Our First Homeschool Fair

Jill's Journal: We went to our first homeschooling fair today. The homeschooling crowd is certainly…different (for lack of a better word) from the rest of society, but after getting past the initial “culture shock,” I think it’s in a good way. It’s a more wholesome crowd and everyone just seems more polite and open and well, nice. Yes, there were several females wearing long skirts and long hair and looking like that large and unusual Duggar family from Arkansas, but that’s not a bad thing. I’d take them for neighbors and friends and classmates for my children any day over most of the rest of society, that’s for sure. The whole place and all the attendees just seemed like a lovely community, not afraid to march to the beat of their own drummers, and it makes me all the more pleased with our decision.

Sonlight Curriculum was there, as was A Beka and several others. I’ve done so much research already that I didn’t learn much new. However, the highlight was getting to talk to several Moms who already homeschool, especially one who uses Sonlight and another who uses Calvert! That was very exciting and getting their insights was helpful and wonderful.

The best part of the day was hearing the Sonlight Mom tell me that she uses completely individual curriculums for each of her three children (who were all about two years apart, just like ours). That’s been one of my biggest concerns – everyone (including Sonlight) advises you to combine the programs and teach all your kids the same thing. I've never felt comfortable with that. I figure they’re all individuals and will be (and should be) at different stages of learning. I don’t want to hold Erika back so she can be on the same page as Madelyn, nor do I want to push Madelyn too hard so she can be on the same page as Erika. And that doesn’t even take into account Victoria, who is 3 1/2 years behind Erika.

This particular mother I spoke to does what I want to do – separates each child’s schooling – and it was so incredibly nice and encouraging to hear that she does it and loves it and recommends it. She is seriously the first one I’ve ever heard of doing that! She had the same reasons that I do and says that it simply makes it a little harder on the Mom. Well, I can handle that! I just want what’s best for my kids. If it takes a little extra work from me, so be it.

It was also wonderful for Rob to be able to be there and get a little glimpse into all this homeschooling stuff. It opened a few nice little opportunities for discussion.

Lightbulb at the Library

Jill's Journal: My girls are voracious readers, but strangely, we’ve spent very little time at the library. We’ve always bought them books, mostly because then they are available to be enjoyed over and over (and over) again. And, with three kids so close in age, it made sense to build a children’s library. It never dawned on me to borrow books, which is strange as I spent many, many hours at the library as a child with my own mother. But, I’ve recently rediscovered this wonderful resource and in the last month, I got the first library card I’ve held in probably close to 25 years.

We checked out four books in our first visit and the girls thought it was pretty much the neatest thing they’d ever seen. We returned them today and left with another 19. When I told the girls we were heading to the library, there was much celebrating in the land. I cannot even express how excited they were – literally bouncing off the walls and acting like we were going someplace so supremely special, like Disneyland or the zoo!

And then we checked out the books and the girls could not wait to be strapped into their car seats so they could delve into the titles on the ride home…and they could not even bear the wait to start reading together at home.

Their reaction pleased me greatly. (It also made me smack myself on the forehead for not utilizing the library earlier in my parenting years!) And it gave me an epiphany. The Sonlight homeschool program is based so heavily in reading, something they love so deeply, that it gave me even more of an assurance it’s the right program for us. I’m so excited about it! Rob still needs to be convinced, however…

Sonlight

Jill's Journal: The Sonlight brochure and catalogue finally arrived. This is the homeschooling information I’d been waiting for so eagerly and I quickly devoured all 162 pages of it. If it was completely up to me, I would very comfortably say this is THE one for us. It has all the things I loved so much about Calvert, plus all the things I wished Calvert had. It looks wonderful, beyond outstanding, and simply perfect for us.

It’s a pretty traditional program, but literature-rich, which is right up our book-loving kids’ alley. It combines all the best things about regular school with homeschool and appears to meld them together beautifully for the optimal experience. The only downside (and I’m not sure this is a total downside) is that there aren’t traditional tests throughout the program. Sonlight feels you delve so completely into each subject that you immediately know how well the kids grasp the concepts and testing would be just an extra exercise with no benefit. I don’t necessarily disagree, but it does make me worry about the challenge of smoothly assimilating our children back into conventional school someday.

On the plus side, Sonlight seems to make school an exploration, almost like an expedition of learning for kids. The emphasis is on learning through literature, yet it has all the usual subjects. And as an added bonus, it has a strong basis in ethics and values and family connection. It’s everything I wanted.

Here’s the most bizarre part to me: Sonlight makes me want to start now. It makes me yearn to pull Erika out of the kindergarten class she’s scheduled to start in the fall and start homeschooling even before our RV adventure. It also makes me want to homeschool long after we put roots down somewhere. This is coming from someone who never wanted to homeschool in the first place!

Another plus: like Calvert, Sonlight has pre-packaged curricula “in a box” for preschool through fifth grade. This is designed for newcomers, people like me who are just starting out and not yet confident enough in their homeschooling skills to design their own program. Unlike Calvert, once I become secure enough in the process, I can deviate and design a program best suited to my kids, if I so desire. And, looking to the future, if we decide to RV for years beyond what we anticipate or even do decide to continue homeschooling after we once again have a fixed residence, Sonlight can take us all the way through the senior year (Calvert only goes to the eighth grade).

I’m in love with this program. Finding it makes me feel nothing but promise and excitement about homeschooling, as opposed to being overwhelmed and daunted like I was before. Sonlight appears to be everything I hoped and more.

Now to discuss with the husband, who listened attentively to all the great things I had to say about Calvert and has since become a great fan of that program…!