Finding the Right Fit

My regular readers know that my family homeschools.  We started homeschooling right after my son finished kindergarten.  We were in a very transitional time for our family with lots of moving and traveling and even the prospect of moving overseas.  We didn't want our kids school-hopping and figured that once we settled somewhere, we would enroll our kids in a school nearby  (most likely private but we weren't sure).  Well, three years later we are still homeschooling and it's really working for our family.

Why?  Because it's allowed us to help focus on our kids strengths.  It's allowing us to help our kids figure out NOW "what they want to be when they grow up."  That allows us the flexibility to tailor our days in such a way that we spend time working on things that will help our kids in their future career.  Our children are 9 and 7 so we realize that things may change.  And for our 7 year old her dreams for the future have changed somewhat.  But for our 9 year old, he's only become more sure of what he wants to do.

Our 9 year old wants to build and program robots.  And with the help of his father he's already working on that.  So what does one need to learn to do that?  Programming skills of course, but also how electronics work.  So what have we done?  We allow him to dismantle broken electronics and try to fix them or find alternative uses for them.  In fact, one of his favorite things to do is go yard saling with his dad looking for electronics things that he can use for parts.  I'll have a post in a couple days with some of the things he's done lately (My mind has been blown by some of the things he's done, I'm sure yours will be too).

Son watching Daddy fix the air conditioner (he's always watching Daddy and learning)

And what about our daughter?  Well, for a long time she wanted to be a vet.  So we started to foster kittens.  The thought was that she would learn what it's like to take care of an animal.  Fall in love with it.  And then have to give it to someone else.  The fostering process has taught her though that perhaps being a vet isn't the right fit for her (oddly enough because she doesn't like to clean up after animals).  So now she's thinking about becoming an animal trainer or an animal photographer. 

We are still fostering kittens and she gets to help mold their behavior (you know keep them from jumping on the counters and making them more friendly) and she's also taking pictures with a camera we gave her for Christmas.  She is very crafty, so secretly I'm thinking the photographer route might be her thing (as in going to the safari and trying to take pictures of animals for National Geographic and such) but I'm not trying to push anything at this point.

This cat came to us feral at 7 or 8 weeks old and hadn't been handled by a human.  She LOVES my daughter

One of the things that's helped my family with this sort of thing the most is that when we moved to Florida we ended up connecting with a homeschool group.  The women who lead this group have a heart for children like you wouldn't believe.  Not just homeschooled children but all children.  Their catch phrases are "Raising leaders from cradle to college & parenting with the end result in mind." 

Jenni and Jody are awesome ladies and have 9 children between them, ranging in age from 26 down to 2 years old.  One of them has a child who recently passed the bar and is now a lawyer and one has a child that is autistic, so they've definitely been there done that and experienced just about everything in between.

They also have a website http://www.jenniandjody.com/ where they regularly post blog articles about all kinds of parenting topics.  They have a radio show on Saturday's that are also released on their website as pod casts for those who aren't local.  And they are also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jenniandjody

Do yourself a favor and at least look at their website or Facebook page.  If you like what you see, follow them.  That way you will see all their new articles and any other interesting news from them (a book is in the works, as are conferences).  Hopefully they can help your family like they've helped mine.