Jennifer Vail

I am the product of public school, and cannot say enough how much I loved my experiences growing up. Yes, I stumbled across a few bad apples during my 13 years as a public school student—one overtly racist teacher, one teacher who made no attempts to hide his very pleased gaze, one teacher who cursed like a sailor, and more. But overall I knew that these teachers were not representative of the profession as a whole, and I truly loved school. 

When I first started explored the possibility of homeschooling, I resisted.

Hard.

I thought of dozens of reasons why I couldn’t, why I shouldn’t. I insisted. I protested.

“Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.” The marvelous Miss Charlotte Mason said this, quite famously now, in regards to education and life.

This quote has inspired an entire belief system, a lifestyle, a veritable standard when it comes to homeschooling.

Search homeschooling on just about any platform you can think of, and you’ll instantly be flooded with resources. Gorgeous wooden Waldorf toys, nature studies for preschoolers, vintage handwriting tablets, tricks that incorporate LEGO into reading.

There are printables, book lists, and math manipulatives galore—so many options.

I never imagined I’d homeschool. Ever. In fact, I was vocally anti-homeschooling. I loved my public school experiences and had very little experience with families who chose to homeschool, so I had based my (very strong) feelings on (very incorrect) stereotypes and assumptions.

Since you're reading this post on a homeschool curriculum blog, you can guess how those false beliefs turned out for me!

I’m about to come clean. Deep breaths. I don’t homeschool all of my children. In fact, I don’t homeschool most of my children. Pause for pearl-clutching.

Of my three kids, one is homeschooled and two attend public schools. My husband and I do what works best for each child, and right now this is what works. This arrangement is likely to change in the future as each kid's needs change. But for right now, this is the set-up that allows each child to thrive.

While interacting in the gifted homeschooling community, I see one major concern come up pretty frequently. Daily, even. No, it’s not wondering about socialization, or even how a homeschooled child will ever learn how to stand in line (insert sarcasm font).

It’s wondering how to adapt a curriculum for a child who devours knowledge, programs, and books at lightning speed.

A friend recently sent me an article on faulty thinking that she thought I would find interesting. I hold a counseling degree and remain fascinated by human behavior and emotions, so this was right up my alley. In it, many common cognitive distortions were discussed—literally flawed patterns of thinking that cause damage to oneself. The simplicity of the harmful thoughts stuck with me.