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By Lori Seaborg of http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome

If you are thinking about homeschooling this fall, there is a lot to consider, as you well know.   It is absolutely overwhelming to walk into a homeschool curriculum fair!  There is so much out there, and nearly all of it looks good.  How to choose?  Focus on what is most important to your family.

Curriculum:
 
You definitely don't have to know how to teach them. And you can spend as much or as little time as you like teaching them. There is a curriculum to suit every fancy, from sticking the kid in front of a computer to traditional textbook schoolwork, to "unschooling." I am now using a literature-based curriculum with a fine art and fine music emphasis. It encourages nature studies and practical skills. It suits my personality and my passions perfectly. I'm not saying it is the one and only curriculum; certainly not. I'm saying that it is the one that best suits me and helps me best handle three grade levels and a toddler. I think if my husband were the one teaching, he'd use something more traditional, a textbook approach (he has an engineering degree and was a middle school teacher for a couple years, so it would suit him).

Find something that best suits you - your personality, your budget, your kids' needs and your time allowance. Don't worry about finding the Perfect Curriculum. I think they all pretty much even out in the end and, besides, you can always adjust. How much have you retained from high school and below? For me, almost all of my education has been self-taught as an adult.

Which brings me to a new point.....
 
I think our number one job as home educators is to encourage a kids' curiosity and teach him how to learn. If you give him those two things, he can soar above any obstacle. If he decides to be a civil engineer, but you weren't good at math, so you only taught him algebra and trig, he can still make it in his field because he will have: 1.) curiosity in the form of loving his chosen field enough to want to learn, and 2.) he will know how to find the answers he needs, whether that be from reading, knowing how to ask questions, library, science, or the 'Net. In other words, he will be able to teach himself the things that you might have left out (I also think it's important to let him follow his trails, so if you choose a traditional curriculum, consider dropping the textbook sometimes, if it is telling you that you MUST teach about the French Revolution this week, but your kid wants to discuss how modern elections are decided.). This curiosity and love of learning will also help him in regular life, should he find himself in a financial jam someday, needing legal help, or working as a missionary in a jungle, needing to build a house from nothing but the materials found in the jungle. It will foster a great deal of self confidence if he knows that he can figure out anything in the world, given the time.

Mission Statement:
 
A very good friend of mine quit homeschooling one year. It shook my foundation and made me wonder if I should quit, too. I was consumed with this, and even researched putting them back into regular school. One morning, I decided to write down "Why I Homeschool." It was simply a list of reasons that I, not my friend, not someone else, but I homeschool (my husband leaves this decision pretty much up to me, knowing it’s my burden to teach them while he's at work). I've kept that list for probably 4 years now, and still look at it when I get discouraged. I encourage you to make a mission statement or a list of reasons why you homeschool. Someday you may need to look at it, too.

Activities:
 
Look for a homeschool group in your area. They will know what activities are offered for homeschoolers. The list of activities offered in our area is so vast that I would be busy all day long, every day, if I did them all. No kidding! In our area, here are only a few of the many offerings: Marine Biology at the University of West Florida for grades 6-12; history classes for grades 1-5 with other homeschoolers; youth orchestra with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra; drama at local theatres; Zoology for grades K-12 at The Zoo in Gulf Breeze; a class in the sciences (DNA last month) at the Exploreum Science Center; and much more.  Many local schools, both private and public, offer courses or sports activities for homeschoolers to join.

Real Life:
 
Honestly, I don't think that sitting in a classroom of peers with one teacher doing the talking is very real life. Real life is all ages and multiple cultures having discussions with one another. So I try to immerse my kids in a potpourri of cultures and ages. One way of accomplishing this is to participate in quite a few field trips. The kids get to learn from the facility (a fire station or a museum, etc.) while interacting with people from baby age to adults. Just this month, we went to the USS Alabama Battleship in Mobile, Alabama, and saw a bunch of uniformed Army guys on the ship. Our 10 year old was curious about that, so I struck up a conversation with one fellow who said he was on the ship to waste some time until a plane arrived to take him and the others to the war in Iraq. It is his first time to go, and he looked rightfully scared beneath his toughness. Moments like that are why we homeschool. I don't want my kids to just read about the guys in Iraq, I don't want them to just see it on TV, I want them to meet the guys, to look them in the eye, to see their emotion, to hear Mama say, "Hey, thanks for fighting for us."

Still overwhelmed? I totally understand that.  Take a deep breath, close your eyes and remind yourself that God gave you those kids.  You are their most influential teacher, so live your life as best you can and through that alone, they are receiving a high quality education.  Add to that example high quality books, a bit of writing and (sigh) a little math, and your child will be soaring above the crowd. 
 
Lori and her husband, Tim and their four children, ages 4-12, make their home on a river on the Florida-Alabama Gulf Coast.  A typical homeschooling day finds the Seaborg children loaded up in a canoe with books in hand.  Lori's interests include organic gardening, raising chickens and goats, and writing.  Click here to read her blog on Preciousmoms.com.