Annie B Garman

And now the moment you've all been waiting for.... I've made it sound pretty good, huh?  Field trips, short school days, rich learning experiences for everyone, and math lessons over pancakes in our pajamas.  So, WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE DO THIS? Well, let me preface this by saying that these may not really be CONs of homeschooling, just CONs of MY first year homeschooling.  Maybe other moms who homeschool do not experience these CONS.  It might just be unique to me because I had a baby at the Read More

I've alluded to this in other posts, but I have found a huge advantage of homeschooling is being able to determine what curriculum* my children spend their day studying and discussing.  During our unit on Egypt, many questions came up about death and the afterlife.  I was thankful that I was able to direct the discussion on these difficult matters, point my kids to the Bible for answers, and freely point out the wrong thinking of our ancestors (Don't be tempted to call me narrow-minded...Do YOU Read More

Because my kids are only in Kindergarten and first grade, we only spend two hours a day doing school.  The reality is, that's all the time you really need to do lessons;  homeschooling takes less time than a public school day.  That means all sorts of things:  We have longer weekends, longer vacations, more family time, more time to  develop other interests, and more time to be involved in church-related activities and/or help people in need. I think a huge advantage of homeschooling is the Read More

Another big advantage of homeschooling (especially in this area) is the opportunity to reinforce your lessons with field trips. We have really taken advantage of living only 35 minutes from our nation's capitol and used it to our advantage. For example... Math SOL 1.3: The student will count backward by ones from 20. On one of the "it-is-too-perfect-weather-to-be-inside" days this year, we headed to DC for a picnic. Since I knew we were focusing on this standard, all day long as we crossed Read More

As I've started "officially" homeschooling this year, I've become acutely aware of the many pros and many cons of this educational style.  I think we've all seen homeschooling gone wrong, but in an effort to look at the positive side,  my next couple of posts on the blog will be focusing on the pros of homeschooling.  In all fairness, at the end I'll share what I've found to be the cons. Okay, today's pro will be quick: I feel like I might be learning more than my kids this year. Yes, I Read More