I have been without internet now for 3 months while we were overseas and 3 months before while in temporary housing so this has been a long time coming. I want to share with you how fantastic our experience was while we took a HOD hiatus and we learned/reviewed on the fly BECAUSE of our time and diligence with Preparing. We left home when we were on Week 30 of Preparing (right after learning about Queen Elizabeth, Martin Luther, as far as the 1500's). My 9 year old had retained so much information during our (almost complete) year of Preparing that she educated many American tourists in our midst while in London. We stood in central London where she explained to us about the 6 wives of Henry VIII and his children. The founding of the Church of England and Bloody Mary were also brought up. She talked about the proximity of Belgium (because we were there) to France (because she had studied Gaul with HOD) and casually talked about the geography of Western Europe. She studied the maps (from magazines in the back of airplane seats) while sitting on our multiple plane trips, of time zones and recognized Meridians of Longitude help to dictate Time Zones (thanks to Preparing Geography). She was able to bring all of the information she had learned through a Child's History of the World and directly apply it to our location. I was fascinated. Don't let anyone ever tell you that homeschooling doesn't work! It absolutely does. I realize that not all children soak up history like mine does (she doesn't particularly love math
, but even her ability to recognize names, places, and times is far superior to my pre-homeschooling adult knowledge. She had a real understanding for what 1500's England must have looked like. I also realize most families don't have the opportunity to travel abroad. That's not my point. My point is, it is really awesome when children DO feel at home in other countries because they have studied the history of those countries!What HOD has done for me, as opposed to making the homeschooling concept work with a hodgepodge of curricula, is to confidently educate my children, knowing that I'm not leaving some major subject area out, and consistently give me that daily encouragement I long for with each new page spread of work. Before my HOD experience I felt so wishy-washy. I continued adding and subtracting curriculum and never completed anything. We now have finished nearly 4 guides between my 2 kids and the sense of accomplishment I have at the end of each guide, knowing that I made it through all that history, all of that Bible memorization, all that GRAMMAR!
is profoundly encouraging to me. I so missed my time away from HOD. Admittedly, it's been a tough week trying to get my kids back to school now that we finally have all of our books out of storage; but, God has encouraged me so much as a homeschooling mother the past 6 months in allowing me to see the fruits of my hard, consistent, homeschooling work in REAL TIME.
Mothers, I pray that God blesses you with the realization that your hard labor will be fruitful.
Blessings,
Amy