Hey y'all,
Who out there in homeschool land has had those nights where you stay up pondering all your mama choices in life? No, just me? I doubt that.
Whether we like to admit it or not, none of us have this parenting thing down to the tee. And thats okay. Infact its perfectly normal!
When I first started my homeschool journey both of my girls were young, preschool and kindergarten. We homeschooled a couple years before our big military move to a little small town where I decided to enroll them in public schools.
I felt lost with this decision. I knew I had felt called to homeschool, though at the time, I really didnt understand why. My youngest has some special needs that I knew a public school would help her through, With speech therapy, occupational and even physical therapy. So, I put them both into public schools and hoped I was doing the right thing.
Over the course of several years there had been more times than I can count where I knew I still felt called to homeschool, but ignored my feelings, pushing them deep down the more I saw my daughter thrive in her therapies provided by the school.
When the time came for my daughter to renew her IEP with the school system they were enrolled with they opted to turn her lose, saying she was now at grade level and thriving, I knew the time had come to follow my calling to homeschool. I cant quite explain it, I just felt led to lead my daughters in a way that I knew they couldnt get in traditional school.
Now when I say led ,you may think of that in many different ways. But to me, it was like this little voice inside of me telling me that I can do it better. Not in the sense you may think. I dont have a masters in education, nor am I some math wizard. However my gut continued to tell me I could just do it better.
I got to thinking many things. From what I had to offer my girls as a teacher, to what our values are as a family. I thought of things like whether or not we could even afford it, to can I handle the pressure of their whole education being placed on my shoulders, and know matter what, that little voice inside of me said yes!!!
Its funny though, the things that I figured would be huge obstacles on our journey were nothing but speedbumps or potholes along the way and the things I thought would be the easiest and the least of my worries, have been the things that are giving me this gray hair, I so desperatley need to dye lol.
The fact of the matter is, homeschooling is much like becoming a parent for the first time. Are we ever truly ready? Do we ever really have all the anwsers? No, we make it up as we go along and hope for the best. We do it our way, not because its writen in a book some where as the "right way" but because we believe in our hearts that this is whats best. We cross our fingers in hope, and pray that it all works out.
So, to you out there who are contemplating taking a leap into the world of homeschooling, trust yourself. Trust your gut or that tiny voice inside of you telling you that this is the path you need to be on, and dont look back.
We all have our differet reasons to homeschool. Maybe you were homeschooled as a child and its all you know, Maybe you are opposed to others teaching your children, maybe like us you want to bring God back into school and build a relationship closer to him, maybe you want to escape bullying, drama, sex and drugs that seem to fill hallways and schools across the globe. or better yet, maybe you dont even know for sure why you want to......
Just know that know matter how youer lead, or what your reasons are to homeschool your children. You dont need approval from anyone. Be it another parent, a discruntled neighbor or even your own family.
Stay the path and you do what you think is best for your children and your family. At the end of the day, their only advocate is you! You know your children and you know your family better than anyone, trust yourself and be happy!
This road isnt for the weak, there will be days that you wonder why you decided to do this in the first place, days where you doubt yourself and wonder if your doing enough for your children. There are Mondays you all sleep in and you tell your kids its a free day, or days where you all sit around the table in pjs doing math with cheerios. Thats ok, thats what its all about! The days are what you make them, some come with laughter, others come with tears. But day in and day out you are making a difference in the lives of those little ones! You are raising good humans and you my sweet friend are molding our future! Thats right, that beautiful kiddo sitting across from you is being raised by one strong, determined and amazing mama!
So go get it mama! youve got this!!!
Photo credit- Field trip to Jamestown settlement 2021