For the past few years we have been contemplating homeschooling our kids. At first I was real skeptical towards the whole idea. I thought if homeschooling is such a great idea then why aren’t more people doing it?

I went along with the possibility that we might, by some slim chance, home school and will look in to it. This was the same type of slim chance where all the schools in Ventura were flattened by an earthquake, or some other natural disaster, and our house was still standing (even though we live less than a mile from two elementary schools).

We attended a informational meeting for an organization that helps you with your homeschooling paperwork, coordinates classes, like chemistry for older home schooled students, and builds a sort of community for these students. It seemed that they spoke more about how bad public schools are and how dare you think of putting your kid in a public school than about the benefits of homeschooling and their organization. I was a product of public school, did I turn out so bad?? I was considering putting my kids in public school, does that make me a bad parent?? They didn’t exactly win me over.

We continued on our journey of knowledge about homeschooling. We read books and talked to some people that are doing it for their children. It softened me a bit by breaking down some of the stereotypes and fears that are associated with homeschooling, but I was still not convinced.

We were invited by Mindy’s cousin, who is proponent of homeschooling, to a workshop by Carole Joy Seid. I don’t know what was I thinking when I agreed to go to a 9-5 workshop, on a Saturday. Especially when we didn’t have any information about the content nor the format of the workshop. I guess I must have been in a good mood when Mindy asked me to go and heard and thought, “sure.. why not”. Or maybe it was the words “husbands are free” that lured me.

Today, the day of the workshop, I wasn’t so “sure… why not” and was more leaning towards “what are we doing?” “Are you sure you still want to go?” “Ok, we’ll go but we may only be there a little while and leave.” We ended up staying there the whole day and now that I went I’m glad that I did.

Carole’s approach was much different than my previous experience. She talked about the development of children and the idea of only teaching them something when they are ready. She talked about how boys have a much harder time sitting still in a classroom than girls and end up getting in to trouble for it. She talked about how great it is to get kids out in to nature rather than just reading about it in a text book. She talked about getting kids to love reading and teaching history through biographies. She talked about if there is something that you don’t know you are going to be learning it right along with your child.

I thought back to my time in school and how I was always bored and getting in to trouble for talking during class. (I guess I still can’t sit still because Mindy commented how my legs never stopped moving throughout the day). Also, for me, reading was always a chore in school and never for pleasure. It wasn’t until recently that I started getting in to reading regularly (as you may have noticed by the quality of my writing).

Carole was passionate about what she talked about and she had the credentials to back it up. She has a Masters in education, has taught in both public and private schools, and lived it by homeschooling her son (who went on to get a Masters degree). I would recommend her workshop to anyone, whether considering homeschooling or not.

If you haven’t guessed already, this workshop confirmed that homeschooling is right for our family and we are going for it.