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There and Back Again with TWTM


JenniferB
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I want to hear stories of those who have followed WTM recs, veered away for a time, and now are back again with more confidence to follow WTM recs. I find myself in this situation at this stage in our homeschool journey. After going in many different directions for many different reasons, all part of the journey and for the most part good, and now I'm back to WTM recs and I'm using them with confidence and resolve. They really are excellent resources, and I'm thankful to have them spelled out in TWTM. Our story goes something like this:

 

Once upon a time a young couple had a baby girl. She meant everything to them, so they read all kinds of books and took classes to raise her just right. They taught her sign language then took her to the best Montessori for Toddlers school in the area. A few years later they had a son and took the daughter out of the Montessori school to teach at home. Soon after, the mother, I, found out about Glenn Doman, How to Teach Your Baby to Read and homeschooling. I quickly started making hundreds, maybe even thousands of flash cards with reading words, math dots, and "bits of information," promptly flashing them to our young 3 month old baby, as well as our 4 year old daughter. My friend recommended a Bible-based Christian Kindergarten curriculum, which outlined weekly plans using the library as a resource. I next found out about classical education, read The Well Trained Mind, scoured Christine Miller's website, Classical Christian Homeschooling, and vigorously started putting together a first grade curriculum focused around the ancients and the Bible. With another baby on the way, and too much time required for classical education, the next year I used Christian Liberty Press. The following year and a half I switched around a lot from: Sonlight to Ambleside Online, Rod and Staff English to First Language Lessons, Singapore math to Rod and Staff math, Spelling Workout to Spell to Write and Read...etc. etc. Somewhere in there we lost a child in pregnancy and gave birth to our youngest son, live baby #4. We also converted our garage into a schoolroom. By February of the following year, I had it! I went full K12 just so I didn't have to think about it anymore. This was a time of rest in planning for me. I didn't have to think about what to buy, how much it cost, how to get it for less, if it was good and rigorous, or anything like that. I just focused on teaching. We did K12 from February of 2009 to the finish of 2011 school year. Enter this year, I've put together my own history books, Church History, and implemented WTM methods to study that aspect of history, and the rest are WTM resources and methods. I have so much more confidence after all those years of switching and then doing K12 for 2 and a half years. I'm not worried anymore if we are rigorous enough or hands-on enough or Christian enough, like I used to be. I just feel comfortable in my own homeschooling skin in all these areas and more. But, a year and half from now I'll be freaking out about high-school, I'm sure. So, there are still more adventures ahead.

 

Tell your story, please. I want to hear it. Where have you been? Where are you now? Where do you want to be? What have you learned? What do you think you still have to learn?

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