Embarking On A New School Year
We started our 5th year of homeschooling in August with our first day at a new homeschool co-op we joined. I wanted to share about our decision to homeschool again this year.
We used to talk about homeschooling our kids when the oldest ones were little when/if I was ever able to quit working outside of the home. That day didn’t come for several years and when it did the first time we weren’t really brave enough to make the choice. We also didn’t know anyone else homeschooling at the time. After a year at home, I went back to work part-time. The ability to work part-time as a speech-language pathologist in our older children’s public school, plus summers off was a good compromise. I loved what I did and the school I was working in. After a few years though we decided that I would stay home full-time when our oldest began participating in middle school sports. I was not going to miss any of her games because I was at work if I didn’t have to. Lance had worked hard to grow his business to provide this opportunity for our family.
We started with Colton doing preschool at home. He wasn’t ready to sit at a desk all day and work, so we did a little school at home, but he spent most of his days playing outside. When it was time for him to start kindergarten, we sent him to public school with his siblings. It was fine, and our kids were blessed with wonderful teachers who truly loved them. However, we saw our younger kids thrive when the world shut down in March 2020 and they had the freedom to play or work on projects that interested them.
During the summer, we had several conversations and decided that we would keep the younger boys home to give homeschooling a try. The older two decided to go back to the public high school. Since then, the younger three have been home although we do take time each year to discern whether or not homeschooling is the right choice for each child every summer.
We have done co-ops off and on over the last five years, as well as tried a variety of curricula. Most years, we use a combination of curricula from various companies and things I put together myself. This year, we are attending a co-op that is more like a hybrid school and we are all enjoying it. Several of the kid’s core classes are covered there but it still gives me the ability to individualize some courses as well, which is the perfect combination for us in this season.
Homeschooling isn’t for every family or even every child. Each year I worry that we aren’t doing “enough” even though I know that even if they were in public school they would also have gaps in their knowledge because there’s no way to teach them everything. Our goal is that they can read, write, know history, think critically, and do math well, while having been exposed to a variety of good literature when they graduate. If they can do those things they can learn or accomplish whatever they set their minds to.
