An Unexpected Homeschool Journey..

Hi again friend! I’m so excited to share my favorite unexpected journey that led us to this homeschooling life. I never, like never ever, thought I would homeschool my children. We sent them off to school and had a great couple years at our school in Connecticut. 

Enter 2020. 

I remember those first few weeks and chatting with my girlfriends and feeling so excited to have my kids home with me. I immediately set up school areas and baskets with supplies and couldn’t wait to experience what their school days were like but at home. At the time our boys were in second grade and our daughter in kindergarten. Needless to say virtual learning was a 0/10. The teachers were incredible and what they had to do to essential my give parents the tools to recreate school at home was beyond what they ever signed up for as teachers and I will always be grateful. 

As the school year came to an end and we found ourselves selling our house to move across the country to central Oregon I entered the next school year knowing I’d be homeschooling. With all the uncertainty in the world I knew virtual learning was a pass for us so jumped all in with Sonlight. I loved that it was a literature based curriculum and that I could group teach many of the subjects with all of my kids. After 8 months we decided to put our kids in the local school system so we could meet friends. Moving in the middle of a global pandemic makes meeting people a little difficult. Long story short I felt like we were on a really long vacation and needed to plant some roots. Oh yeah, we also were the crazy people who decided to live in an RV for fun and really make the most of the things going on in the world. These 8 months will always be my favorites. So we found a house and went back to school. 

The following year I ended up getting a job at the preschool at our church. We moved to the next town over and our kids switched schools. They attended the sweetest little elementary school. I had closed the homeschooling chapter, I thought for good. 

One of our sons came to us and said he wanted to be homeschooled again. So my husband and I asked our other two kids and they all said the same! Now if you have children you know it isn’t easy to get them to agree on much. We told them we’d talk about it and pray about it. 

I was shocked and so happy. So I let the preschool know I wouldn’t be coming back the following school year and got to researching all things homeschool. I have spent hours and hours looking at curriculum. I will do a detailed post or several LOL breaking down what we chose and why. I’ll even share the things we tried but didn’t work for us. 

So here we are in our second full year of homeschooling. I have two sixth graders and a fourth grader. We love slow mornings around here. It took me a while to realize I didn’t have to recreate school in my home but rather I got to make my home a place where we could learn. I’ve learned so much about myself in this journey I never thought I’d be on. 

One of the coolest parts of this whole thing is that during the time we were transitioning to homeschooling The Lord was putting children’s ministry on my heart in a way He hadn’t  before. Just as I was leaving the preschool a position opened up for me as the kids director at our church. I now get to work part time and have my kids home with me. So our slow mornings are bookended with a very busy middle of the week. Sometimes we’re doing math at 8 pm and science during breakfast. It’s not conventional but it’s perfect for us. 

I’d love to hear if you’re a homeschooling mom or if you’re thinking about it! 

Teaching From Rest

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