teach yourself first

What to do while you wait to formally homeschool your children.
(Or what I should have been doing with my time when I had more of it.)

read:
- history(multiple accounts of the same period), not everything you've been taught is correct, be willing to relearn
- literature (preread the books you will be asking your children to read), make notes
- theology, politics, and economics;  here is a partial list of writers I would recommend:

Matthew Henry
John Calvin
Jonathan Edwards
J.C. Ryle
Gordon Clark
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Francis and Edith Schaeffer
Rousas John Rushdoony
Greg Bahnsen
Robert Reymond
D.A. Carson
Doug and Nancy Wilson
Os Guiness
Ronald Nash
David Chilton
Ken Gentry
C. Greg Singer
Hillaire Belloc 
Thomas Sowell 
Gary North
Glenn R. Martin
Pat Buchanan
Otto Scott
George Grant
Abraham Kuyper
Elisabeth Elliot
Amy Carmichael
Sally Clarkson
Jean Fleming
Nancy Pearcey
Joni Eareckson Tada

nature study:
- go for walks, pay attention to what you see, get field guides and start to identify what you see and find
- collect specimens
- do not buy the trendy, cheap science kits, (i.e. no bug vacuums, no bug magnifiers with lights, just the regular stuff adults would use, but made for kid's size and strength)
- plant vegetables, flowers, vines
I have found very inexpensive tools and specimen kit items here:
For Small Hands
Home Science Tools
Acorn Naturalist

art/music:
- collect sturdy artwork of various artists
- buy inexpensive used art books and rip out pages for study
- collect books, cds of classical composers, get to know the music
- teach yourself  the folk songs
- learn psalms and hymns, esp. lesser known Reformation era hymns

drawing:
- if you do not draw well, start learning. I have used Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre with the most frequency and success.
- practice drawing nature items found on walk
- buy good art supplies for yourself and eventually for your kids, we like and use Prismacolor colored pencils, but I recommend Barb at Harmony Fine Arts for supply lists.

listen:
- CiRCE talks
- Society for Classical Learning
- Greg Bahnsen
- Ken Myers

limit:
- most tv and movies, be selective, for you and your children
- most mommy blogs, be selective. if I could only read one, I would read Sally Clarkson, I Take Joy.

housework:
- minimal amounts of clothes and toys
- minimal amount of kitchen gadgets
- purge regularly, stuff accumulates very quickly for most of us
- keep the best, open-ended toys easily available and attractively arranged

curriculum:
- do not buy curriculum years in advance
- do not buy curriculum because all your friends use it or recommend it, because when you encounter some difficulty with it, you will more easily be tempted to ditch it because "it didn't fit my child's needs or my parenting style".
- do not buy curriculum because "it will be fun" for your child.  Your child thinks that eating cookies and cheese puffs for all his dietary needs is "fun". Offer him the best and he will learn to like it, just like he learned to like strawberries and fresh garden peas eaten out of the pod in the warm sunshine.
- buy curriculum because you believe in the method of teaching it utilizes and you know that although you may tweak things along the way, you can still use it successfully.

I know this is a rather abrupt list with short, curt phrases and lists.  But I have had this post swirling around in my head for months now and I thought a quick list would work better than spending hours crafting paragraphs. And please forgive my tone if it makes me sound bossy, I do not intend that at all.  Please feel free to ask questions or give suggestions that have worked for you.  I'm always glad to hear from each of you.