Homeschooling

When we were still living in New Zealand and my friends would asked me, whether I was looking forward to the homeschooling I always replied with a smile and said, of course it will be fun!

Hmmm, on second thoughts, I did not really given it much thoughts what is actually involved in homeschooling....for a start having Julia and Carlos around me again for 24 hours and finding hardly any me time; slipping in and out of the role of mum, teacher, friend and entertainer.

So when we first started it seemed easy, the rule was daily 2 hours of school time and the rest of the day free time to have fun. What did we do maths, vocabulary and reading.... first everyone was very enthusiastic about it, Julia finally understood the meaning of numbers and maths. She had a glow in her eyes and was obviously very proud of herself. Carlos liked the fact that he had lots of free time to explore, collecting and gathering things and playing. Not to forget that they always learn as they play.

Then came the turning point, they started to complain that the classes were boring, mummy was a mean strict teacher....... at the same time I met Aleatha in the Daytona science museum. We got talking and found an instant liking and were on the same wave length. She was a homeschooling mum and had an obvious passion about homeschooling. In the short amount of time that we had she downloaded so much enthusiasm and knowledge onto to me that it virtually blew me away and I was very much taken by it. From that day on I looked at the whole home school idea a bit different. I evaluated the program that I had, I looked at my view point and pattern of teaching and homeschooling Julia and Carlos. To give Julia and Carlos a good creative education there was so much to learn and to do before I could even start homeschooling my children. So I started my research, wow, the Internet provided me with a lot of interesting pages and hours of reading.

All of a sudden I met other mums on the playground that were homeschooling, and I learned more and more. The first change that I made was to unschool my children and myself. I had read about that before I left New Zealand. When starting to homeschool there should be no school for your children at least the same amount of months that they have gone to school. I simply overlooked that matter, as I wanted to give my children a good headstart on the homeschooling programm... silly me, there is a reason for the word unschooling. So I virtually stopped our school programme, we would still read our books and got our maths by playing Yahtzee and scrabble, but apart from that we had simply fun and lots of free time. I gathered as much information as I could, I would read as much as I could and surf the Internet as much as I could. I was really interested in the so called "unit study" . Aleatha had pointed Amanda Bennett unit studies out to me. A Unit Study in general is very interesting. Your child picks the subject that they are interested in and the learning is designed around that subject. Meanwhile I have found a unit study on Alice in Wonderland, Chance of raining meatballs, country and culture unit study etc. It is incredible in what a fun way children can learn, increase their horizon and knowledge. I love it. I am really thankful that I have met Aleatha who has opened up my eyes and my horizon in regards of homeschooling.

When we had a chance to visit Aleatha and her family up in Edgewater, we jumped to it. I felt that I would gain so much out of meeting her again and spending much more time with her. In the beginning I anticipated to visit for a couple of nights, but in the end we ended up staying for nearly a week. Wow, what an experience for all of us, for nothing in the world would I have change this. I have grown and learned so much in such little time, amazing. Once we arrived, we have not stopped talking about everything and anything. We are exhausted, but happy and filled with love, unbeatable memories and experiences. We have exchanged information, I have met so many other homeschooling mums and I got sooooo motivated that I know now I am on the right track.

I have realized how much I needed the unschooling, to move out of my old pattern of being taught at school. I am so grateful for the opportunity to home school Julia and Carlos and how much we can bond through this. I know that I still have to learn a lot, but hey Rome has not been build in one day either....

I had been wondering what my reason for being on the boat would be. I was really unhappy in the beginning, I missed teaching Yoga. Yoga is my passion and I loved teaching it. Now I seemed lost without it.

When I started my research, I asked myself the question why I would miss teaching other people, but had difficulties getting into teaching my own children. Was the passion yoga, was is teaching passing on knowledge or was it simply that I got recognition for what I was doing???? It turned out that I can have more than one passion, I definitely had a passion for yoga and a passion for teaching
so I just had to turn homeschooling into a passion of mine. I just had to become aware and undo certain pattern in regards of this passion and here we go the result is beautiful and I love it. I love it and I am very much looking forward to home school Julia and Carlos in a fun and creative way.