When our first child was a baby, we took in a couple of foster children. Our experience fostering changed the way I would parent forever. For many reasons. But one memory will always stick with me. I had a little 4 year old girl who had to start preschool. I was required to enroll her in the local elementary school. I got her all set up, prepared her the best way I could. I did her hair, got her dressed, got her a backpack and supplies and drove her to school. I walked her in on the first day of school and was thoroughly overwhelmed. It was organized chaos. The drop off procedure was to take her to stand in line with her class and leave her there. She was in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people. The teacher was all business. "We got it from here." I asked if I could walk with her to class so I could see where she would be going. I was allowed to that first day but was never allowed to again. All morning I felt so sad for her. She had so much trauma in her life. So much. School just didn't seem like it was appropriate for her at that time. What could I do? She was a foster child, so I continued to take her to school, drop her off, drive away, and my heart was cracking.
Fast forward four years. I no longer had foster children but had a 4 year old, 2 year old and newborn baby of my own. My oldest was the same age as this little girl I remembered taking to school. My friends were beginning to enroll their children in school. I knew in my heart, I couldn't do it.
I know it sounds silly. But that is how our homeschooling journey began...with my inability to leave my child at a school. In reality, it's not that silly! Those are precious hours of the day I would have missed with her.
In my opinion, homeschooling is the ultimate parenting experience. If you are a parent that wants to bond with your child, experience life and learning together, then consider homeschooling! The time we spent reading books, building things out of blocks, couch cushions, legos, or tinker toys, creating, cooking, imagining, and even cleaning/chores was so enjoyable to me and so vital for our parent-child relationship.
I was confident in my ability to teach my child what she needed to know for preschool. (It was later years I was less confident about.) I found three friends that also were hesitant about preschool and we formed the tiniest co-op. We didn't even call it a co-op. We just simply took turns teaching a letter each week and came up with books and activities and the four preschoolers came together and played/learned in my living room.
Then came kindergarten and again, I knew I could handle the teaching. Her preschool friends all went to public school so we were pretty much alone. I decided I'd give it a year and see how we did. Kinder isn't required by law, so it seemed like I couldn't do too much damage if it didn't work out. And so it went. Each year I couldn't bring myself to send my children to school. Each year I came to the same conclusion. We can do this. We were so used to being together it just made sense for us. I know my kids better than anyone on this planet. I know how they learn and what they need. I know their interests, their desires, their fears and concerns. As they grew and as I began to develop a rthymn, I became more confident in not just my ability to teach them that year, but for future years. At first, I was afraid to commit to the long-term. I would always answer those "How long are you going to homeschool?" questions with the standard "Well, we are taking it one year at a time" answer. Until one day, God began to make it very clear to me that His plan was to do this for the long-haul. I was going to teach middle school and high school. (That's a whole-nother blog post!)
So, there's how I started. My big WHY. It's probably not what you thought it is?
Ultimately, I believe that God leads and puts "hitches" in our hearts for things. For some reason, God's plan was for me to homeschool my children. I didn't know a single soul who was homeschooling at the time. I knew my children were precious and my time with them was precious. I didn't make the decision lightly. I poured over curriculum, spoke with my teacher friends. My husband was completely on board with it and that helped incredibly. I was already committed to staying home with my children and this lifestyle seemed to fit our family perfectly.
Oh how the years have flown. I'll never regret staying home with my children to teach them.
The early years of parenting/homeschooling.
In Christ,
Jessi
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