Our Journey to Homeschool- Part 1

If you checked in earlier in the week you know that our family has started on a new adventure. We are trying homeschool this year and it’s kind of a big deal. Well, for me at least.

So how did we get here? I thought I’d share our story because it is honestly something I could never have imagined doing.

Let me take you back, say about 5 or 6 years ago. There’s this amazing woman that goes to our church. She’s a great speaker, leader and mentor. She’s kind, warm, lovely. She’s a great mom, she doesn’t ever yell at her kids and she always looks so calm and put together and I totally start looking up to her. And I want her to be my friend so I can find out how she does it.

We have kids about the same age so we DO become friends and I become more convinced that I need to be just like her “when I grow up”. And I try, except there’s this one thing she also does. The thing I KNOW I could NEVER do. . . . Homeschool!

Yes, my friend was able to homeschool her three children, look great, and be a godly woman. I knew maybe I could try to learn to be more like her but the homeschool thing was for sure out of the question.

I just didn’t think I could spend the whole day at home with my kids, not to mention that I didn’t think I was qualified to teach them and that I just felt that I lacked the patience and discipline to be able to do it.

Well my friend and her family eventually moved away, but we stayed in touch.

Now fast forward to about 2 years ago and my middle son has gotten into some trouble at school. We had to take him out of the private school he was at and into our local public school. Gulp. So the elementary public school was OK but the middle school was trouble. Serious trouble. I don’t know where y’all live but here middle schools are scary. So when I learned that my son had access to drugs and other scary things I knew something had to change but we were kind of out of options.

It started out as a threat. “If you don’t get it together I’m going to home school you!” But then I realized that if I was going to be making such threats I needed to have some idea of what I was actually talking about so I started doing research.

And there is a TON of information available about home schooling. So I started with a book called “So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling” by Lisa Whelchel (Of “The Facts of Life” fame)

It is a great book, with stories about different scenarios that people can homeschool in. And it was just practical enough for me to feel like maybe I should learn more, you know just in case I needed to follow up on my threats. . . .