It’s official, we are a homeschooling once again. After three months of “can we do this” conversations with my husband, we mutually put our fears to rest and let our dreams take over. We live in an extraordinary circumstance, my husband and I both work from home and have very flexible schedules. I put the idea of homeschooling in our boys court. If they wanted to be homeschooled, I would invest the time to research and give them the best shot at it.
Letting Go Of The Fear, Homeschool Mom.
Homeschooling for us began in 2012. Our oldest had just completed fifth grade and we took a leap of faith to homeschool him 6th, 7th and the first semester of 8th grade. We always left the door open to going back to public school or any other school for that matter, he decided to go back to school early on during 8th grade. We prepared for the transition and it was a breath of fresh air when he fell right into his new school and finished out the school year with all A’s and B’s! While he was transitioning back into public school we also had a kindergartener who was doing great in public school.
Both boys finished out public school and it was a great experience. Our oldest ready for high school, our middle child about to be a first grader and our youngest home with us for one more year. I had no idea if we would homeschool again, but that door was opened as soon as summer began.
Our soon to be freshman wanted to be homeschooled and our soon to be first grader had such an interesting first year of school that we felt the calling to homeschool. We had lots of discussions on the pros and cons of homeschooling them. My biggest fear is not giving them the right tools to succeed. It was a long summer, I cried, I prayed and the fear ultimately took over and I hated the nervousness of it all. A week before public school would begin we decided to not let fear take over anymore. There is a reason why homeschooling is calling us. Why would this path be right here in front of us if we weren’t supposed to travel on it?
Letting go of the fear, homeschool mom.
There are a two factors that have to take place in order to have a successful homeschool life.
- You and your spouse must be on the same page with the decision to homeschool. If one person is not fully committed to the idea of homeschool it will eventually cause friction.
- You must be willing to make mistakes, have a bad day, and try again.
We ultimately made the decision to enroll our oldest in public online school at Connections Academy. This option is not for everyone, but for us it is an option that will keep him on pace with public school and take the pressure off of us to teach 9th grade. We are supplementing our own homeschool plan with him. My husband decided that he would alter his schedule enough to be an integral part of our first graders schooling. I am excited for this next chapter in our lives and to see my boys flourish with the one-on-one attention.
For us this is a dream come true. I don’t put too much pressure on my family to do everything perfectly. We have planned a schedule for the first two weeks and will tackle it day by day.
The most important lessons I want to teach my boys this year is to enjoy learning, make memories and treat all of our experiences as learning opportunities.
I want the five of us to truly enjoy each other. Aiden is almost 15, he will soon be done with high school and hopefully on to college. This time we all have together is precious and a gift. I am going to relish in this bonding time as long as I have it.
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