With the end of the public school semester on December 19, 2012, our time as personal educators goes from part-time to full-time. The decision is not an immediate knee jerk reaction to any recent media events. This is something Christine and I have been contemplating for quite some time. It came to head for us about about 2 months ago. Why? One more day of not enough sleep for the girls. Another day of movies at school. Another topic that was not covered in detail. The last straw. Yet another “Mount Fuji paper*”, and a science fair project that sets a really bad precedent.

The act of going from public school to home school was easy enough to do. A simple declaration of intent to the Georgia Department of Education, a year attendance form, and a signature at the Middle School. Viola. Now we are going to lead the girls education. Not that we have not been doing it already. Ever since they started Kindergarten, and before, we have been diligently expanding the girls exploration of the world around them.

So how does one go about homeschooling. Can it be done? The examples were many. A colleague at work who is a single mom manages to do it. Emma’s homeroom teacher recently did the same for his 3 children despite working in the system himself. Why can’t we? After a few hours of research done before we withdrew the girls back in November, looking over A Beka, online school, double check local area private school, and freelance books. Eventually, I came across a book that caught my attention.  “The Well-Trained Mind” by Susan Wise Bauer and Jesse Wise. The Well-Trained mind follows the path of a Classical Education of the Trivium. Wow! A book that covers all 12 grades, promotes the basics and makes a good case for logic and rhetoric. The items covered in the book are detailed enough to create a better education than the one the girls were getting.

The basic requirement the state of Georgia requires is 4.5 hours a day of school work that covers reading, writing, math (5 days/week), science, and social studies. Why we now call it social studies instead of history will be something to research another day?

This is only the beginning. Christine and I have our work cut out for us as we prepare for the 1st few weeks of study.