Home Schooling Book Part 1

Indiana Jane recommended Home Schooling A Family's Journey by Gregory and Martine Millman here. First let me say that I have never read a book about homeschooling before. That may surprise you, but Ram and I decided to homeschool and then I went straight to HOW we wanted to homeschool, never took the time to read a book about WHY to homeschool. I think I might own a few books about why to homeschool, but I haven't read them. A home schooling book is never going to be in the "new books" section of my small library. So if I want to read a homeschooling book from the library I have to take the time to inter-library loan it.
I thought this book was interesting of how and why one family homeschooled. I would highly recommend it for someone considering homeschooling. I agreed with much of how they did homeschooling. But there weren't a ton of new ideas for home schooling for me. Maybe Indiana Jane has tried reading other home schooling books before and this one was exceptional for her. I will write some of my thoughts after reading this book. They are more reflections of how we homeschool vs. how the Millmans homeschool.

Ram was homeschooled for some of his elementary school years. Both Ram and I had moms that stayed home with us for most if not all of our time at home. When I was a teacher in the classroom I saw students that needed more one on one time than a classroom teacher could give them. I didn't want to put my young boys on the school bus for 7 miles with the high school students. All that put together plus more influenced our decision to homeschool.
One idea I never thought of before but is true is that on an one income family it economically makes sense to homeschool. I do have a friend that started homeschooling and one of the reasons was they could not afford the LCMS school tuition for all their children and continue to let mom stay at home.
The Millman family does not school at home in a traditional sense of a strict schedule and using textbooks. We don't either although many homeschoolers would say we have a stricter schedule than they do. I personally need the structure of the day if I expect to get anything done (housework!) besides homeschooling. The Lambs need the boundaries of when school will be done and they can play. I keep it a secret that many of their toys (Legos included) are educational. I do expect the Lambs to sit at a student desk to do handwriting. Other than that the rest of our "school time" takes place at the kitchen table or on the sofa or outside of the house.
The Millman family lets their kids watch limited TV-we only let our Lambs watch approved movies-no TV.  So far Ram and I have approved all the books that come into this house-either library books or books for us to own. Some modern classics have gone straight to the give away pile at our house (Olivia). The Millmans also screen books coming into the house for style and substance.
To be continued tomorrow...