers.
Creating a better learning environment through visual education.

Goodnight.