A Thomas Jefferson Education

In the early part of the year Corey and I found ourselves more and more disenchanted with what was happening in regards to our children's education. We had fought tooth and nail to get them into one of the best schools in the district, and yet some of the same problems we had encountered in our previous school were beginning to show again. We began to feel more and more unsettled. As we began to attempt to problem solve the various issues, homeschooling was not even a blip on our radar. We began looking at charter schools in the med center, we even met with an administrator and toured the school we thought would best meet the needs of our children. I was expecting/hoping to walk away thrilled at the prospect of my children attending that particular school. As much as we wanted to be, Corey and I just weren't. For all of it's accolades and ratings, it just didn't seem all that different from where our kids were. It certainly wasn't worth uprooting our entire family to a completely different part of town. I began meeting with the kids teachers again to try and work through some issues, but the unsettled feeling continued to grow.

I had heard through the grapevine that a woman I greatly admired in our ward was homeschooling her daughter, who happens to be John's age. One night I had the impression to find out more about what she was doing, more specifically the method she was using. She was very generous and went out of her way explain her methodology, Thomas Jefferson Education, which I was unfamiliar with. I asked her if I could borrow some of her literature on the subject. Within 24 hours I had read both of the books she had lent me. The best way I can describe the experience was that the material resonated with me. It just made sense. I knew, within a matter of days, that this was what my children needed. After much searching, we felt grounded and settled with our decision to bring our children home.

A Thomas Jefferson Education has many facets. Here I will be outlining those we have chosen to most closely follow. A Thomas Jefferson Education isn't a methodology in and of itself, it really is a series of principles that can be readily applied to almost any homeschool method. Over the next few days I will be writing about 'The Seven Keys of Teaching' found in a Thomas Jefferson Education (known as TJed) and how we will be applying them in our home.