Kicking things off

I am not the best at consistent blogging.

That is probably a gross understatement. I tend to get ideas for blogs, start them, write for a while, and then drop off eventually as I lose interest, or decide to write about other things that don't seem to fit. However, I'm giving it another go, and adding myself into the veritable ocean of homeschooling blogs out there. I don't think I'll ever be one of those super useful fancy blogs that provides all sorts of great advice and free printables. But I can take some time to chronicle our journey, and who knows, maybe that will be interesting to someone at some point.

For now, some common questions I get about us as a homeschooling family.

Why are you homeschooling? (aka, Are you nuts?)
I could go on and on about this, and probably will in another post. My short and simple answer is, this works for our family. I'm not anti-school, I don't think they are all bad, I'm not scared of my kids turning into hooligans or being tortured by bullies and won't let them outside without a leash. But I started considering homeschooling, and after doing a TON of research, overthinking the heck out of it, and praying about it a lot, we decided to give it a go. We found it works well for us. There are a lot of things I love about it, my kids love it, and for the time being, it is a wonderful way to live our life.

What about socialization?
Homeschooling moms get this question all the time. It is the same question I would have asked, prior to being a homeschooler. Yes, my kids are "socialized." We see other kids, adults, people of all kinds, all the time. We belong to a homeschool group, they have lots of friends, and attend other groups and activities. I could go on and on about this one too, but suffice it to say, for the majority of homeschooling families, the idea that the kids are weird and unsocialized isn't true at all. My kids have lots of opportunities to hang out with other people and learn how to interact and get along in society.

How long will you homeschool?
I don't know. We do it now because it works. If it ceases to be a good fit for our family, we'll do something else. That said, I am open to homeschooling my kids through high school. It is hard to know, with kids who are still so young, what will be the best course for them when they reach those upper grades. But I'm not worried about teaching them any of it (not even the math), and if I do reach a point where I'm in over my head, there are many options available to us to expand their educational choices. Co-ops, college classes, mentors, tutors, etc. can help cover certain subject areas as they get more advanced. We'll cross those bridges as they come.

How long have you been homeschooling?
We started on this crazy journey in the fall of 2011, as my oldest son began first grade. He went to public school kindergarten and over the summer I began considering homeschool. We decided to take the plunge and I spent our first year focusing mostly on him. Our second son still attended preschool, and our youngest was just two. This school year (2012-2013) I have a second grader, a kindergartner, and a young preschooler who very much wants massive amounts of my attention. It is a juggling act, and although I'm not technically a newbie homeschooler anymore, I still feel like it sometimes.

Hopefully I'll be a consistent blogger and take the time to record what we do. I'm sure we will enjoy looking back on our adventures. In the meantime, I have a mountain of laundry to catch up on, and rest assured I will not be writing a post entitled, "How to homeschool and keep up with housework," because that is one area I have yet to master.