A Homeschooling Journey

I began homeschooling my 7-year-old daughter just a few short months ago, in November of 2009. It began as a decision of necessity. I will not publicly air all my grievances of her first grade experience here, but suffice to say that as a parent concerned with my child's emotional well being, integrity, and the values to which was being exposed on a daily basis, circumstances demanded that something change. I realized that according to my own ethics, I cannot and should not expect the government to take responsibility for educating my own child. That is, I believe, my personal responsibility as a parent. The fact that the government does provide an education for all children does not alter this core belief.

When the public school system failed to meet my child's needs, standing by and doing nothing was not an acceptable option to me. Two choices presented themselves; to either fight the school system to meet my expectations, or take responsibility for educating my child myself. Believing as I do, I chose the latter.

Throughout the course of this blog I will at times opine about my thoughts on freedom, responsibility, and education in general. In addition I hope to record for posterity my experiences in homeschooling, which has thus far proven to be a far more rewarding experience than I originally anticipated. I also hope to share with any readers materials, projects, teaching strategies, and the other day-to-day aspects of home education, and I hope readers, should they come, will share their thoughts and experiences as well.

What began as a journey of necessity is turning into something that I, as of this writing, have come to cherish as a way of life. I will not presume that I will always feel this way or that I will never see the inside of a public school again, as I will take this journey one step at a time.

For now, however, if I were to describe my homeschooling experience so far in one word, it would be "free". Thus I have entitled this blog "Liberated Education". Free from schedules, requirements of the state, and even the expectations of society enables education to take flight in a way I did not entirely anticipate when I began.