Confessions of a Really Bad Homeschooler

Recently I joined a homeschool support group, and I'm excited about getting involved in a homeschool community again. I enjoyed the last mom's meeting I went to, and if any of those ladies ever happen to find this post, I hope they know that I really like them and am not saying anything at all remotely negative about them. In fact, they inspired me to get my act together a bit. As I sat there and looked around the table, I saw neatly organized binders filled with things like "Lesson Plans 2011-2012," and I wanted to shrink under said table, because here's

Confession #1 -I don't even have a binder (or anything at all!) labeled "Lesson Plans 2010-2011," much less anything like it for the coming year. The lesson plan for this past year was to do whatever we could do, whenever we could do it, and truth be told, that's been the plan for...ahem...awhile. Once upon a time, when my oldest was all of three years old, I had neatly organized binders. I had a plan for the entire year, and we made our way through a different topic each month, with books and crafts to go along with each topic. We really, truly did. But no longer! My homeschool organization has been becoming progressively less...organized, and between a baby and a move this past year (hey, I'm milking those events for as long as I possibly can!), it was almost non-existent.

Confession #2 - I haven't been to a homeschool convention in the entire course of our homeschooling venture. I went to one when Aimee was a baby, and I looked around at all the curriculum I would surely buy when she was older, and listened with rapt attention to the speakers, but I haven't been to one since. Sometimes I think about going to one, but truth be told, just thinking about going makes me feel anxious. Lots of people, lots of choices, lots of differing opinions...Thanks, I think I'll stay here in my little cocoon and keep things just the way they are, which leads me to

Confession #3 - I don't curriculum shop. Ever. A few years ago, I landed on the general course I wanted to take, and since then, I look to The Well-Trained Mind, Veritas Press, and a little bit of Sonlight for my curriculum guidance, and from that course I do not sway. Most of my friends feel a little guilty about being "curriculum junkies", but I think the truth is that greater sin in the current homeschool community is not to be one, and to this I confess. I try to adjust things here and there for my children's different personalities, but I would rather adjust my strategy with the curriculum I have, than actually change the curriculum itself. So I will smile as I discuss with other moms the pros and cons of this or that math curriculum, for instance, but if it's all the same to you, I'll keep my passionate love-hate relationship with Saxon going. Forever.

That's all I care to confess at the moment, because it's making me feel not so good about myself. I know that the classical philosophy of education and unschooling are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum, but I think I'm about as close to being an unschooler as an adherent of the classical philosophy could possibly get. Perhaps I'm a "classically-inspired unschooler," or an "unschooling-inspired classical educator." Pretty much anything sounds better than a "she's-just-not-doing-this- very-well homeschooler."