Homeschool Q & A

Just to start, I'm going to list the three main reasons we decided to homeschool.

1.  Quality of education.  I have no doubt that a child can get a great education from a regular school.  I LOVED school, and I think my education was incredible.  From what I know of it, I really like the elementary school that our kids would go to here in Madison.  The main thing we don't like about public education is that it is really difficult to tailor the education to each child.  A teacher has to do his/her best for the entire class and cannot feasibly give each student completely different tasks dependant on what level they are at or what interests them.  This is one benefit we see from homeschooling.  With only 3 kids (for now)  ;D  that we will be teaching, we have a lot more time to spend with each child.  We will learn from years of experience how each child learns best and can use that knowledge in helping them learn as much as possible about the world.

2.  Freedom.  Freedom in what we teach, when we teach, and where we teach.  We will not have set school times (as you can read below), so our kids will be learning when they are most ready.  Unless we have a scheduled activity, I will not have to wake up my kids to get ready to school.  As far as subjects, our kids can learn about whatever we want to teach them or they want to learn.  Fencing?  Car Mechanics?  Russian?  If any child shows a great skill or interest in a certain subject, we can help cultivate that skill with basically no time constraints.  If we ever have a normal income, we would love to be able to travel.

3. Social.  There are some things about society that, although we know our kids will need to learn someday, we don't feel like they need to learn them so early.  Things like grades, tests, rankings, cliques, "mean people."  We will enroll them in extracurricular activities and they will have friends, so they will deal with all that to an extent, but we will have a lot more control over what they are exposed to at an early (impressionable) age.  I'm sure I'll get some criticism for this reason :)

The Porters said...


I don't have any questions (yet), but I do have a request. Can you teach Ellie how to type and upload pictures so that she can keep the blog posts coming when her Mommy is busy with Violet? Just a thought! Computer class would be awesome and very productive! :)

That would be a great idea - if I wasn't so possessive of my computer :)  We do let the kids use it sometimes, but I'm always afraid they will do something to it and I won't be able to figure out how to get it undone.  If we had space, I would set up an old laptop for them.  Hmm, good project to get started on...

Nichole said...



Sorry if you have multiple posts with questions from me, but I'm very curious about homeschooling things. The one thing I still REALLY want to know is what curriculum you're using, and what are you planning on teaching as far as subjects go? Will you teach all the subjects they'd learn in public school? Are you teaching whatever the child is interested in that day (I've heard this is sometimes done with homeschooling) or making sure they meet the standards they'd meet in a public school? Are you planning on home schooling all your kids or just the ones that you think would benefit more in that setting? Ummm... let me think some more. I know I had more questions than that, and not because I don't like homeschooling, but because I'm very curious about your personal plans. It's the teacher in me!  Another one... if one or more of your kids tells you they'd rather go to public school, would you let them?


We will not be using a set curriculum.  Our homeschooling style will be classified as "eclectic." The different teaching styles are explained here.  Ours will be a mix of Unit Studies, Living Books (or Charlotte Mason), and Identity-Directed.  We are using a method of organization called "The Workbox System;" this method is described really well here.  We are planning on buying these storage carts as soon as they come back in stock.  During the evening, I will fill each drawer with an activity for Ellie (and Rowan will probably end up with his own, since he'll want to do anything Ellie does) to do.  Since there are 6 drawers, we will do 6 "subjects" each day.  Reading and math will most likely be daily activities, but the other subjects will be: history, geography, science, music, spanish, art, P.E, possibly others.  Our goal is that every activity in the box will be something fun that Ellie will enjoy doing.  For example, for math we might play Monopoly or one of her ThinkFun logic games.  For science, we'll do a cool science project.  There are sooo many homeschooling blogs that provide great ideas for fun activities. 

The one difference (from many traditional homeschoolers) that we will have in our homeschooling plan is that it will be a great deal child-led.  Ellie can work on any box whenever she wants, and she might not even choose to do all the boxes each day.  If we see that there is a certain subject or activity that she never chooses, we will have to work hard to think of enjoyable ways to pursue that subject.  We will have no set school time. 

We will aim for at least one field trip a week.  A lot of times our workboxes will focus on the same idea, explored through different subjects.  One big project we are planning on is studying different countries around the world.  We will learn geography, history, language, cooking, art, reading, and maybe even more through studying one country.  Or we'll study all aspects about a certain place nearby, and then go to visit. 

We will keep our eyes on the standards typical public school students would be learning, but not follow them strictly.  We don't want to completely miss out on a certain skill/knowledge, but it's not crucial to us that our kids know them exactly when other kids do. 

From our experience in teaching Ellie so far, we think this style will be good for her.  She is self-motivated and loves to learn.  One good thing about homeschooling is that we can change what we do at any time if it doesn't work out for us.  Rowan (and Violet) may not learn in the same ways, so we may have to tweak our system for them in the future.  But our goal for now is to homeschool all the kids, as long as we find it beneficial.  If, in the future, one of our kids tells us they want to go to school, we will evaluate the reasons why they want to before we make a decision. 

aliciajill said...



hmmm, let's see. What curriculum are you using? Is Ellie excited? How long do you plan to homeschool for (just the lower grades? or through high school?)? Does your district offer online classes, or the option for homeschool kids to participate in certain activities/field trips? Are you going to join a homeschooling group? I know there are some out there that offer special opportunities for kids to socialize/do special things. I think homeschooling is great, at B's gymnastics school a lot of kids are homeschooled and I have often pondered it. I can't wait to hear how it goes for you!



Ellie is excited.  When we first mentioned homeschooling to her, she was upset that she wouldn't be going to the same school where her neighbors go.  But the more she learns about what you do in school, and what we'll be doing at home, the more she likes the idea of homeschooling.  Plus, where we live she will see her friends after school a lot.  She will also be going to her preschool three afternoons a week.  We enrolled her there just for fun, and she has a friend in her class who will also be starting homeschooled kindergarten.  We figured she enjoys it, she'll still be 5 for almost all of the school year, and Jason's school subsidizes most of the tuition, so we will hardly pay anything for her to go.

I've heard that the nearby elementary school lets homeschoolers join in P.E., art, and maybe even more.  We'll have to look into that soon.  There are a lot of homeschooling groups in Madison, but I haven't check out any of them yet.  I'm hoping that if we move after Jason graduates, it will be another homeschool-friendly city like Madison is. 

Mindy said...



Hey! We will be homeschooling too, but not until next year! It's really big here in Middle TN. I am going to use Ambleside Online since we did a little of it for preschool stuff and it's practically free if you have a good library and computer/printer setup. Also, there are a lot of co-ops here, so Kyle will attend electives once a week at one of those, which will be great for all of us! Can't wait to hear about your homeschooling adventure, tips, and tricks since you'll be a year ahead of us!

I hadn't checked out Ambleside Online yet, but that looks like an incredible resource!  I think as the kids get older, our style will switch to more of a Charlotte Mason approach.


Additional info:

None of our plans are set in stone and will most likely change as the kids get older and we see what works and what doesn't. 

This is completely written by me (Kirsten) and Jason has not read it yet, so he could have differing ideas on some points. :)

We would love to have a regular volunteer project that Ellie can do, does anyone have ideas for something a 5-year-old can do on a regular basis?