WE ARE HOMESCHOOLING!
Years ago, before we adopted, I remember praying over our school choices. Looking back in my prayer journals, homeschool kept getting brought up. That was always so funny to me because I never pictured myself homeschooling. Yet during those years, the Lord was quietly building a community of homeschooling families all around me. Fast forward to today, and our girl has been begging to be homeschooled for over a year now. I kept brushing it off, but she persisted. So I kept praying and trusting. We discussed everything with our mentors and friends, and our decision became more and more clear. Now here we are, entering our third week of homeschool and loving it!
Why homeschool? Well, our main reasons are TIME and FREEDOM! Having time to explore for the day or travel whenever we want — not restricted to a school schedule. Freedom to learn what our children want to learn and what they're interested in. Not being forced to learn things just because of a test. It just aligns with who we are as a family in this season. They are only little for so long, and I'm that mom that wants to spend all the time I can with my family. It’s working great for this season we are in.
"What about socialization?" I hear this a lot! What’s funny is when you bring this up to homeschool veterans, they roll their eyes and laugh! But it was honestly a big fear of mine. Our daughter is an only child (as of now), and I have only seen big families homeschool. Traditional school is pretty limiting on socialization if you think about it. You have to be quiet a lot, even during lunch at some schools. If you have sheltering or socialization concerns then I highly recommend you read this post (and the comments!). She is part of a co-op, where she meets with other students and will be taking classes. We do a few different extracurricular activities where she is interacting with people all the time. There are SO many opportunities to be social in day-to-day activities if you just look and don’t do all the talking for your child. She is shy by nature, but not once you get to know her. :) I think she will be just fine.
My main struggles: I’m still stuck on a “school schedule” mainframe. It’s been hard for me to get out of the fact that we can do school whenever, wherever, and however we want. I stress when we do co-op and I miss a day of her school books. It’s all about balance, because I know my girl thrives off a bit of repetitiveness and knowing what’s going to happen. Another struggle is letting that fear creep in that I’m not good enough to be doing this. Thankfully, I have a supportive husband that helps and a lot of friends and family that are very helpful. They answer my never ending questions!
Am I scared? Nervous? Afraid to mess up her future career as a heart doctor? YES! ALL of things. All of the emotions. There are hard days, there are days I feel like a failure, but the pros outweigh the cons. I want to do what is God led. I want to do what is best for our family during this season. We might be back to traditional school one day, and that's ok too. I think as parents we have got to go where we feel led.
Our girl is loving it so far! She can’t wait to go to school every day! For me personally, it has been very rewarding! We are in a time where much of our focus and attention is on Baby K, so homeschooling is really giving us that one-on-one time that big sis needs. We can’t wait to see what this year of homeschool adventure brings!
Do you homeschool? I would love if you commented on any tips or advice that has worked for you.
