Homeschooling has begun!

Despite the denial I was feeling for weeks before the big day, it came. I have begun Homeschooling Josiah.

To give a little background, about a year ago, when Josiah was 4, Shane and I begun talking about what we would do for school with Josiah. I just always assumed we'd put him in a public school because we can't afford private and thre was no way I was Homeschooling. As we sat down to talk, Shane began mentioning how he would like it if I could Homeschool him. My exact thought in my head was, 'Um, yeah, I'm not doing that!'. But I continued to listen patiently to him, thinking that it was a nice thought he had but it wasn't going to happen.

But things began to change. Well, God changed things. I thought that if it was something Shane was bringing up, and it was on his heart, then I should pray about it. Within a matter of a couple of weeks, God had done a complete change in my heart. I started to not only be okay with giving Homeschooling a shot, but I actually really wanted to do it and was super excited about the opportunity to do so.

The research, Homeschooling convention, talking to other Homeschooling families and continual prayer started. That process felt overwhelming to me. Do we teach independently, go through a school, what do we do? The options, though there weren't too many, seemed endless.

Just when I thought we'd go through a certain school, God (through a friend's encouragement) got my attention that I was only going that route for the money. Though, that may not be a bad thing in many situations, in this one it was not the way I needed to go about it. With the free money option, it left me without being able to pick my curriculum, going on field trips & play dates that were in a completely different city which would feel very far away and cost a lot of gas money, etc. When I let go of the money, and trusted God that He would provide for whatever materials we needed, I had a great peace.

So, I had to really re-evaluate why I was Homeschooling Josiah. It came down to wanting to be able to invest in him...his character, education, personality, etc. We had already found great resources we wanted to use, and I liked the flexibility idea of me just doing it on my own instead of having to go by what a school was telling me.

That's how we came to the conclusion to just Homeschool independantly. Once we decided that, I felt very peaceful about it. I'm real thankful that we figured out a plan that works for our family.

Here's what most of our days will look like:

7:45 Bible time with Josiah

8:00 Breakfast

8:20 Piano practice

8:40 Character Study (kindness, obedience, patience, etc.)

9:00 Bible verse

9:05 Months of the year, Days of the week, Seasons

9:10 # of the week

9:15 Math

9:25 Letter of the week

9:30 Writing

9:40-10 Reading

Today was our first try at this. It seemed to go by fast and it was a lot of fun. Taking a few minutes to learn something and then move on, was great! We weren't spending a lot of time drilling one thing. For example, this week, we're learning to write the letter 'S'. He traced it about 6 times and wrote it himself another 6. That was it for letters. Next week we'll add in another letter and also write 'S' a few times to keep him up on it.

I have a few fears, that I know are normal and understandable. One, is just how Josiah and I relate to eachother. I need to make sure that later in our day is some fun and play time, so that Mommy doesn't just become a teacher role. Another is my patience with him. Patience is one of my weakest character qualities and it is something I have to rely on God to grow in me. Something else, is Josiah wants to give up easily if he thinks he can't do something. This will require my patients, and also me helping him understand that even if he doesn't do it right or perfectly, it's okay. We'll work on it. The last thing that may pose a problem is entertaining Meghan during these 2 hours of school. I think she'll have fun just being there with us, coloring or painting while we're doing school. She can join in on some 'writing' time as I give her dry-erase markers to play on the white board with. She loves having reading time with us too.

I'm so thankful that God laide Homeschooling on Shane's heart and that He guided me into the decision as well.