From Classical Christian Homeschooler to Possible (eeek!) Christian Unschooler

Thank you so much to those who have been leaving encouraging comments for me this school year. Thank you to those who send me emails full of good ideas and to those who have stood by my side and lifted me up verbally! I have good news...I'm starting to relax.

When I began to homeschool I tried the classical Christian approach and thought that every single day I needed to teach my Kindergartner

• Bible
• Math
• Reading and
• Art

That didn't seem too bad and I actually really enjoyed it! (Except for the fact that W wasn't anywhere near ready for reading at age 5!)

But I gave up the classical method when I realized that in 1st grade I was expected to add

• Geography
• Grammar
• Literature and
• Music

At that point I became afraid! How was I to teach literature and grammar and reading to a boy who wasn't reading at all? I thought, "Why can't literature and grammar and reading all be taught as one subject instead of three?"

I was overwhelmed to say the least. So when W went into first grade I became an eclectic homeschooler who used classical Christian materials as I saw fit and tweaked everything to suit us.

J started Kindergarten the following year, with W entering 2ND grade. At this point I was teaching

• Bible
• Math
• Reading/Literature
• Art
• History
• Latin
• Music (appreciation)
• Geography and
• Science

This was a good year for us, maybe the most comfortable one we've had so far. This was the year I became not only eclectic but "relaxed eclectic" in the schooling of the boys. By relaxed I mean we took no tests, used classical materials but did almost all of it orally or as we saw fit and took our time learning the things we set out to learn. Of course we had our ups and downs but as this post demonstrates, for the most part things were going really well!

And now we have entered our 4TH year of homeschooling. W is a 3rd grader (and finally reading!) and J is in 1st grade. We're still using mostly classical materials and enjoy them (like I said before, we use them in a way that suits us.) But as I've mentioned this year has been tough. The dynamics have just changed. We only have 2 or 3 days a week that we are able to hit the books and I have been worrying a lot about that.

I've been operating under the assumption that in order for my kids to learn they had to do a little bit of EVERY subject every day but this year has proven me wrong. This year our learning looks different. One day we may do science, reading and art for 4 full hours (in the form of one project), and then the next day do 8 pages of math, read the Bible, write someone a letter and work hard on memorizing our spelling words. It's not that they're not learning, it just looks different!

I think I may be moving from "relaxed/eclectic" to semi-unschooling. It's scary for me to even type that sentence, I just know that I am inviting criticism. The thing is, my kids like to learn. Listening to the Swiss Family Robinson on CD is fun to them. Creating a comic book about the life of Joseph is play to them. I'm not kidding! W loves to memorize math facts and Bible verses. J gets excited about writing letters to missionary kids and learning sign language. W will say, "I love writing!" and J says, "Everything is school." We read constantly, discuss what we learn, watch documentaries and educational videos. We listen to Latin, literature and the Bible on CD. And just as important, they love to play and use their imaginations.

So, I'm going to relax and let them be. Everyday doesn't have to look like every other and I don't need to be in constant worry.

Enjoy your day!