No pictures in this post :)
I just wanted to share about our decision to homeschool this year. It was probably one of the hardest decisions we've made. But when God calls you to do something, it's a good idea to follow Him! First and foremost, our decision to do this had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of education our school district offers. We have top-notch teachers, amazing administrators, and an awesome building with top-of-the-line technology. That's part of what made this such a hard decision. Plus, I worked there with all those wonderful people for a couple of years before we had kids! Good grief, I student-taught with the first grade teachers. I learned so much from them-they're incredible teachers! It actually makes me want to cry that Anna won't have them as her teacher.
Homeschooling was not something that Aaron & I even considered until the last 6-12 months. In fact, we were very adamant that we would NOT homeschool! One thing that slowly started changing my opinion was having Anna in school for kindergarten-the attitude she started having, the behaviors she was picking up from the other kids at school, and I'll be honest...it just broke my heart when she would come home and tell me about someone being mean to her. I've been praying for several years that God would show me how I can protect her tender heart. Now, to me personally, there is a very fine balance between protecting our children's innocence and putting them in a bubble. What a hard thing to balance! God calls us, as parents, to protect our children's hearts. Unfortunately, he doesn't lay out exactly how to do that! For some families, it doesn't mean homeschooling. For us, that's what it means. And I'll leave it at that :)
Another factor to our decision was having the flexibility to go where/when we need to go. It was very hard last year not to be able to go when we were needed (whether the stubborn man asked or not!) to Iowa and help. It may sound ridiculous, but it was such a struggle all year long to get Anna up so early for school. She had to be IN BED by 7pm school nights so she could get 12 hrs of sleep. If she didn't, she would get bad headaches, get sick, be a GROUCH. So that's another benefit. Hopefully eventually that part of life will get easier for her. Because, let's face it-she's going to have get up early at some point for something-a job, classes, KIDS! ;)
I was excited to get started and have an actual school room! I haven't missed teaching. At all. I have so enjoyed just being a mom. But let me tell you...when I got the tubs out where all my teaching stuff has been stored for 6+ years...I started getting really excited to teach again! It was so fun to decorate the room and set everything up. And then we started school. And it was a RUDE AWAKENING!! Teaching has always come fairly naturally to me. And it still does. What has never come naturally to me is organization. It has been much harder to teach Anna (and Jacob a bit) than I thought because of ISAAC!! That stinker. He doesn't sleep good. At all. (we're working on that) And when he's awake, he wants to be right there in the middle of everything. Not having a solid hour, at least, of time when he naps makes it really hard to get through much of anything without interruptions! So we're still trying figure out the timing of what will work best, but Anna and Jacob are loving it. I texted Aaron the other day "This homeschooling gig is tough!" A lack of sleep, not having the house completely unpacked (which means there are things missing, boxes here and there, things just not feeling "settled", messes!), a non-napping baby have made things a bit stressful but we'll figure it out. If I wasn't so sure that God has called us to this, I would have enrolled Anna in school 2 weeks ago! What's that saying...If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it? That is, without a doubt, the case here!
So, speaking of sleep deprivation, I should go to bed. I don't know if any of this will make sense, but I wanted to share our journey and how it started. Good night!
I just wanted to share about our decision to homeschool this year. It was probably one of the hardest decisions we've made. But when God calls you to do something, it's a good idea to follow Him! First and foremost, our decision to do this had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of education our school district offers. We have top-notch teachers, amazing administrators, and an awesome building with top-of-the-line technology. That's part of what made this such a hard decision. Plus, I worked there with all those wonderful people for a couple of years before we had kids! Good grief, I student-taught with the first grade teachers. I learned so much from them-they're incredible teachers! It actually makes me want to cry that Anna won't have them as her teacher.
Homeschooling was not something that Aaron & I even considered until the last 6-12 months. In fact, we were very adamant that we would NOT homeschool! One thing that slowly started changing my opinion was having Anna in school for kindergarten-the attitude she started having, the behaviors she was picking up from the other kids at school, and I'll be honest...it just broke my heart when she would come home and tell me about someone being mean to her. I've been praying for several years that God would show me how I can protect her tender heart. Now, to me personally, there is a very fine balance between protecting our children's innocence and putting them in a bubble. What a hard thing to balance! God calls us, as parents, to protect our children's hearts. Unfortunately, he doesn't lay out exactly how to do that! For some families, it doesn't mean homeschooling. For us, that's what it means. And I'll leave it at that :)
Another factor to our decision was having the flexibility to go where/when we need to go. It was very hard last year not to be able to go when we were needed (whether the stubborn man asked or not!) to Iowa and help. It may sound ridiculous, but it was such a struggle all year long to get Anna up so early for school. She had to be IN BED by 7pm school nights so she could get 12 hrs of sleep. If she didn't, she would get bad headaches, get sick, be a GROUCH. So that's another benefit. Hopefully eventually that part of life will get easier for her. Because, let's face it-she's going to have get up early at some point for something-a job, classes, KIDS! ;)
I was excited to get started and have an actual school room! I haven't missed teaching. At all. I have so enjoyed just being a mom. But let me tell you...when I got the tubs out where all my teaching stuff has been stored for 6+ years...I started getting really excited to teach again! It was so fun to decorate the room and set everything up. And then we started school. And it was a RUDE AWAKENING!! Teaching has always come fairly naturally to me. And it still does. What has never come naturally to me is organization. It has been much harder to teach Anna (and Jacob a bit) than I thought because of ISAAC!! That stinker. He doesn't sleep good. At all. (we're working on that) And when he's awake, he wants to be right there in the middle of everything. Not having a solid hour, at least, of time when he naps makes it really hard to get through much of anything without interruptions! So we're still trying figure out the timing of what will work best, but Anna and Jacob are loving it. I texted Aaron the other day "This homeschooling gig is tough!" A lack of sleep, not having the house completely unpacked (which means there are things missing, boxes here and there, things just not feeling "settled", messes!), a non-napping baby have made things a bit stressful but we'll figure it out. If I wasn't so sure that God has called us to this, I would have enrolled Anna in school 2 weeks ago! What's that saying...If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it? That is, without a doubt, the case here!
So, speaking of sleep deprivation, I should go to bed. I don't know if any of this will make sense, but I wanted to share our journey and how it started. Good night!
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