Kindling

Truthfully, I've been thinking of homeschooling my son since before he started public school!  We live in rural Northern Ontario, Canada and have only one local public school available to our family.  No french public school, no public french immersion, no private schools, etc.  Catholic children have multiple school choices, but for a secular education it's english public school - take it or leave it! 

Unfortunately, because I am a single parent with chronic, disabling health issues, I have been unable to do so while he was quite young and required full time adult attention.  The CKW (Cutest Kid in the World) has attended every-other-day Junior Kindergarten, then Senior Kindergarten and is now finishing up Grade One at our local public school.  I've been volunteering in his classroom once weekly this year, helping the children with their reading, and having my eyes opened to the world of institutionalized learning.  My brother is a corrections officer and he agrees with me - in both our eyes, public school is very similar to jail!

Thankfully I found the Secular Homeschool Community online and have been researching homeschool issues, styles, and curriculum for months now.  I've ordered and received several products from The Critical Thinking Company, have placed an order for curriculum from Moving Beyond The Page and Teaching Textbooks, have purchased and started reading Bernard J Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2, have downloaded several elective units from Connect The Thoughts and have started teaching The Story of the World Volume I: Ancient Times From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor by Susan Wise Bauer, using the Mosaic unit studies provided by Bringing Up Learners. 

I've provided links for the curriculum we're using, as well as other educational resources that interest me, and I'll be discussing each element of our curriculum in upcoming posts...  Today, I wanted to get the fire started!