Hi! We're the Murrays, homeschooling in Washington state. I, Melonie, am a stay-at-home-mom and the primary home educator. My husband, Wade, is a police officer and is our school "principal."

Our reason for homeschooling our two and six-year-old daughters is two-fold. I want to provide them with a personalized education while Wade is concerned with the safety and values of the public school system. We find, though, that homeschooling offers us a lot of other benefits, including being able to work with Wade's nontraditional schedule. Our lessons have also become a great way for us to share our family's values with Wade's daughter during her visits.

We don't use a pre-packaged curriculum. I don't think anyone could create the perfect curriculum for us! (Okay, I admit my husband is right when he says it's also because I'm a control freak!) When I try to narrow our family's methods down to a certain type, I'd have to describe us as Charlotte Mason/Eclectic. (That is, until I can make up my own name for our method!) We school year-round and our lessons are usually done in the morning. We value good citizenship, languages, and use short, age-appropriate lessons, based on the syllabi in Rebecca Rupp's "Home Learning Year by Year" (ISBN 0-609-80585-1, available from most bookstores). We focus on each girl's specific needs and abilities and take their preferences into consideration, but reserve the final choice for ourselves. We use a LOT of books, a few favorite videos, and have just begun using children's software programs. I always challenge new homeschoolers to see what kind of resources they can find on a topic instead of buying a full curriculum. They are often surprised at how much they find and learn to piece things together to better suit their children.

We live in a state rich in resources and homeschool groups. We live near several educational supply stores, two children's museums, and our state capitol. We are an hour from Mount St. Helen's, Mt. Rainier, and dozens of museums, including restored Victorian homes, the Seattle Police Museum and our state history museum. We are also only a few hours from the Pacific coast, the high desert of eastern Washington, Canada, and the Olympic Peninsula, which boasts a rain forest. I often forget that we have many more years of homeschooling ahead of us and don't have to do everything at once! Our annual budget includes a family membership to our local zoo society, which gives us unlimited access to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. Last year we received a gift membership to the Hands On Children's Museum that we will be renewing, too.

I plan lessons and find supplies based on the girls' skills and what we want them to learn next. We incorporate toys, books and other products from regular stores, education stores, and homeschool companies. I have come to rely on our local library and Scholastic Book Fairs' warehouse sales. I signed up as a teacher with Scholastic (www.scholastic.com/teacher) so our orders earn bonus points toward free books. Using educator discount cards for local bookstores helps us too. I have learned to ask about educator discounts at all the stores we frequent!

I create lessons for my stepdaughter based on holidays and upcoming events. For example, we do a Memorial Day lesson that incorporates a non-fiction library book about the holiday, personal stories from family members who served in the military, and applicable ASL (American Sign Language) signs from the Garlic Press "Holidays & Celebrations" book. (www.garlicpress.com) She practices math and penmanship using inexpensive workbooks from a local education store, School Daze (www.schooldaze.com). We try to schedule field trips with her to events like the Irish Cottage Fair in March and the state fair each September. We also enjoy borrowing library videos from the "Families of the World" series (www.familiesoftheworld.com), which we watch after our youngest goes to bed.

With our two-year-old I focus on regular nursery and preschool skills. Wade works nights and sleeps until noon, so we make the most of our family time. She and I have our own morning and evening routines, and afternoons are kept free for family and "Daddy/Daughter" time. Wade has every other Monday night off, so we joined a parent/tot swim class with her at a local scuba shop. On his days off he swims with her, and when he works I do it. We also attend a toddler gymnastics class on Thursdays while he is at work. She loves the Baby Einstein videos (www.babyeinstein.com) for entertainment. They offer a great introduction to concepts such as shapes, classical music, animals and foreign language. We also use Small Fry Productions' "Bilingual Baby" German video (www.small-fry.com) and "Baby See 'n Sign" (www.babyseensign.com). We just discovered the Baby See 'n Sign video at the library. Most ASL videos for children are very dry, but our entire family enjoys this one.

We plan to learn several other languages as a family over the years. I have started collecting books from Bilingual Books' "Ten Minutes a Day" series (www.10minutesaday.com) to prepare for this. We are already gathering other products we know we will need for our first grader in the next year or two. We have decided on the Getty-Dubay (TM) Italic penmanship series (www.cep.pdx.edu) and recently purchased the StartWrite font software (www.startwrite.com) to create extra practice pages for it. We also bought a bundle of all eight Draw Write Now books (www.barkercreek.com). We broke them out as soon as we got home and everyone enjoyed them immensely. The upper level drawings are even quite challenging for us adults!

We have already chosen Saxon (www.saxonhomeschool.com) for math. Wade particularly likes their layout and plans, commenting, "With this, if you want to take a few days away I know exactly how and what to teach!"

Most other subjects will be tackled using living books and other available resources. Planning years in advance is foreign to some folks, but it allows us plenty of research time and means we can budget well in advance for the more expensive items. Between my husband's work schedule and stepdaughter's visitation schedule, we have to run a tight ship...and for our family this is the perfect way to live and learn together.

Melonie Murray is the proud wife of a DUI Enforcement officer, "Momma" to two girls, and an admitted book addict. She serves as an Assistant State Coordinator for TOS Magazine. She has been published in two poetry anthologies, The Guardian (a police guild newspaper), and several newspapers. She enjoys reading and is a compulsive organizer.

- Melonie K. Murray is a homeschooling mom and a freelance writer. She can be found blogging at www.SmallBizMentor.com, www.TheHomeCast.com and www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MelM. She is an avid reader, surburban homesteader, and compulsive organizer.  When she's stressed, she sorts, so don't let her near your sock drawer. Email Melonie at Melonie@SmallBizMentor.com.