The Ultimate Homeschool Roadmap

Should I home school? Should I? Shouldn’t I?

Back in 2006, home schooling was a foreign idea. I vaguely knew one neighbor who home schooled some of her kids, but I had no clue how it worked. No idea how to start.

I just knew that the public school wasn’t working out for my kids, and all the advocating and volunteering in the world wasn’t going to make a difference in the foreseeable future.

Fortunately, my homeschooling neighbor is a friendly sort, who was happy to meet with me and share her knowledge and experience. She calmed my fears, showed me her “classroom” and organization, gave me copies of New York’s required documents, and she lent me a book.

I took the book home, thinking that I would skim through it and return it promptly. Instead, I found that I was tagging every other page of Cathy Duffy’s 100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing the Right Curriculum and Approach for Your Child’s Learning Style.

The name pretty much says it all, but at that time I didn’t know what I was getting into. I didn’t realize that homeschooling has more flavors than a Baskin-Robbins:

… traditional textbooks, Charlotte Mason/real books education, classical education, unit study, unschooling, independent study, working under an umbrella program, or an eclectic mixture of approaches.

I haven’t seen Bubblegum Flavor Homeschooling, but it’s probably out there.

It can be overwhelming. Fortunately, Duffy takes a goal-oriented approach to help you:

… determine what your children need to learn. You decide what methods to use. And you set up your own schedule. Then you find the curriculum that has the content and methodology that fits your agenda, and you use it on your timetable.

This book is fabulous. It lays out what you need to know to begin homeschooling in a way that makes sense.

It will help you find the material that you need to teach you child, so that you maximize the ultimate benefit of homeschooling - the ability to truly individualize learning for your child.

You’ll see your options clearly, so that when you make a choice, it will be a well-informed choice.

And, when you hit road-blocks, you can come back and find all the best detours as well.

The Best Books In My Home School Library

A relaxed alternative in Deschooling Gently, Learning Passionately

Discover The Well Trained Mind, core curriculum for a Classical Education, in Is It a Book Review or Affiliate Marketing?

Take a peek into my Homeschool Library in Are You Living By Learning?

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