While I am laying here on bedrest, I have lots of extra time on my hands with little to do but read and peruse the internet. I have decided that this is a good time to reevaluate what I want to achieve with homeschooling and how I am going to go about it.

I have always really believed in the idea the kids who read a lot learn a lot without too much adult instruction, but I have a very hard time letting go so that my kids can put it into practice. I feel that they are not learning if I am not doing something with them. My own school years often leave me feeling conflicted about what to do with my kids. For instance, I hated grammar as a kid because the way we learned it was so very repetitive. We never seemed to really get to more advanced grammar concepts. It was only last fall that I finally learned what a dangling participle is. However, I found that because I read so much, I usually constructed sentences properly without lots of drilling. I think that kids who read a lot can wait to learn most grammar concepts and then pick them up easily when they are a bit older and ready to really use them, but I find it very hard to let go and trust that that will happen if I don't use a textbook to teach them grammar.

Right now I am trying to decide how much formal teaching I want to do and how much I want to just encourage my kids to learn on their own. They learn so much even when we are not doing formal schoolwork, but it's hard not to feel that there will be huge gaps in their education if they are left to follow their own interests. At the same time, with two babies on the way, I think that this is a good time to emphasize having them learn through their own reading with less help from me. Allowing them more opportunities to learn on their own is perhaps a more realistic approach for me as I adjust to the twins.

How do each of you find the balance between formal school and allowing your children to pursue their own interests? Do any of you do a more unschooled approach? How do you think your own school years affect the way you teach your kids?

Lauralyn