Our Journey to Homeschooling

We are a couple of weeks away from starting our second year of formal homeschooling and preparations are in full swing! While I'd love to deep dive into our curriculum choices, favorite methodology, how to homeschool on a budget, and so much more, I figured starting out with how we came to homeschool was the best place to begin.

Many homeschoolers grew up being homeschooled or knew, early on, that they planned to homeschool. That is not our family's story.

Both my husband and I went to public school and, up until two-ish years ago, were planning on the same route for our kids. Our experiences with public school were, largely, positive. We both excelled academically, adjusted socially (I grew up military & moved every few years), and now look back on our years in school fondly.

My husband is also a pastor. While I love serving in ministry and being invested in our church body, I'd be lying if I didn't say a substantial part of me scoffed at the cliche idea of us--as a family in vocational ministry--homeschooling. We already got married at 20 and popped kids out faster than rabbits, did we really need to shove ourselves more into a stereotypical box? Turns out the box suits us, we just needed to accept it.

The catalyst to me embracing homeschooling was our eldest child. When we first moved to Washington, Declan (then 3) attended a public school preschool program. It was only four days a week, three hours a day but, being a mom of 3 under 3, it was an aid I desperately wanted.

After nine months of attending, Declan still hated "school". His teachers insisted he'd grow to love it but he didn't. There weren't tears at drop off or calls home. Just a kid who genuinely would ask every morning if he really "had" to go and, upon pick up, would refuse to talk about how his morning went.

When the world shut down in spring of 2020, and we explained to Declan that he couldn't go to preschool for a while, he was stoked. During that conversation he (then 4) nonchalantly asked, "why can't we just do school at home?". I was dumbfounded. Homeboy didn't even know what homeschooling was and yet, here he was asking me to do it.

The next six months were filled with lots of soul searching:

Could I really give up the opportunity to one day, somewhat soon, have a career? I had looked forward to my children all reaching the age of five and entering kindergarten. FREEDOM! Right...?

Could I even teach my kids? Sure, I was a great student in school and felt like an okay mom to littles but I never got a college degree and wouldn't even know how to begin teaching a kid to read (and don't even get me started on high school level math).

Could we afford homeschooling? We had chosen for me to stay at home while the boys were young knowing that the financial sacrifice was worth it. But could we really extend that to two more decades when the past couple of years had already been so difficult financially?

The doubts and personal sacrifice weren't lost on me.

Those same six months were also filled with a lot of research:

I talked with my husband about the doubts but also the slow shift in my desires. I read The Call of The Wild & Free and wept at the intro alone. I researched different methodologies and discovered that a lot of what we valued in education was emulated in Charlotte Mason's practices. I talked with veteran homeschooling families and gleaned from their wisdom. I read For The Children's Sake and Awakening Wonder and started to catch a vision. I watched my children thrive on our nature walks, hikes, and explorations and wondered if that love would be lost once four walls, desks, and 30 minute recesses were their norm.

Once I allowed myself to acknowledge that the desire to homeschool was real, it didn't take much more convincing to attempt it. And, if I'm being totally transparent, Fall 2020 was a great time for trial and error. No one was up in our business and all of the west coast was doing some form of alternative education. Our intent to homeschool wasn't met with a lot of fanfare or opposition because everything was so wildly different that year anyway.

That fall (with my boys 4,3, and 1) we started nature study with Exploring Nature With Children. By winter Declan wanted to learn how to read so we started Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Somewhere in that year I joined our local Wild & Free group and then, when the leader needed to pass it on, I started running the group.

By summer 2021 I was all in. Do doubts still crop up from time to time? Absolutely. Do I know if we will homeschool all of our kids until high school graduation? No, I hope so but I'm holding this with hands open. Do I love and believe in homeschooling for our family? Yes.

Homeschooling has bolstered up my confidence in being my boys' mom and knowing what's best for our family. Homeschooling is enabling my boys to grow at their own individual paces and fostering a love for learning. Homeschooling has given us more time together and the freedom to pursue the boys' passions.

We don't homeschool because public school is corrupt, we're anti-government, or because we want to keep our kids in a bubble forever. No, we've chosen to homeschool because in this season our family is flourishing in home education.

I'm so glad that in the beginning of a world pandemic, with so much confusion and chaos, my three year old had more clarity than me.