Confessions of a New-ish Homeschool Mom
If you read about how I pivoted to being a stay at home mom, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find out that we also started homeschooling. Let me tell you though, I was surprised. In fact, I’m still surprised. We’ve just started our second year of home schooling and I still question whether or not I know what I am doing.
How did we get here though? When the boys and I made our visit to Arizona to apartment hunt, we left with a rental car, a race against time to football practice in Vegas, and three extra days added to our trip. We also left knowing exactly where we were going to live, which was a hopeful prayer I had that I never once said out loud. Once I was back in Vegas, I started looking at schools. I didn’t want to spend my adjustment summer also stressed about school and finding one. My research into schools early on helped me out because Arizona schools start almost a month before schools in Vegas do. I went with what I knew. I knew we couldn’t afford private, Christian school tuition—something we could only afford in Vegas due to discounts I got by working there. The public school we were zoned for had low literacy rates and math rates and I didn’t want to send my oldest to public school. I started looking at charter schools and I was in luck. The charter school I had liked before and had already sent my son to previously also had campuses in Arizona. I just had to find the one that was closest to our new home. Due to the lottery enrollment system, I applied to two of the campuses hoping we would just get into one. We got into the closer one and I thought everything was set and good to go. I was comfortable in my choice, my husband supported it, and my son was excited to start a new school.
When school started though, it was rough. I hated the school schedule. Mornings, while not as stressful as they had been when I was teaching and also had to be at the school, were still chaotic and stressful. I won’t even go into the school pick up lines, those are completely different beasts. Then, we would get home and my oldest would be working on homework into dinner time. It was always the math worksheet that gave us the most trouble. (Common core is terrible) It wasn’t long before my husband and I were talking about homeschooling and our options with that.
What really sealed the deal for me though was the first day I went for my teaching observations. When we first moved to AZ, I was still in my Master’s program for a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. Since I wasn’t teaching anymore, I had to set up a partnership with a school to get my observation hours in. I was able to partner with my son’s school to observe a middle school English classroom and that first day of observations convinced me to start homeschooling more than any podcast or study had before then. That’s another post for another day.
So, we pulled my son and started homeschooling. I don’t know what the future holds but for right now, homeschooling isn’t something I want to give up. I have a few reasons why.
#1- Schedule Flexibility
Making our own schedule is my favorite part of homeschooling. We have school/core curriculum work four days a week so each week there’s a day where I can take my kiddos out and do fun stuff. Homeschooling also opened up my son’s schedule to where he has more free time. He isn’t spending six to seven hours at school to then come home and do homework for an hour or two (sometimes more). Once he is done with the work, he’s done. This schedule flexibility also allows for life to happen without stressful consequences. When we had a family emergency that had me booking flights to Chicago, I was able to move my son’s work days without overwhelming him with make-up work.
#2— Curriculum Choice
We are picking what curriculum my son is learning. We get to choose the worldview that is shared within the curriculum used. My son has a science curriculum that comes from the creationist standpoint. The math curriculum even points back to Christ. The English and reading curriculum shares stories of missionaries and focuses on the work of Christian writers. The history curriculum might be one of my favorites, showing how God was at the forefront of American history (despite this being a commonly held idea that He wasn’t.)
Even with the supplemental curriculum we use, we get to pick where it comes from. I can bring in curriculum and resources from trusted places that share our family values and beliefs. I can bring in resources to strengthen faith and our biblical literacy.
There are laws that tell us what core classes we have to include in our homeschool, but we get to pick the curriculum used and that freedom of choice is a huge upside.
#3—Choice of Extra-Curriculars
I remember in high school when we would spend one of our core classes (usually a history class as an underclassman) sitting in a room, hearing from the counselors about the importance of the next school year and then given a form to pick electives. We would always have to pick three to five electives so there were back up options in case the classes got full. The only elective I wanted and got was my senior year when I got to take psychology. Every other year I was thrown into what was available, despite my form.
My son doesn’t have to worry about that. My son tells me what he is interested in and what he wants to do and I see if we can make it happen. Now that we homeschool, he is able to learn guitar. When he was at the charter school, he wanted to be in music but had to pick an instrument from a list the school gave. Guitar wasn’t on that list. When he needed extra math help, we didn’t have to wait and hope for a teacher to offer math tutoring. I was able to find a tutoring center and enrolled him in tutoring.
With tutoring centers, I know these are mostly after school centers anyway so I could have enrolled him in it to go to after school. Due to homeschooling though my son isn’t in school all day to then go do tutoring to then come home and do homework.
I’m still figuring out this homeschooling thing. I’m still learning and growing and adjusting. That might be one of my favorite things about homeschooling, we have the freedom to make adjustments as needed and it’s okay that we don’t have it perfect. My son is still learning and he is still in school. It just looks different than what I’ve been told school needs to look like.
It’s better this way.