Thursday, January 17, 2013

Our Day

It is inevitable that I will overbook myself. Even if I have no plans whatsoever, it is inevitable that I will overbook myself. For example:

My husband is dedicated to the idea of homeschooling his children. I am dedicated to the idea of doing whatever is best to help them learn, even if that is homeschooling (I think I would have hated being homeschooled, but I'm not sure, so I don't want to say for sure that it's the best thing for my daughter until we have a chance to see what she's like as a student).

We reached an agreement long before she was a twinkle in anyone's eye, though. We will supplement her education at home, even if she goes to school. She will go to preschool. She will go to kindergarten. And then, we will see.

Seems easy enough. Gives us a chance to see her in action before making a decision. Gives her the experience to weigh in on the decision, since it is, after all, her education. The problem is, we really don't know anything about how to homeschool someone together, and it is a group effort. So we decided to start discussing some of the things we hope to teach her later now, so we're used to talking about it. It's harder than it sounds, trying to explain things like generations to the baby, and how does one even begin, anyway? For history, for example, we got on a website with a complete world history curriculum for high schoolers and broke it down into lessons. One lesson a week, for now, at least gives us something to discuss in front of her. But how about religion? Husband is positive that Daughter would be better off knowing about her religious options, and I have to say I agree in theory - this is something that I never felt comfortable talking about in my own family, probably because they never brought it up. I want her to know who the major players are and what questions to ask and the vocabulary to put her questions into words. I really, really want that for her.

And I want her to understand poetry. And Science, and math, and literature, and all the things I struggled with because I couldn't see them the same way the teachers wanted me to see them.

Anyway, I'm way overbooked now. Maybe I'm crazy for having a one-sided conversation about history with a not-quite 3 week old, but she seems happy to be talked to, and it gives me something to talk to her about.