Our school adventure is about to begin

There seem to be 2 schools of thought when it comes to schooling young children. OK, there are probably a lot more than 2, but for the purposes of this blog, let's just go with these:

1. "The earlier the better". Start as early as possible and throw as much information at your child as you possibly can. They are little sponges at this age and you have to take advantage of it.
2. "Better late than early". Especially with boys. When young, yes they are sponges, but they are also kids and need the freedom to be fidgety, silly little piles of energy.

I have generally found myself to be in the second camp. Not that I am opposed to teaching my kids stuff. Quite the contrary. I just feel it is easier (for them and me!) to do this as a part of living life instead of trying to get them to sit down, pay attention and learn stuff. I am the mom at the grocery store who hands my daughter different pieces of produces and talks about what shapes, colors and textures they have. And what they are called, of course!

Now, for those of you who know us in real life will undoubtedly point out, we did decide to put "A" in Belgium preschool last fall. However, this had nothing whatsoever to do with academics. In Belgium, preschool is mostly one big, social art class with gym once a week. Yes, he's learned how to hold a crayon/pencil and how to follow directions a bit better, but those are just happy side-effects. Our purpose for enrolling him had to do with his begging to have more play time with kids his own age. This was something that was very difficult when we first arrived and this seemed to be the easiest solution. We also thought it would be good for him to learn some French. OK, so that's a little academic... Anyway, this was never "Plan A".

The plan was that we were going to wait for this coming fall to begin a gentle version of American preschool at home. He is still going to attend Belgium preschool for one more year, but we wanted to begin the gentle transition to what the true "Plan A" is: homeschooling full-time.

"T" and I decided to homeschool our children in the first years of our marriage. There were a lot of reasons that would take up WAY too much room in this already long blog. But after nearly 13 years of knowing it was going to happen, I expected to spend the next couple of months ironing out what exactly we would do and planning on how to introduce things as gently as possible so as not to "spook" him about schooling with mom.

Enter "Plan B", aka my son. He is BEGGING for me to start teaching him things. Not just casual observational talks like we normally have. He wants to learn how to read. He wants to learn how to write. "Mom, I want YOU to teach me!".

So, I have spent the last few days doing what I had planned to spend the next couple of months doing. My brain is fried, but I did it. I ordered everything this morning (from Sonlight, in case anyone is interested). I can breathe for a few weeks. Then everything will arrive and the grand planning of it all will begin. I hope to start the first couple of weeks in June.

Whew! I need a nap!

Oh, and you know what this means... future homeschool posts! You have been warned!