Written by Simple Homeschool contributor Renee Tougas of FIMBY.

Eleven years ago our family started this home education journey with the birth of our oldest child. We never did try a public or private school option. Homeschooling is all we know.

Our family’s experience is limited to elementary aged education. So I’m certainly no expert on the subject of homeschooling, but I have learned a few lessons of my own along the way. Perhaps these are even more important than what my children have learned.

We’re all learning together and that’s one of the amazing benefits of home education.

These “lessons learned,” and still being learned, have come out of my insecurities and the question, “Am I doing this right?”

I hope what I’ve learned will be an encouragement if you’re just starting out or like me, have been at this a few years.

[Read more...]

Written by Simple Homeschool contributor Stefani Austin of Blue Yonder Ranch

It was a good plan. It was a simple, doable, good plan.

Step 1:  Clean, organize and paint the boys’ bedrooms while they were away at camp.

Step 2: Finish outlining our homeschooling plans for the year.

Step 3: On July 5^th, walk together, hand in hand, into a new year of learning.

Right.

“Everyone has plans… until they get hit.”

-Mike Tyson

Around the time the ink was drying on my freshly made plans, my husband, dear man, picked up a hammer and smashed them to pieces.

See, he grew up in our house. He loves it deeply. So when I brought out the paint samples something inside him cracked. He began festering over all that our home could be and promptly lost his mind.

Painting became moving everything out of the boys’ rooms and ripping up the carpet. That led to taking out the carpet in the hallway, which led to pulling it out of our bedroom, which, in the end, led to moving everything we own into the garage and removing every square inch of flooring in our home.

And that was only the beginning. [Read more...]