I hardly know where to start. Life in the last month has been a whirlwind of change, happiness and adjusting to the change. Life is good. And truly a couple of really big things have changed in our lives. You all know about the first one, little Tommy joining our family. Definitely lots of change for us all and adjustment and happiness. The other change kind of fell into our laps and I am so happy that it did and that I was prepared a little at a time to run with it when it did. And the change is that we are now homeschooling Matthew and Jenny. I know there are many opinions out there about this. And whatever yours is, I am not trying to change it, merely give you an update on what is happening in our lives. 🙂 Although I have to say that over the course of the last six months my opinion has changed a great deal on the subject.
A little before Christmas I started acting as a Learning Coach for a girl in our area. She started attending a public school online called K12 through Wyoming Virtual Academy and because she and her mother did not have Internet, I volunteered to oversee her schooling and let her use our Internet until they had theirs hooked up. And it got Tom and I thinking about homeschooling for our own children. Nothing serious really in the beginning. Just the hypothetical. Then when our kids were on Christmas break, we noticed how different things were with Jenny. Let me back up. Ever since school started in the fall, she has been much more moody, grumpy, negative, etc. and we have struggled to figure out how to help her with this, how to respond, what it might be that affecting her mood, if we were ever going to see Jenny as her really happy, helpful self again. We were having a hard time. So, then when Jenny’s mood improved remarkably when she was home with us over the break, we started talking about it more seriously. At first I didn’t know if I could do it, thinking that I didn’t have enough patience, that I would grow tired of my children being home all the time, and could I teach them and take care of my other responsibilities at home? Tom and I also wondered about where they would get the social experiences they need to grow and develop. So we had a few questions and we searched and asked people we know and heard personal experiences. And then I started thinking about what I wanted for my family, for me as a mother, for my children as individuals. I realized that I hardly saw Matthew and Jenny as it was. They left for school at 7:20 in the morning and I didn’t see them until 3:20 in the afternoon. All I had was the little time in the morning before school and a few hours after school before they went to bed. I think the thing that really hit me was thinking about how quickly they grow up, how their childhood flies by and how I wanted as much of that time with them that I could have. Also, I wanted to be able to spend more time teaching them what I felt was important. I am not saying that the school they were attending wasn’t an excellent elementary school. I really did like their teachers and most of the things they were involved with there. I know they learned a lot of good things there. I just wanted to be able to be more involved in the inner workings of their lives. And we considered making our own curriculum or using a curriculum specifically designed for homeschooling, but decided for a couple of different reasons to go with K12. One of them was that the kids would still graduate with a high school diploma. Another was that it was free. Another was the timing (me expecting a baby in the next few weeks, middle of the school year, etc.) and that a curriculum that was ready made would be the best for now.
So it has now been a month and I am loving it! I am not saying that there have not been many challenges, and things to adjust and tweak. We are still doing that every day. But I feel like I know my kids better, how they respond, how they learn, what they love. I knew all of these things mostly before, but not to the extent that I am learning them now. Plus, I get to spend real quality time with them, have fun with them every day, share my excitement about things they are learning, interact with them in a way that brings me so much more joy than I was previously experiencing. As for me personally, I find that the challenges I face are intriguing to me and keep me seeking for better ways to teach, to interact, to organize my day.
And I can’t say our lives are even close to perfect. Most days the house is stirred up, the clean laundry sits in the baskets waiting to be folded, and the dishes get put on hold. But I do feel closer to my children.