homeschooling thoughts

So I have been struggling with being boring. I decided to homeschool so that my kids would not be put through a school mill and just do busy work. I really wanted my kids to have a passion for learning and as I have homeschooled through the years I have only been able to accomplish the bare minimum. The kids have enjoyed it though. So we are homeschooling with another family this year as I have mentioned before and I found myself just being sort of boring. It has taken me till the middle of October to figure out that I just don't care how fast they get through math, or science, or whatever it is if they do not have a passion for doing what they are doing. Why plug and chug through math just to get to the next lesson? Is that so they can say they are on lesson 44? What if they don't own that information? And.......being the random person that I am, I want to do some things (finally) with math that are FUN! That challenge their brain cells to figure faster and logically. So....we are playing math games and doing math in sort of "don't move on unless I know you understand your mistake" sort of way. I still get blank looks but at least I have noticed recognition and enthusiasm on their faces more than before.

I am still processing Science and History strategies to make things more interesting. Some lessons are very interesting and some are so far removed from their life knowledge, especially in history, that they just nod their heads at me without realizing how these events effected the world at large. Hmmmm........stay tuned. I will process this someday and perhaps blog on how to make these more interesting.