Our Homeschooling Journey-Part 1

Homeschooling, Home Education, whatever you want to call it, I’ve been at it a long time, it seems.  I realize my presence here has been irregular ( and I really am trying to improve that), but I also thought that I had a story to tell.  I have a long journey with my family’s home education journey, and I should share that.  Please bear with me, as I feel like this will take a few posts to tell the story.  Also, know that I’m not trying to be judgemental of anyone who has made different choices regarding their children.  This is simply the journey we took.  So here we go.

Neither my husband nor I was homeschooled, but when I had our first son (of 4), I left my job as an educational advisor to stay home.  We knew we didn’t want him with a babysitter or daycare all day while I was at a job.  The choice to become a one-income family was not an easy one, but God has been faithful and has always provided.  Two and a half years later, his brother came along.  We were a happy little family of 4.  About a year later, my husband felt God leading him to plant a church in the area where we live.

When my oldest was 4, we felt under pressure to do some sort of preschool curriculum with him.  I look back on this and roll my eyes a bit, but we were told this is whatever one does.  Relatives who had kids about the same age put them in preschool, and we were under pressure.  We did start researching a bit about homeschooling, though.  I probably knew 2 or 3 families who homeschooled at the time, and I wasn’t close to any of them to get any real guidance.  This was 2006.

So we contacted an umbrella school.  An umbrella school is a way to legally homeschool in the state I live in.  For the most part, it is like we are registered through a private school but operate at home.  We did some minor school activities with my oldest.  He learned to count to 100 and a few things like that.  About April or May of that school year, we found out we were expecting again.

Things were going well.  My oldest turned 5, my second born was 2 1/2.  We started the kindergarten school year knowing it was going to be different.  My due date was in February, so we knew ahead that there would be some disruption to the year.  To our surprise, in September, we found out that there were two babies.  TWINS!  Life was definitely going to be different.

On the school front, we were using mostly ABeka materials at the time.  I didn’t know much about any of it.  Had very few ideas about where to look.  Truly, there are so many more choices now than there were then!  So, as we moved through the material, he was definitely learning a lot at that time.  On November 12, however, I went in for a regular visit with my doctor, and there was a problem found with the babies.  I was admitted to the hospital that day and kept on bed rest there with an IV.  My mom, mother-in-law, and husband juggled the boys and a little schooling at the time.  My husband was working full-time, and pastoring a church, my mom was retired, and my mother-in-law was working most days but helped whenever she could.  It was a crazy time.  The babies were born soon after New Year’s.  It took a few weeks to get them home from the hospital NICU and for everything to sort of settle in at home.  Those first few years with all four boys, we really just survived for the most part.  The school was done, but not a lot of extras. Meals were easy choices, things like that.  We got through that school year.

Coming soon…. Part 2.   Starting 1st grade…..All the boys were so little then.