“Commit to the Homeschool Lifestyle” may sound a little scary. But I am not suggesting that you rearrange your entire life; instead, I am referring to the fact that homeschooling does not simply occur between the hours of 9:00 and noon or 3:00 (depending on your child).

Homeschooling cannot be put into a schedule box.

When you commit to the homeschool lifestyle, you are committing to homeschooling 24/7. You see, when you begin to think like a homeschooler, you find yourself taking advantage of every teachable moment; you find yourself encouraging your child to ask questions; and you find yourself taking the time to research the answers when you are unable to answer them immediately.

This means that dinnertime is learning time; bedtime is learning time; even vacations are often used to teach.

For example, we just returned from a trip to the beach where we spent some of our time biking through a nature trail along the bay. There, we saw small jellyfish swimming close to shore (incredible to watch), crabs disappearing into the sand under the water as they saw our shadows, mussels clinging to the bank, and a variety of beautiful birds. We saw a dead fox and a very young fawn.

All of these incredible sights encouraged a number of questions. And rather than simply giving the small amount of information we already knew, we found ourselves returning to the beach house, logging on to the Internet and researching the answers to their poignant questions.

You see our children are no longer content to hear simple explanations. They want to know more!

That is homeschooling! It is more than simply completing the requirements of the day or getting through a certain amount of curriculum.

It is a commitment to learning and to building a love of learning into our children.

So make that commitment and be prepared to become knowledgeable about so much more than you can possibly imagine!

Go directly to New to Homeschooling Step Nine-Become Your Favorite Teacher