Homeschooling

I always knew I would be a teacher, just didn't know I would teach my own children.

God began tugging on my heart strings, in the winter of 2010, to bring my daughter home.  She was doing "very well" in 1st grade at a private Christian school and had lots of friends.  But when she came home from school, daily, she was exhausted and grumpy. She could care less about her younger sister and the rest of our family.  Nothing was fun for her anymore, unless she was being entertained.  I kept thinking to myself, this isn't fair, why should they (school) get her best hours of the day?  When she came home, we rushed around to evening activities, did tons of homework and tried to slam in some "good, quality family time".  All this in the midst of tiredness, a growing disconnectedness and anxiety.  There has got to be a better way!

So, I began to research.  What does this homeschooling thing really look like?  Could I do it?  I don't have a teaching degree.  How much does it cost?  What support would I have?  How do I get started?  What curriculum would I use?  AND MY BIG QUESTION... would my husband be on board?

I began researching, I ordered every curriculum catalog I could request, went to the library and checked out a few books, the first being Lisa Welchel's book, So You're Thinking about Homeschooling, and got online!  Every question I could think of, I typed it into my Google Search bar and began investigating and finding some helpful and insightful information.  Lisa's book gave me a good perspective on how a homeschool could look, and it is different for EVERY family!  I would highly recommend it for anybody considering homeschool.  The other book I would recommend for beginners and veteran homeschoolers alike is The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell.  In this book lies the honest answers to nearly all of my questions.  It also has proven to be an excellent reference for many things partaining to homeschool.

After I equipped myself with as much head knowledge about homeschool that I could possibly take, I began to pray about it.  Thinking back, maybe I should've done this step first but none-the-less, this was the road I travelled.  I prayed that God would show me how I could do this thing called homeschool and that He would give me the discipline I needed to do it while still managing our household and a part-time job.  He reassured me through several friends who also homeschool that I could indeed do it, but only with His help.  He would need to be central to it all and if I forgot that, I would fail.  I prayed more.

When I finally felt confident that He was indeed setting my feet straight on this path I called out to Him and prayed for the conversation I would have with my pro-academia husband. When I felt confident it was the right time to approach my husband I did, and what did he say?  Well, you'll have to wait until next time.  I gotta run!  But, I promise to finish this story soon, dear one!  Praying for you as you begin your homeschooling journey!  Drop me a line so I can pray for you by name!

Okay, I'm back to finish my story! So, I sat down with my husband one night after dinner and opened up the conversation, "what if we homeschool?" He said, "how would we do that?" I was discouraged already but I kept going. I started talking about curriculum options and he was questioning me like I was on the witness stand. I kept my cool and after we discussed every possible situation and curriculum possibility we could think of, he agreed, homeschool was our next step. We agreed I would continue to research curriculums and then present them to him and we would make our decision together. After several painstakingly long months of researching (I am the kind who has to know everything I can before making a decision)I met with my husband on a date night to discuss the options. I presented state sponsored online curriculum, Bob Jones University Press, My Father's World, Sonlight, Heart of Dakota, Classical Conversations and ABeka. After many questions and hours of prayer we decided upon starting our first year with what our daughter had done in her school so that it was familiar and easy for her to transition.

Bob Jones is an excellent curriculum and I think it was an excellent choice for our first year of homeschool. Now, after finishing our first year of homeschool, I am again sifting through curriculum options (although I will stick with Bob Jones for Math). I want something that is based on living books and is "more fun!" My daughter and I are both burnt out on workbooks! I kept thinking, don't we homeschool so that we can learn all the things we need to learn but have fun while doing it? I want to homeschool, not "do school at home." Sorry for the rant! It's been a long week trying to finish up all our workbooks so that we can go on summer break! Hope this helps, if you have questions on a specific curriculum I'd love to try to answer them, I haven't used a lot of them but I have done the research and know at least how to talk about most of them!