I started homeschooling in 2005, when my first child was in kindergarten. From the beginning, our learning style was relaxed and interest-led, becoming more unschoolish as the years went by. Influenced by the ideas of Charlotte Mason and the model of Leadership Education, we focused on good literature, nature study, and real-world learning as key elements of our homeschooling.

These books heavily influenced my homeschool philosophy over the years, and I highly recommend them all:

• A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
• Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning
  by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
• Gifted: Raising Children Intentionally by Chris Davis

The school room:

When we moved downsized our home, we didn’t have the space or storage as before, but we adjusted quite well with plenty of outside play, reading on the sofa, and spreading out on the dining table for written work or art time. See our simplified cottage-style homeschool room.

You may enjoy touring our previous open floorplan school room, smack dab in the middle of our previous, larger home.

A few of my most popular homeschool posts:

• Workbox Crate: simplified homeschooling
• Socialization is a bunch of malarkey
• Cute and Cheap Art Supply Organizer
• Prayers for Parenting and Homeschool
• Our Imperfect Homeschool

In 2021, I hung up my homeschooling hat and my youngest two attend public school. A lot went into that decision and it’s what’s working for our family.

See all homeschool-related posts.

Thanks for reading!