We are a homeschooling family of four. I am a minister, my wife Karen is a homemaker, and we have two boys. Currently Mark is twelve and Jeremy is seven. We began the formal portion of our homeschooling in 1997 when Mark was six. Since we then lived in Dayton, OH, the homeschooling regulations of the Ohio Administrative Code require parents to begin notifying the local superintendent on a yearly basis of their intent to homeschool at that age. With five years of difference between the boys, Jeremy was just a toddler who was starting to get into everything.

Even as a preschooler, Mark was always easily distracted, so to minimize his distractions we decided that it would be better for me to take him with me to the office every day where I could work with him while Karen kept Jeremy at home. We lived right next to the church building where my office was located, so it was very handy. We have since moved from Dayton to Affton, MO, near St. Louis, and Jeremy is now beginning his formal homeschooling too, but it still seems more convenient to bring both boys to the office with me each day.

Mark and Jeremy both learned to read with Professor Phonics, and I highly recommend it as a good yet inexpensive way to teach reading. When Mark began doing first grade work, we used PACE booklets from the School of Tomorrow. These were all right, but we decided that they were not exactly what we wanted, so in second grade we switched to Mott Media's Classic Curriculum based on the McGuffey Readers, Ray's Arithmetics, Spencerian Penmanship, and Harvey's Grammar, with corresponding workbooks for reading, writing, and arithmetic. I really like the "back-to-basics" approach found in these time-tested materials. For science/health and social studies we used A Beka, with Usborne and Rod and Staff books for music. Thus, we have maintained a fairly traditional curriculum.

The Classic Curriculum workbooks continue through fourth grade. We did jettison the Spencerian Penmanship for standard handwriting workbooks. In Mark's fifth and sixth grades, we took a more eclectic approach. His reading has consisted of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis We continued with the McGuffey Readers for writing and spelling and in the fifth grade with A Beka for science/health, though in the sixth grade we have followed the Solomon Resource Guides to study about various areas of science from encyclopedias. Mark has been using McGraw-Hill Spectrum workbooks for arithmetic, grammar, and social studies, along with reading biographies and historical fiction.

Jeremy will be pursuing the same general program except that in the first grade we have been using A Beka for science/health and various activity books for writing, arithmetic, and social studies. His reading has consisted of the Bob Books, which I think are excellent, and other beginning readers. We accomplish most of this at the office in the morning; then Karen helps the boys in the afternoon with art, some science experiments around the house, and other supplemental or enrichment-type activities. In addition, we do a lot of reading in general, including reading aloud twice a day. Also we go on many different kinds of field trips to museums, historical sites, and other activities which are both fun and educational at the same time.

With Mark getting going into junior high and then high school, we are currently looking at catalogues, talking to homeschooling parents of high school students, and generally trying to get as much information as we can to prepare for those years. Our homeschool journey is likely different from many others because, as a minister, I can devote more of my time to the actual oversight of our children's education, whereas [many] fathers are unable to do this because of their jobs. However, it has worked well for us, and what we really like about homeschooling is that there are so many things that we can do as a family.