It causes me pain

It truly does. Each Wednesday when I teach my class and I assign questions for them to answer, every unschooly fiber of my being rebels.

If I had my choice I would just let them knit, play with Bionicles, and do mock Mythbusters experiments the whole time. Each week the ""class time gets shorter. Each week the kids come armed with more of what they're interested in to share with each other.

I don't force "homework" on any of the kids. Some of them LOVE to research and find the answers. Some print out a Wikipedia article that they can barely read. Some never remember to find the answers.

I've had a couple of people ask me how *I* ended up teaching a class. I am doing it because we are trying to create a homeschool resource center for homeschoolers to use as they wish, and one thing a lot of them ask for is the opportunity for the kids to take some classes. And since I'm trying to help get this going, I'm teaching. Since I'm teaching, it's history.

So we'll continue. We have a couple more months to go. The kids are having a good time. My boys wouldn't miss it for anything.

I'm the only one having any trouble.

Hangin' with homeschoolers

If you know me you know I'm a pretty social person. So it's probably kind of strange that we have spent little time with homeschool groups in the past twelve years. That's not to say that we don't have friends who are homeschoolers, lots of them are, but we see them individually, not as part of a group.

We haven't felt like we needed the group experience. The kids never really seemed to enjoy going. They have their friends and we don't need a group for field trips.

For the past five months I have been teaching a world history and geography class for a group of homeschoolers. This is the first time in years that we have regularly been around a group of homeschoolers. I have enjoyed getting to know the kids and some of the moms. It is a pretty laid back bunch. (They have to be to deal with my crazy ADD style!) The boys are making friends and really enjoying the new contacts. It makes me think that maybe we should try again to find a group.

I thought of killing it

I seriously considered killing this blog.

I don't write here that much. I do most of my writing at my regular blog. But, at the same time, I like having this blog where I can focus on homeschooling.

So I have decided that I am going to keep it and actually write here on a regular basis.