Coming Out of Blog Retirement...

We've had an awesome spring, the longest I remember. The only thing I can think of that has made the difference is that the kids are home this year so I'm no longer shuffling them back and forth and we have more time to enjoy it. It's the most memorable spring I can think of. We have been focused on school but I've taken a more Thomas Jefferson Education approach and I can't begin to tell you the difference it's made for us. I no longer worry about cramming it all in, getting everything done on my list or forcing them to learn exactly what I have planned. Instead, I have an idea of how I want the day to go, and then if I see them get excited about a particular thing, we go with it. In other words, we take more time on the things they are really interested in and don't worry if it's spilling over into our next subject.

We've quit the t.v. until after 4 and then it's on for only a half hour or so. I am trying much harder to model and inspire the things I'd like to see them do and when they see me getting eager about learning something they jump right on board. Sneaky? Maybe, but it works and to be honest, I AM eager to learn. I've enjoyed these past few months more than any others this year. I am increasing my knowledge and taking advantage of this great opportunity I have to learn right along with them.

I've received several emails and requests for invites to my blog (which was rather surprising to me). Now that I've got things figured out and I have a better sense of what purpose this blog will serve, I have decided to take my blog off of private mode. This way I can share our fun with you and show you just how fun and rewarding home schooling has been for us. To me, if you have something you LOVE and can't imagine life without, you want to share it. That's how we all feel now about home schooling. You may find this blog boring now that I won't be sharing a big variety of things like decorating, recipes etc., but if you are interested in home education or if you want to see updates on what we are doing, feel free to read along.

To read more about the Thomas Jefferson Education method, click HERE or to hear some fabulous talks, click HERE. I'm still a huge fan of Susan Wise Bauer (author of The Well-Educated Mind) and I believe her classical method and Charlotte Mason's method all go hand in hand and I'm just finding my own balance between the three.