Our Homeschool Story

Welcome to our corner of the internet where we share ideas, inspiration, and resources for your homeschool!

First, I thought you might be curious about how we began homeschooling.

And if you’re like me, you can’t resist a good birth story or homeschool origin story! 😉

Growing up in Public School

My husband and I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. We both attended public school until college and I later went into teaching as a special education teacher in public school.

I loved teaching, but I did not love the system that prioritized district politics and dollars over kids. However, my experience as a teacher planted seeds of a love of teaching as well as some firsthand observations of the downsides of public school.

Homeschool Curiosity

As a mom, I began to casually research homeschooling, and would occasionally show my husband a video or read an article.

We lived in the same great public school district I attended, and even had a gate in our backyard that opened up right onto the grade school field! So it seemed obvious that we would send our kids on the same route that our parents chose for us.

Not what we expected

Our first son loved his preschool experience! It was a sweet group of kids learning numbers, letters, reading stories, gardening, playing outside. Doing all the fun activities you’d expect in a preschool.

He loved activities, people, and going places. He constantly wanted to go and do!

I imagined that he would love going to school! The homeschool question faded from thought.

We went to all the TK/kinder meetings, met his teacher, went school shopping, began looking into the PTC to help out. We were invested!

The walks to school were so idyllic. Everything seemed perfect.

As the weeks went on, he started to dread school and was not his happy-go-lucky usual self.

He began mentioning a boy who was bullying him at school (in TK, mind you!) and complained about the long days.

We encouraged him, talked through strategies, talked with the teacher.

But my radar was up… I had been around special education long enough with students with behavior problems to know that schools move extremely slowly at getting help for kids with educational and behavioral challenges.

Goodbye Public School

In early October the school was having a special event with a fun workout assembly and my son needed some new tennis shoes so I went out the night before and got him some bright new shoes. I hoped they’d give him an extra bit of courage since he was feeling so unsure.

When I picked him up that day, I could tell that something wasn’t right.

He was bothered and upset. He explained that the bully from his class stepped on his new shoes and pushed him down.

We kept him home from school and set a meeting with the principal and his teacher. But I knew in my gut (my God-given intuition) that he had already attended his last day.

We went to the meeting and I felt calm and confident that I already knew what would result.

As we discussed the past few weeks of school and the bullying happening, the teacher actually said, “I don’t know why but this boy is targeting your son.”

But when I pressed for solutions, they were unwilling to work with us. They were unwilling to help our son and did not have solutions to help the bully either.

Everyone was losing in this situation. Our son couldn’t learn and grow where he didn’t feel safe. The bully was himself bullied by an older brother and wasn’t given support he needed. And the whole class was disrupted on a regular basis.

We refused to sacrifice our son’s wellbeing on the altar of “getting along” and not making waves.

After a weekend getaway with family to think and pray, we withdrew him the following week and began homeschooling.

Transitions are Never Easy

My eyes are brimming with tears as I write this… school changes are never easy.

There is grief and pain, even if the change will ultimately be positive.

Our son experienced a high amount of anxiety in the weeks following the change from public school to homeschool.

We asked ourselves a few times if we did the right thing.

If you are making this shift, take it slowly. Don’t try to go from full speed in one environment to full speed in homeschooling.

Go gently. Start with time together, add nature, some books, outings… I now know that this slow shift has a name, “de-schooling”

Finding Our Rhythm

We slowly got into a rhythm, found community, and some peer settings we enjoyed.

By December we found so much joy in our routine and spending time together. We were doing staged archeological digs in our yard, reading lots of books, going on nature walks, and baking together.

Confirmation

We decided to visit his class at Christmas time to share a gift he had made for his teacher and to say hi to his friends.

When we entered the front office of the school to check in, we saw the boy who used to bully my son sitting by himself in a chair on a detention.

I felt compassion for this little boy that he wasn’t learning or getting the help he needed. Seeing him also confirmed for me that we made the right choice for our son.

I hope that by now that boy has found support to learn. I’m so thankful for public school staff and teachers who help kids that need extra support.

Not the End of the Story

It’s been over 9 years at the time of this writing that we’ve been homeschooling our kids.

We now have five kids and our journey has not been perfect or a straight line to success.

There have been challenges and setbacks alongside the wins and special memories.

However, that’s why I’m here! To offer a space for support and to share stories to know that we aren’t alone and that it’s okay to homeschool differently.