About me… Homeschooling by Liz

“About me”…  Ha!  I’m staring at a blank screen!  This is the probably the place that I’m supposed to prove to you that I’m an expert in my field.

Right.

So let me start from the beginning.  The first thing you should know is that I was never supposed to be a homeschooler.  That’s right.  My sister was the homeschooler.  I was the woman with a career and on a path up the ladder.  And God said…

Trust in me, and I shall make your path straight.

So twelve years later, I am a home school mom of 2.  I’ve been selling books to homeschoolers for 10 years, and running the bookstore at the Christian Educators Resource Center for 8 years.  Exciting stuff!

And this is where I use my tag line.  What I know about curriculum comes from listening to other homeschool moms.  There are tens of thousands of books, whether it is curriculum, curriculum helps, teacher books, readers, reading systems, or even pamphlets.  The business of homeschooling is growing by leaps and bounds.  I cannot experience EVERY book or curriculum.  My children will tell you that I have tried many.  They know, they’ve been my guinea pigs.

So I have to rely on the opinions of other homeschool parents.  I have to ask and listen to what they say about their experience with the curriculum.  Hopefully, this blog will help to store some of that knowledge, as well as gather more.

Well, what do you use?

I hear this question often, as if I’m an expert, then what I use is perfect…  Far from it.  Every year, and sometimes 2 and 3 times a year, I evaluate how the curriculum is working, and if my child is learning.

Every child is different.  In their learning styles, attitudes, activity levels and abilities.

Every family is different.  Lifestyles, goals, activities, and needs.

I used to think my son was normal, and something was “wrong” with my daughter.  In the last couple of years, I have adjusted to understand that my daughter is brilliantly normal, and my son is not.  He is brilliant and creative, and learns things easily and quickly.  They are different from EACH OTHER.  One curriculum does not work in our school, I can’t imagine trying to manage ONE curriculum for a classroom of 30 DIFFERENT kids.

My kids are not perfect, and what we use is not perfect.  So if, in this blog, I tell you “I just love this curriculum”.  Read the fine print.  And don’t take my word for it.  Go out, touch it, feel it, read it, and evaluate it for yourself.

And join in on the discussion!

 

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First Posts are always the hardest

This is my first post EVER on a blog. It has been the hardest to start. I was a little panicky!

When I decided to start a blog, I picked up a few books from the library, and downloaded some free how-to e-books. I was a little worried. If I couldn’t find the time to read up on how to start a blog, how could I find the time to write a blog?  So this may be a recurring obstacle, but I will do my best.

All the books will tell you the first thing about starting a blog is deciding on a name, which has much to do with what you’re writing about.  All of this could change, however, as your life changes… Where to begin? A name that says who I am, so that people can find me, but not so narrow that I would have to change it should the subject of the blog change. So, I chose TexasHach4, and right now, I’m all about homeschooling, or 85% about homeschooling, the rest may appear random!

Lastly, just to get started, you have to decide what your blog will be about. I have always wanted to start a blog to talk about homeschooling and curriculum, but I didn’t want to be a curriculum reviewer. (There are way too many of those out there!). I’m not an expert on curriculum, but in talking to mom’s on a day-to-day basis, I have learned much about curriculum. In attending Education Expo’s as a retailer, I’ve learned some things about trends. So I hope to share some of the things I have learned, share some of the questions and comments of other home school moms as we make contacts, and provide a forum in which to discuss what works and doesn’t work for other home school moms.

Another part of this blog, will be about my own kids, and they will also help to contribute to the blog. My son is experimenting with all kinds of programming and publishing. So he may contribute time to time to see how his programming works on a live site. Come back often to see those! It should be rather interesting and entertaining!

Also, I have a couple of friends that have been homeschooling for much longer than I have. They may appear with some guest articles to share their expertise in homeschooling or curriculum or just being a mom of homeschooled kids!

Should be fun! Email me if you think I haven’t published in a while! I like encouragement, and need to know someone is out there!

Thanks for visiting my blog!