[Mama Bird]

Where to start?

1. Commit your school, your children, your teaching, your curriculum...everything...to God. Allow Him to make the choices.

2. Know that the first curriculum you choose will most likely not be the one you stick with. Don't be afraid to buy used curriculum...or older curriculum. You can often get a good deal on older editions...just make sure you plan ahead enough to update things that need to be updated.

3. Don't allow yourself to feel pressured to create a genius. Let's face it...all homeschooled children cannot be Spelling or Geography Bee champions.

4. Find your own style. You may be an unschooler, or relaxed schooler, or you may have school at home.

5. Slow down...and enjoy your children. If a child suddenly gets an intense interest in something, go with it!

6. School does not happen between 9 and 3. It's ok to go to the grocery store. It's fine to take a day off to prepare for a garage sale. (Just not all the time.)

7. Think outside the box! Pringles containers can become pencil boxes. Sidewalks can become chalkboards.

8. You must allow yourself some planning time. We do unit studies, and in the middle of each unit, I plan for the next one. This includes making lists of what I need to borrow, buy, copy, make, etc.

9. Use the library. Ours has programs for homeschoolers! I reserve books for the next unit about a week and a half before we start that unit, so they have time to be shuffled between libraries. This also gives me a chance to look them over and reject books that don't line up with our worldview.

10. Never, never forget to thank God for the awesome privilege and responsibility of teaching our little ones. Remember that the most important thing we can teach them is about God, and His amazing love for us. Without that, all the reading, writing and 'rithmatic matter not at all.