From smallfarmnation.com Many modern homesteaders made a choice to opt-out and provide for themselves, but what impact does that choice have on their children? This week, we’ll begin a series of discussing the real life ups and downs of homeschooling children.
Welcome to Episode 23! This week, Liz and I discuss how we arrived at the difficult choice of homeschooling our daughter.

Now, since we've embraced modern homesteading, it's natural that people would assume that we would homeschool.

But Liz has a Masters in Special Education and is a former public school teacher. Homeschooling her own child is something she would have never embraced...in our old life. Back before we "opted out" of the rat race.

In this episode we share intimate details about:

what led us to decide that homeschooling was right for our daughter and our family
the unschooling process that Liz has had to go through as a former teacher
the fears and worries we had before deciding to homeschool, and how we overcame them
how we set-up our permanent homeschool room (see this post for pictures of our set-up)
the various curriculum options we examined (Montessori, blending multiple styles - Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio, unschooling, thematic unit study, etc.) and how we chose what was right for us
We also dive into the benefits and downsides of homeschooling, and what we've learned in our first year on the job.

And, of course we talk about the "S" word, or the concern newbies have about "socialization" of homeschool children.

We'll continue this discussion quarterly or thereabouts to track our progress. For now, if you're curious about the decision to homeschool, you won't want to miss this. So grab some coffee and pull up a chair!