Why Homeschool

Why in the world did I retire from teaching public school and choose to homeschool instead?

It didn’t happen overnight, believe me. It started when I was pregnant with our baby girl and my husband kept telling friends I was going to homeschool her! I would look at him and say, “I’m a public school teacher, are you crazy?!” But something switched the closer and closer I got to having her. I knew I wasn’t going to want to leave her ALL day, being a mama was something I’d always dreamed of and I didn’t want to waste one minute away from her. So, believe it or not, without thinking about our finances, I resigned while pregnant with her. I was then asked a week after that to job share with a friend every Thursday and every other Friday, and I thought….well that could be the best of both worlds!!! So I jumped back into my new teaching contract and went back to work in the fall when my baby was four months old. I found I loved the “me” time but leaving her was a pain! I had to pump, prepare a schedule, pump some more, buy every bottle on the market because my girl wouldn’t take a bottle, and then every sippy cup I could find at Target because I hoped she’d do that instead. It was also exhausting. I’d leave at 5:45am and return around 5:00pm and then have to make dinner and have just an hour or so with her before bed. It honestly wore me out and made me wonder how mamas and so many of my teacher friends could do work full time??

The following year I went down to teaching just Fridays and after her first birthday in April was pregnant again. I decided my mom could continue to watch our toddler and new baby just one day a week. When my mom got sick or God forbid had plans of her own, I had to take off or find someone else to watch our two kiddos. Again, stressful. Another year later, I was pregnant with baby #3 and knew It was time to resign. Three kids, 4 and under was too much for my mom and so despite all of my training & getting a Master’s degree in Education, I resigned after 12 years in the classroom and gave up the best teaching gig anyone had ever heard of, a 20% job sharing position on Fridays. 

Did I regret retiring?

I was worried I’d miss teaching or regret not having something that I was proud of...a.k.a teaching elementary kids and helping others.

But what I found was freedom. No longer did I have to spend the afternoon before going to work prepping for my school day and the kids. I didn’t have to worry about who would watch them if my mom was sick. And honestly, I just didn’t want to leave my three sweet kiddos all day to go to work anymore. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! I get to be with my kiddos, teach them, travel & go on adventures and own a business I can work around them and our schedule, while helping others. 

So why not send them to public school? 

It really came down to not wanting them to be away from me all day. I knew I could teach them and wasn’t ever concerned that I wasn’t qualified. I wanted to be able to teach them about the Bible and how to be kind, love God and others and didn’t want our only time together to be forced into early ams or after long school days. I didn’t want the state dictating what they could and couldn’t learn and teaching them things that we don’t believe is Biblical truth. My cousin introduced me to a great program called Classical Conversations and we jumped in when our girl was in kindergarten. For the first several years we were part of a homeschool Charter school, which forced me to be organized and to plan (which I hate!) and provided funds for each of the kiddos. 

This fall is the start of our 8th year homeschooling. Is it still hard? Duh, of course. But to me, it’s worth the time and investment into our kiddos and allowing them to grow up schooling together, rather than apart. It’s worth It to have the freedom and flexibility to travel while everyone else is still in school. I really it’s taught me to pray and rely on God a lot more. My big pray is that the days filled with laughter, fun, learning and adventures will continue to outweigh the days of tears and struggle, because friends, the struggle is real, but that’s for another entry.