This September we started our 10th year of homeschooling and I can honestly say that so far it feels like our best year yet.  And it does feel unbelievably good to say that, coming from what the last few years have felt like.

When I started thinking about our year and what I wanted it to look like God spoke one word to me over and over again….Depth.

I penned the word in my journal and prayed and really tried to think through what He meant for me to take from that word and how to apply it to our school year.

I prayed over co-ops and curriculums and all of the things we have done in the past.  I considered many, many new options.  Every single one God gently said…”no” and continued to lead me in the direction of what I am now calling freeschooling…..just for the record I HATE being bound by labels, but this one is so different for me ;).

Freeschooling for me is all of the freedom and none of the boundaries.  It’s everything my kids individually need, right where they are, and none of the arbitrary standards someone says they “should” know.  It’s letting them run wild and free with their strengths and their interests.  It’s not limiting their education to a curriculum, a methodology, a desk/kitchen table or even the four walls of our home.  It’s filled with space for wonder and discovery and challenge and thinking and absent of fear and forcing and finishing a lesson or a curriculum, because of a self-imposed deadline or need to “check all of the boxes”.  It’s me learning from them, more than them learning from me.  Freeschooling is fluid, with movement and growth.  It leaves room for ME and care of myself.  Freeschooling is relationship based and lead by grace.

And then I went and did something CRAZY!! I sold all of my curriculum….I really did.

We started with a family vision night, where we each shared our vision for what we wanted school to “look like” and things we wanted to learn (yes…me too).  We put it all down on paper.  Then I started searching for resources to support what and how we wanted to learn. As you can imagine finding curriculum that fits into all of the freeschooling dreams of my heart might be quite a challenge.

But God 🙂

I don’t know how in all of my homeschooling years I haven’t even heard of The Good & The Beautiful, but it has been THE THING that God has used to breathe life back into our homeschooling days.  I can say with my whole heart that it has not only met, but exceeded ALL of my expectations in a curriculum.  It has fit perfectly into my freeschooling approach.  I cannot say enough good things about this curriculum and the heart behind it.

And every single one of my kids LOVE it.  Yup….you read that right!  They LOVE it!!

We made this short video to tell you the things specific things we love the most!

Homeschooling Mama…..if you or your kids are not thriving in your school days, don’t wait to make a change!  Stop, pray and go where God leads, even if it doesn’t make sense at first!

Also, many of you have asked me how I find all of our great Read Alouds and this is one of my favorite resources!!!  AND IT’S FREE FOR YOU THROUGH TOMORROW (11/11/17) , compliments of Jenny Phillips at The Good & The Beautiful!!!  Use this link to download for FREE!!

I plan to go into more details about the ins and outs of how our days unfold and what each child is working on currently.  If you have other questions about my approach, please let me know and I will do my best to answer!

Blessings,

 

Maggie

 

PS – For honesty sake I need to disclose that I am entering this post into a contest to win free curriculum from The Good & The Beautiful, BUT I’ve had this post written in my mind for a month exactly as it is….the contest just pushed me to finally do it :).