Back to school thoughts

I have homeschooled for 12 years. And yet at the beginning of every single year I start to wonder ....

*what am I doing right?
*Are the kids learning enough?
*are they getting enough time to "socialize"?
*Are we balanced enough for all the grades and ages we represent?

and probably another dozen or more of the stupidest questions a mom could ask herself.

and without fail I am questioning myself yet again.
more like 2nd guessing.

Last year... as we embarked on yet another little person being added to this family... and in the middle of transitioning out of the USMC.... we took a dive and began to unschool.

now there are a LOT of misconceptions of what unschooling is. or is not. 

and no. Our kids don't play with legos & the wii from sun up to sun down.
but it has been a change.
and deschooling much harder than I ever imagined.

and here is where I am at.

for good or bad ...

I love the IDEA of unschooling.

I love getting to explore with your kids and learn along side them,

BUT.

I do believe there needs to be some structure.

I mean. The Bible has structure.
life has structure.

I have met and been amazed by some radical unschooling moms
in life and on message boards
and I am learning ...

that for our family...
there needs to be SOME structure and some guidance as far as our unschooling journey goes.

and I don't know if that's what you would call "real unschooling" or not.

So this year...

I am not sitting down planning a year in advance.

But I will be keeping a journal of what we do & how we do it.

And we will put a few structural activities back in our day to day
(it has been a lazy summer of sleeping late for some of my children)
I wonder if you can combine the 2 styles I love most.
unschooling & Charlotte Mason

and I loved KONOS

if only there was a way to merge these 3 learning styles for ALL of my kidlets and for Frank & I to learn alongside them....

perhaps there is.

I have no answers.

but a friend recently reminded me of something I tell people when they ask the age old question...
"How do you homeschool?"

I always answer....

"One day at a time.... with God's grace"