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Never thought it would be like this ....

I never thought I'd be a homeschool mom. I didn't think I could do it. Heck, I didn't think I wanted to do it!

But I find it to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I am proud to tell others that I homeschool two of my children.

I never really thought I would homeschool any of the kids but Dawson. I especially never thought I would have the stamina for Brynne. We are so much alike. I just never thought we could do it together .. all day .. every day ...

But I think I am loving it as much, if not more, than she is!

All I know is public school and doing things the public school way. And, that's how I think!  I am a read-a-text-and-memorize-the-material-then-regurgitate-it-back-onto-a-written-test-after-you-have-done-two-weeks-of-multiple-busy-work-problems kind of girl!

I had heard of unschooling and eclectic and Charlotte Mason and other homeschooling terms. And since I am a non-conformist on my best day, I wasn't planning to conform to any of these styles. I was going to do it my way ... which is basically the public school way, with some give here and there. I knew that Dawson loved projects, so I planned to do as many of them as I could. And when Brynne came along I knew that she loved busy work (like mother like daughter), so I planned to load her up with that.

And then I came across Barb at Harmony Art Mom and Handbook of Nature Study. And then I read Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola. And this came after a summer of nurturing my very first vegetable garden (albiet small), and having a strong desire to have chickens (which we can never have here at this house), and after bringing 4 puppies into our home to make them part of our family, and sitting for hours watching birds in my backyard and loving my hummingbirds.

And then I started feeling a shift in how I wanted to school my children. I started to relate to Charlotte Mason's philosophy and to desire to know more.

And now I am soaking in every word of A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola.

I feel myself already moving in such a different direction, and it's only been two months of what I now consider to be a lifetime of homeschooling. And it has me even more excited about homeschooling than I every thought I would be.

How about you? Have you found yourself switching your philosophy?

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