Welcome to The Homeschool Odyssey, my little corner of the internet where I hope to document our homeschool journey from start to finish.
I chose the name The Homeschool Odyssey because learning is a life-long journey and an adventure. For us, homeschooling will be a key part of that journey, filled with ups and downs and, lets face it, a little bit of drama. I wanted to acknowledge that we are about to embark on a long and arduous task; yet there's a sense of adventure, mystery, wonder, and excitement.
Why Homeschool?
The decision to homeschool has actually been over a year in the making. I began as one of those moms who declared that I would NEVER homeschool. Homeschooling was a thought that would pop into my mind at odd moments, as though presenting itself for consideration yet again, and I would dismiss it - though each time rolling it about in my mind for a little longer before writing it off as a foolish idea and an impossibility.
Up to this point, Ms. Spontaneity (a carry over from my everything-not-related-to-homeschool blog, Planned Spontaneity) had attended a very small private school. In addition to the cost of education, we were frustrated by the limited exposure to new ideas - particularly in history - and the lack of academic challenge and accountability. Throw in a marriage and a move and it became clear that we would need to make a change. We decided (after a lot of prayer, discussion, and, on my part at least, anxiety) to try public school. We hoped that the larger setting and wider access to materials and resources would effect a change in our areas of concern. It did not, and over the past couple of years we have seen those frustrations simply become magnified rather than resolved.
So it was in September I approached Mr. Planned (another carry over) and told him I had a crazy idea that I wasn't even sure I liked but to just think it over and we'd talk about it again down the road...and that thing that I was sure I would NEVER do escaped my lips and planted a seed: HOMESCHOOL.
As you can guess from the presence of this blog, we did talk it over and ultimately decided this just might be for us. So here we stand, preparing to embark on our homeschool odyssey.