Homeschool Embraced

Poetry Teatime

I've seen in many social settings, whether in person or online, homeschoolers who are hurt and discouraged by comments and push back they have received for their choices to educate their children at home. That breaks my heart for them. Each one of us parents gets to choose how and where our children learn, it's just that most parents in the US don't even give homeschooling a thought. Some aren't able to and some don't want to. That's ok. I am grateful I live in a community where homeschooling is a pretty common thing so I don’t get too much push back or questioning from others. It’s rare that I don’t run into someone who homeschools, whether full time or using a resource like a hybrid school where their children go 2-3 days a week and the other days they are at home. Many families choose to belong to a co-op that meets once a week. Some of these groups are very parent involved and others are a drop and go style. The options for homeschooling are in abundance, sometimes to a fault. It can be overwhelming with all that is out there. I do feel it is important to know your why.

There is a rather lengthy explanation for why we have chosen this way of educating our children. But do you want to know the simplest reason? Because I want to. Yes, it really is that simple.

When my oldest was born 4 weeks early and handed to me by my midwife, I instinctively began to teach. I knew from the moment he took his first breath I wanted him to know he was loved. As I embraced him in my arms he began learning what it meant to be cared for, nurtured, valued, and appreciated. As I’ve learned more about healing the wounded spirit I can now look back and know that he was actually learning these things from the moment God breathed life into him!

As he spent the next 10 days in the NICU he learned how to nurse and how to drink from a bottle for those times when I couldn’t be there. The first year of his life he learned how to soothe himself to sleep whether on his own or in someone’s arms, eat from a spoon and eventually pick up items with his pointer and thumb, all the while continuing to learn what love is and who the people are who love him.

His second year of life brought us physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, braces for his feet, and learning about sensory processing disorder. In between therapy sessions we practiced with him and he continued to grow and learn. His body was strengthening. My greatest joy, however, was coming alongside and teaching him how to show love and gentleness to his new baby sister!

The next year was full of “busy boxes” and bins of rice and beans, themed of course for the season, holiday, or topic we would be reading and learning about. This kind of learning and exploring would be stage right for the next several years in our home, center stage being books, oh so many books!

When my oldest turned 3 ½ , my little girl was two weeks shy of turning 2 and we welcomed baby brother into the family. Not much changed during this time. I was still exhausted, still changing diapers, still nursing, still correcting and redirecting, still showing what it means to be loving and kind, teaching how to obey, training and disciplining and this was on repeat for what seemed like an eternity. It was also during this time that many other 3 year olds were heading to preschool three days a week. Despite not having the finances at the time, it never once occurred to me to send him to school even for a few hours a few times a week. We were happy with our arrangement, him curled up in my lap to read a  book from the Before Five in a Row manual and doing one of the suggested activities, little sister was happily playing with her “tea” themed rice bin (It would be another few years before she enjoyed just listening to a book without her hands being busy), and baby brother was snoozing away in the swing.

Many families opt to wait until Pre-K for their children to attend school, after all it is free here in my state. But another school year started and we continued with Before Five in a Row and this is the year I added in Family Math for Young Children, Handwriting Without Tears for Preschool, and I added in gentle games and activities to begin learning letter sounds. Now that I had a year under my belt at taking all three kids out of the house by myself we began going on adventures and great explorations to the puddles in the back yard to look for tadpoles, mushrooms, and observe ladybugs... And sometimes we even made it to the library, the grocery store, the bakery, and visited more parks than I can count! We colored and painted, we made homemade playdough and added herbs and spices to make it smell good and give it different textures. We mixed colors together to find out which primary colors are used to make secondary colors, and poured water back and forth from one cup to another for hours! We baked together, each getting their turn to pour in the dry ingredients and to stir. We listened to music all day long -nursery rhymes, Bethel Music, folk, classical, jazz, etc.
I went on a missions trip to Haiti this year so we implemented "Thankful Thursday" and began learning about children from other countries and cultures. We would find these countries on a map and sometimes I would make a food from the country for us to try, sometimes not.

First day of Kindergarten and Pre-K

This now brings us to Kindergarten age for my oldest. Learning together as a family was fun and we had a pretty good rhythm. I wasn't ready to give that up just because he was now 5. Haven't I been the main one teaching him and his siblings for all of these years prior? What were we to do? My husband and I had many conversations about homeschooling and whether it would be a good fit for our family. We both went to public school and turned out alright. I don't have an education degree so could I really handle this? Would they be weird and unsocialized? What would our families think? After quite some time we decided that Kindergarten probably wasn't too different from Pre-K so we would give it a try and like so many others we agreed to take it one year at a time.

I was now an official homeschooler even though this new school year was very similar as the years before. Five in a Row with its 5 star list of picture books was what held my hand that first year. We explored the world with those books all while building godly character. Handwriting Without Tears K and Pre-K along with Family Math for Young Children and Before Five in a Row still made an appearance most days. A scripture for each letter of the alphabet was being memorized as were poems from Poems for the Very Young. Other activities and topics were served on the table.

A Gentle Feast 

Five years later and our ""Family Learning" still has a familiar feel as it did on that first day of Kindergarten. Good literature still stands in the spot light, and yes that does include the greatest Book of all time. Exploring the world through books and the lives of others, learning the "3 R's" through hands-on math, copywork and dictation with a good dose of narration, nature study, life skills, habits, hiding His word in our hearts, poetry teatime, the feast goes on and on. I've used different resources through the years but there has been a steady and a constant throughout all of them. I have learned just as much as my children have, probably more, but on a different level. I have embraced my role as a homeschooler and delight in helping other moms find their joy in walking alongside their children as they learn and explore this great big world that God created for us. I personally don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss the moments that my kids make new discoveries or the moment they get over a hurtle they have been trying to climb. My husband and I are their greatest source of encouragement and support, besides God himself. What an honor it is to get to walk this road with them. This is our story and yours may look different. That's perfectly fine and honestly the way it should be. This space will cover many different topics of how our family has embraced homeschooling and my prayer is that my experiences will be an encouragement to you to do the same for your family.