It wasn't one thing that led my husband and me to become a home educating family. As I reflect on our earlier days of homeschooling, I know we had the desire to give our daughters more than we had as children of the 80s and 90s. The more wasn't about stuff, but more about the internal that would make an impact on their choices and lives in the future.

In order to get ready for the purchasing of material I write a list of the topics the girls desire to learn and the things I believe are a must to learn.  After writing my list, I list the potential resources I will use to teach the girls the topic. By the time I get to the ordering stage many items have been removed simply because we don't need them.  I appreciate being able to sit with my list before ordering because it keeps me from spending frivolously.

Overall, I am a fan of home school conventions.  If you want to know why, take a moment to read A Black Mom's Perspective of Home School Conventions.  With that being said,  I also have my way of navigating such places in which I am a minority with little if any representation on the committee or speaker roster.

My family and I frequent places that will bring value to our lives because of this my husband and I decided early on that we would participate in conferences and activities even if we were the only Black family or not.

The reason I take this stance is because I know that I can always take what I need and leave the rest.  Read "Five Ways I Navigate Homeschool Conventions as a Black Mom"  to see how I make the most of homeschooling conferences

I know February is the shortest month, but seriously it went by so fast!  As I reflect on February,  I am noticing that for us it was really mild.  We weren't overscheduled.  We continued to work diligently for the most part.  February also showed promise with the new curriculum we received to review.

Whether you home school full-time, after school, or teach in a classroom having a mixed bag of activities can do the learning environment good.  We can all probably agree that children do well with a basic routine and having some sort of idea of the expectations for the day, but children like adults also can benefit from having variety or surprises thrown into their day.