A recent post on a homschool board I visit really hit home with me. It was about the time and money we waste when we get the "grass is greener" frame of mind. I know for a fact I am very guilty of this!
I have to take a trip down memory lane, and think about when I first started homeschooling. It's been 6 full years since I started. I remember the still wet behind the ears feelings. I was terrified to say the least!! In retrospect, I shouldn't have been. I had it all under control, even if I didn't know exactly what that looked like then. In fact, I think I was in more control then than I am now as a homeschooling mom.
Back then, I didn't know about probably about 90% of the resources that are available to homeschoolers. I knew about the "The Complete Book of...." books that were cheap and available at Sam's Club and I knew that there was a world of knowledge in books. I knew my state laws and the subjects they said I had to cover.
I picked from things that I pretty much knew existed. We used a Comprehensive Curriculum book (basically a condensed version of several of the "The Complete Book of...." books), The Complete Book of United States History, an old set of books from Southwestern Publishing called "My Fun with Learning" (this covered science and more history plus much more), we read real books (many of which I later learned are called "living books" amongst the homeschool community), I searched online for activities to go with books we read. One of my favorite memories is making green slime after reading Horrible Harry and the Green Slime. Our year that year was so relaxed. The Test and I both enjoyed it.
What happened to that life? What happened that changed our whole homeschooling experience? What ruined the good thing we had? The Grass is Greener Effect!!! In bouncing around online looking for book ideas, craft ideas, etc, I discovered this whole HUGE online community of homeschoolers. We live in an area where it seems there aren't tons of homeschoolers, I have bumped into a few, but not a great number (which is ok, I'm an introvert most of the time). There are no groups that would have brought to light all these "wonderful" resources. But this huge community online opened my eyes to all the wonders of the homeschooling world.
I learned about this math and that, and why this grammar is the best one. I learned about this method of teaching and that one and yet another. I then ran into
those homeschoolers. The ones using 3 maths, 2 grammars, 4 writing programs and spending countless hours a day doing science and history. I read why this math was great, but you needed to suppliment with that one because this one is lacking, and then combined this and that one need to be supplimented with yet another because together they still are lacking rocket science.
I quickly began to doubt myself.. well first I thought easier, already prepared curricula would be wonderful. I then began to doubt myself... was I really able to put my own stuff together? Was I really hitting on everything we needed to be hitting on? Was my son on the verge of becoming a nuclear pysicist?
Now I know, I don't really care if my kids grow up to be garbage collectors or if they grow up to be president, but it's hard to keep that in mind when you are faced with "this is the next great curricula". The whole "The Grass is Greener" did more than cost me tons of money, it sucked a lot of the love out of homeschooling for us. It totally changed the dynamics of what we were doing.
The moral of the story.... If is isn't broke, don't try to fix it. Just because someone else says they are doing x, y, and z does not mean that you have to do it too. Don't doubt yourself!! By being involved enough of a parent to want to homeschool your children, you are doing the greatest thing for them. If something isn't working, by all means then you need to change it, but you need to decide before you go looking if it isn't working and just why it isn't.
