How It All Started....

Three years ago we made the choice to pull our girls out of public school and home educate them. At the time they were going into 9th and 6th grades. I had no idea what I was doing, but what I did know was that I didn’t want my kids going to school in masks, and I just knew that the upcoming school year, in a public school setting, was going to be filled with instability and chaos, and I didn’t want my girls to be a part of that. So, I got to work and did all the things I needed to do in order to pull my kids out and begin the homeschool process. I had no clue what to do, but I had a lot of friends who were already in the homeschool space, in various ways, and reached out to them for guidance. At that time my only option in my state was to homeschool my girls independently, meaning I would establish my home as a private school, and not be affiliated with a charter. I filed the necessary paperwork and then came the overwhelming task of figuring out what curriculum and programs I was going to use and what I wanted them to learn that year.

Since we were brand new to this I joined several online homeschool groups and began asking questions. Thankfully there is a wealth of information online and I began to sift through it. Coming from a public school mindset, that first year I loosely followed what the public schools would be teaching during those academic years - geometry, biology, literature, art, health for my 9th grader; world history, math, earth science, language arts for my 6th grader. I will admit it was overwhelming at first, but what I soon realized was that I had the freedom to choose how my kids learned and what we focused on within each subject. My oldest is an amazing artist so we were able to create an art course that allowed her to try different mediums. She did some sketching, clay work, watercolors, knitting, and whatever else came to mind that year. I found an online math program that offered a self paced course with a teacher who had videos she watched, and live weekly help sessions. She was actually able to finish her entire course by February, which allowed her to focus on other subjects. My youngest was struggling with math. She started to have a hard time in the 3rd grade and the common core way of teaching was hard for her to grasp, yet in the public school, with the state being in control, this was the way the teachers had to teach math. She had become annoyed and frustrated and was behind. The beauty of homeschooling now was that I found a program that was not common core based and we were able to access the coursework for the 5th grade level (even though she was now in 6th grade), and it allowed her to go back and get a better understanding and grasp the concepts. She quickly went through all of the 5th grade work and by the end of that year she had also completed the 6th grade coursework AND started some pre-algebra! As the year progressed we all learned to adjust our expectations and our mindsets about school began to shift. As I witnessed how quickly my girls were able to learn and get through their courses, largely due to less distractions, and the ability for them to be intentional and focused with their learning time, we realized that they gained so much time freedom. We were able to finish the school day in just about 4 hours a day, which left time for them to read more, get outside, spend time with family, and simply be less stressed. There was no homework for them to sit down and struggle through after being at a desk all day. There were no unnecessary and mundane projects that had to be done just because that is what the state (or teacher) wanted. There was no drama or bullying (well, except the normal sibling squabbles). Was it perfect? Heck no! We were all adapting to a new way of life and a new form of education for them. I was still coming from a public school mindset and was trying to force them to do everything that each program or course wanted. There were times I wanted to expel them, however, through the support of this new homeschool community, I learned to be flexible and that we got to choose what we focused on. I was still requiring my kids to learn certain things that I know are important like math skills and of course I want them to be educated and know certain things, but I was learning to adapt. In the beginning I realized I was trying to recreate the public school way of learning here at home, and that isn’t what homeschooling is about. So, I opened my heart and mind, prayed a lot, leaned on friends, and grew as a mom and educator. I had discussions with my kids about what I wanted them to learn, and we talked about what that was going to look like now. So when my 9th grader’s literature/writing program wanted her to write short paragraph answers for six different follow up questions after each short story we read, and I saw her frustration and boredom with it, we pivoted. Instead we had great discussions about what we read. Now, am I also having her write, yes, but the focus was to develop critical thinking and not make her frustrated.

This is what we started to learn was the true beauty of home education; the freedom to adapt and for my kids to not be boxed into a one way of learning, or be told well, this is just what you have to learn and focus on because that is what the state says and we have to follow the standards laid out by the state. My opinion about following what the state or government tells us we have to do is very strong and at this season in my life I was becoming very aware that I didn’t want my kids to grow up being stuck in this matrix of mainstream thinking and education. I was becoming very confident that I wanted my kids to forge their own path and home education was becoming the vehicle for us to begin helping our kids with that.

That first year of homeschooling was brought on by circumstances of the chaos happening in our world. We didn’t want our girls in the midst of what was happening in the public schools and fortunately we were blessed that I work from home and was able to be here to pivot and homeschool them.

As things looked like they would settle down in the public schools for the next school year, as far as masks and the back and forth of being on campus or remote learning seemed to be coming to an end, we had a family decision to make: send the girls back to public school or continue on this journey of home education.

At this point my husband and I were becoming more aware of other things that were creeping into the public education system that we were not okay with, so we had a discussion with our kids, and we chose to never put them back in public school again.

So here we are heading into our fourth year of homeschooling, both girls now in highschool, and I am more confident now, than ever before, in our decision to follow this path.

I am excited to share more of our homeschool journey over these last few years, and this current year as well.

Have a blessed day!

~ Desirae