Here’s us doing “school”! Lucy working on counting to 100, Bridget doing some puzzles, and Josiah distracted with a popsicle!

First let me say that I don’t think all families have to homeschool! I know that it is a personal decision that every family should make. This is just our story. 

I first started thinking about homeschooling when we watched a video documentary called the American Heritage Series that discussed about the faith of our founding fathers and how that isn’t discussed much in public schools. I learned a lot from the documentary that I had never learned in high school so it got me thinking…. this was when Lucy was just a baby…..

I went to Christian school for most of my life (elementary and middle school), then went to public school in high school. When we started having kids, I looked online at the costs of Christian schools in the area and timed it by 3 kids and quickly realized we couldn’t afford private school (what I had had as a child) without me going back to work full time!😢 I knew I wanted to be home when the kids got home from school and didn’t want the stress of a full time job…. so homeschooling came up again as an option….We really wanted to instill a gospel-centered worldview especially when they were young. The question is “how” to do this.

Then I started researching, talking to people, reading some books, and blogs from Christian homeschool moms, and prayed about it and was convinced it was what we should do (at least for Kindergarten). Jason also became convinced along with me (esp. when he read “Family Driven Faith) I had a lot of fears and reservations along the way (I don’t think I’d be a very good teacher….What will I do with the younger siblings… I will have absolutely no free time!….etc.) But I feel like God kept drawing me back to it and the more I learned, the more I thought it would be a positive thing to try for a year with our family. 

I thought about waiting a few years and doing a kindergarten program through a church or at a new charter school in our area. I registered for the charter school and she got selected! Before the charter school registration deadline, I did a lot of praying trying to figure out what God wanted OUR family to do for Lucy’s kindergarten year, and finally decided to let go of her slot. 

After that, we spent the spring and summer deciding on what co-ops to join, our fall schedule, and the curriculum we are going to use. We went to the Teach Them Diligently homeschool conference in Atlanta, and that was really encouraging and informative. We decided to do Classical Conversations (CC) on Thursdays, This co-op divides kids up by age and they have a teacher (another mom usually – called a “Tutor”) – each Thursday from 9:15-12:15. I attend my 5-year-old’s class, my 3 year old goes to a preschool class with other 3-4 year olds, and my 1-year-old goes to the nursery. Each of the 24 weeks that CC meets, the tutor goes over weekly memory work (memorization of some basic facts about history, science, math, etc.), then each student does a show and tell, they do a science experiment, a fine arts lesson (either art of music), and sometimes geography. This co-op is really organized, has parent trainings during the summer, curriculum, and some involved moms who schedule monthly field trips and mom’s nights outs that I’m excited about.

We also attend a local co-op that meets at a church near us. They have 6 1-hour blocks where the kids meet with their age group and learn about different topics. It meets on Mondays. Lucy’s classes are: Art, P.E., Geography, and Spanish. They also have preschool and nursery for the younger siblings. The preschool class does the Five in a Row curriculum and Bridget really enjoys it. I help out in the Spanish class, a Recorder class for 3rd-5th graders, and in the preschool class as various hours. Then we have lunch with other families and play on the playground. We don’t stay for the 5th and 6th hours because Josiah needs to get home to nap.

The only thing we know for certain about homeschooling is that we are going to take it one year at a time. We will also seek the Lord’s guidance and follow what HE wants us to do for our children’s education.

I hope to do more homeschool-related posts in the future! I want to start writing on my blog more to capture this moment in time that I know will change quickly.