Why am I doing this?

I am blessed to be able to stay home with our three kids. We have a Heffalump (4), his twin sister the Woozle (4), and a Sea-Bass (2 next month). I've tried homeschooling before, but never stuck with it. So why am I making an effort to do it now?

• Because preschool is expensive, especially when there are 3 kids involved. Plus, if the kids are in preschool, I'd have to try to find a job. Having been out of the workforce for over 4 years and not being established in a career before I left, I know my job prospects are slim.
• Because my kids love to learn, and while they're home with me I feel it's my job to help them learn as much as they can.
• Because honestly, we have difficult kids. The Heffalump and Woozle are just about as opposite as a set of twins can get (and strong-willed to boot), and the Sea-Bass seems like he's going to follow in their strong-willed footsteps. At least they come by that honestly! My twins have different learning styles, different personalities, and different approaches to learning, and we honestly didn't feel that at this point either of them would thrive in a traditional school environment.

I know that a lot of homeschooling mothers feel "called" to homeschool - I am not one of those moms. When I was in college, my degree path could have gone in multiple directions, one of those being education. I distinctly remember saying on more than one occasion "I do not want to be a teacher." However, the twins are a year away from being age-eligible for Kindergarten but working on a K level (at least) in many areas. I saw that there was a need to fill, so I'm filling it through homeschooling. In my state, we don't have to enroll children in school or register them as homeschoolers until the age of 8, so we're planning to use this time to experiment: see what approach works best for me, what approach works best for them, and see if this is really something that we can sustain for the long run.

I will try to keep this blog as updated as I can, and try to remember to take pictures. You can also follow my inconsistent blogging efforts over at Domestic Knitter Designs, where I document my sporadic adventures in knitting, sewing, and pattern design. :)