FROM MY ONLINE HOMESCHOOL SUPPORT GROUP:

The thread regarding our beautiful expectant mom's segued into another interesting thread about switching from aligned to traditional.
Over the course of homeschooling, have you found yourself trying different types of schooling?
It is too funny how homeschooling is like the quest for the perfect jeans -- you have to try on so many before you find something that actually fits...and often you end up wearing them out!!! :-)
So I guess the questions are : 
What types of homeschooling have you tried on? 
What drew you to them in the first place?
Why are you sticking with the type of schooling you are doing?  Besides that it is working!! -- Give us details.
I know I have tried a few kinds on for size.  :-)
Jenna

What have I tried?  Well when we first signed on for home education, we signed up with our local school board which had only fully aligned.  They gave us the two crates of textbooks and assignments and the list of when tests were and when assignments were due.  We did this for about 2 weeks and then I panicked and started to hyperventilate and FREAKED OUT!  This is not what I had pictured for our home schooling.  So I called a lady from my support group (I had never met her before but we are now good friends), and I vented all my fears and frustrations to her.  And she listened patiently and with her wisdom she told me that I did not have to do it this way.  I could switch boards and have more freedom.  I WAS SET FREE!!!  Yay!  So I quit and signed on with our current board (Families Learning Together) and it has been great since.

We are now part of the “traditional” home school track.  Each year has looked different and I am not sure I will ever feel “at home” with how we home school.  Do we ever feel like we have it all together as moms (and home school teachers)? 

The first couple of years we kind of structured learning, and we had the kids do the CTBS (Canadian Test of Basic Skills).  They always did very well with them.  Our major focus was math, it was the one HAVE TO GET DONE subject of the day.  Then as the years are passing on we are becoming more and more relaxed about academics (in the formal sense) and are focusing on teaching the kids HOW TO LEARN not what to learn.  This is a skill that will serve them throughout their whole lives.   This current year has been our most loose year yet.  When I went to our facilitator visit in December, I told our facilitator that I had nothing to report, we hadn’t learned anything.  She laughed and told me that could not be true because we are living life thus we are learning.  :o) (I Live Therefore I Learn: Living an Unschooling Life by Pam Sorooshian - http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/pam_sorooshian.html)  Have I mentioned I love my facilitator?

So this year has been hard on me.  I have panicked because we are not following the mainstream society’s version of learning/schooling.  But I reminded by so many (people, books, blogs, seminars, etc) that that is okay.  My kids are learning each and everyday, they are learning to pursue their passions and seek ways to make their life, their time and talent matter.  I really think these are what the next few years will be about- them finding THEIR way for THEIR life.  I listened to the UNSCHOOL YOUR TEEN SEMINAR this week and it has reassured me that we are on the right path for us.  I want to listen to it with the kids so they too can be inspired by the options they have in their life because of the way we choose to school.