Welcome!

I have been homeschooling my 2E DD for a couple of years now. In my attempt to learn more about homeschooling in general and homeschooling a challenging child specifically, I have joined quite a few email discussion lists. To everyone who has participated in those discussion, you have my eternal gratitude for your advice, thoughts, assistance, and humor.

Recently, it struck me that I had seen several "How do I do this and stay sane?" posts from homeschooling parents of all types. Now, I realize that there is an element of humorous exaggeration to these posts - most of us wouldn't give up homeschooling for anything - but, like any other parent, we have Those Days every now and then. While many parents find that the quality-and-quantity parent-child time homeschooling provides winds up leading to a closer relationship, let's face it, it also means that when everyone is stressed out, you're going to need to deal with it instead of shipping them off to school and putting things out of your mind for a while. (One could make a persuasive argument that this is a great thing in the long run!)

There are positives and negatives to any schooling choice. You wouldn't be homeschooling if you didn't think that, on balance, it was more positive for your child and family than negative, right? If public or private school was the right choice for your child, that's where they'd be, but it isn't.  This blog is *not* intended to judge anyone's educational choices for their kids. We all make the best decisions for our kids, taking into consideration our resources and opportunities. For some kids, the local public school is a great fit, some do better at a private school, and some will find that homeschooling is the best choice. (In the interest of full disclosure, I went to what I still consider to be an excellent public school system for most of my schooling and only came to homeschooling when the well-rated public school near us became an obviously poor choice for DD.)

Now that you know where I'm coming from, where are we going? Homeschool parents need support and I'm hoping that this blog will be a piece of that. I'll post links to useful educational sites, ideas for projects, and suggestions on where to find materials. In addition, I'd like to include tips on how to retain your sanity when everything seems to be going haywire. 

I'd love to hear from all of you, so please feel free to share your stories, tips, and tricks. Tell us about the time the 4 year old covered the dog in applesauce to make his fur softer, so you de-stressed with a hot shower..... after hosing down Fido, of course. Or perhaps you managed to arrange a family water-fight that Fido enjoyed as he got clean? Maybe you have a favorite game that kids of various ages really enjoy playing together and that will short-circuit the blahs on a grumpy day? Anything that has worked for you may be just what another parent is looking for!

So, let's join forces and live, love, laugh our way through the ups and downs of homeschooling!