While writing yesterday’s post, my memory took a backward glance at a time almost thirty years ago when we were educating our children at home.
Stuck In Love‘s main character (writer and dad, Bill) made an agreement with his two children: if his kids agreed to maintain a daily journal, neither would be required to seek outside employment (i.e. McDonald’s or other typical short-term work) while they were still in school.
If I were home-educating today, I think this is an expectation I would definitely institute for my children!
We began homeschooling in 1986, an era that could be aptly described as the prehistoric age for home educators. Our oldest was entering junior high, the second child going into fourth grade and a third child entering first grade. Our youngest (and most bashful child) had not yet experienced formal education.
Given my husband’s and my own conventional upbringing and experiences in public school settings, we proceeded as many other first-time home educators had done at that time.
We purchased second-hand school desks, a classroom chalkboard (of the green variety) and set aside space in our home as a designated “schoolroom.” We purchased the full complement of textbooks designed for each child’s grade level and purposed (in true OCD style) to replicate a traditional classroom (to which our three older children were already accustomed) in our home. Continue reading “Home For School”