A Homeschool Rant

OK, today at Wal-Mart, a customer told me about KAHSA. I had thought of joining them forever and a day ago. However I never got the info packet they were supposed to send, and James stayed in school, so it became a moot point. Now that I am very serious about homeschooling, I went to look again.

I did a google search for them. I found it. It's Christian based. Okey dokey. That isn't such a big deal, I don't HAVE to teach the churchy stuff. I keep looking around. The site is well organized. Has lots of resources for non-members even. So I read the "how to join" link. I download the application. It's $20 to join. I don't know if that is one time or yearly. Even if its' one time, that's great. What a great $20 spent to get extra resources and other parents who can assist me and support groups and all of that.

I keep reading the application. the final line is this "I understand KAHSA is a Christian organization and, as a Christian, I acknowleged and support the following Statement of Faith:" Now, normally I would have no problems signing it and just going along. However, I READ the Statement of Faith.

It included such tidbits as "We believe that there is only one god who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" which is something I wholeheartedly DON'T believe.

Also included was this "We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is without error." Without error? Who the hell are they kidding???

And the one that REALLY gets my goat and makes me refuse to sign "We believe in the sanctity of marriage and that it is between one man and one woman". They can fucking bite me! I have the site bookmarked so I can use their free resources. Might as well use all the resources I can, however I will NEVER join that organization.

Thankfully, there is a fellow blogger out there (many I'm sure, but she is the one I read) that is a homeschooler, among other things. She is Doc and she offers many many resources to a beginner (and not so beginning others) like me. I wish there were a way to contact her directly, I'll just leave a comment I think, and ask her all the questions I have.

My biggest homeschool worry is the curriculum. I figured I would kind of make it up as I went. I know that when the kids get to high school level, it'll be like I'm in high school again. I know the requirements that I have to meet in order to keep homeschooling the kids. And I'll be working on that. Making sure that I do units in all those studies, along with music and drama. I'm even going to work on some basic phys ed stuff with them, like dribbling a ball and jumping a rope.

This whole thing is so overwhelming and intimidating. My other choice is to deal with the bullshit from the school again. I just can't do that. I know it's not what is best for the kids. So as the summer continues, I will work on a "curriculum" for the "school year". Right now, we use our workbooks (the ones I got from Wal-Mart that are grade equivilent) and do some crafts. I'll be finding the materials and putting together lessons and hopefully I'll be able to teach and they will be able to learn.

If you have any resources for me, please please share them. What curriculum do you use? Is it secular or faith based or unspecified? Please give a link, if you have one, or a phone number, or some kind of contact for the group or company or whatever it is. Thanks.