How We Became Homeschoolers For Life

This is the very first post I published on Hope In The Chaos! Recently updated, this post started it all and as such, I left it as close to its original form as I could. Enjoy!

It was nearly three years ago my husband and I decided to start homeschooling our children. We had always wanted to, but life hadn’t allowed for the opportunity until then.

At the time, we had two children in public school full-time, one part-time, and the youngest was just an infant.

I found myself a stay-at-home mom, so I had the time to go with the desire.

How To Get Started As A Homeschool Family

One day, I began researching how to get started, state laws, and learning how to choose our curriculum.

The laws were easy enough to find and follow, but curriculum shopping was overwhelming. We poured through information on teaching styles and learning styles. Student-led and parent-led curriculum. Online programs and textbooks.

And then, finally, we picked a date, informed the school, and I started planning our first few weeks as a homeschool family.

I’d love to tell you that my planning paid off. That we started and it went well… but it didn’t.

Those first few months were awful. I tried and failed and tried some more. On the last day of school, I cried; not because I was sad, but because I was relieved. Relieved to be done and ready to throw in the towel and re-enroll.

Taking A Break For Summer Vacation

That first day of summer vacation I did nothing that involved schooling.

I didn’t grade the remaining assignments.

I didn’t touch the computer or the textbooks.

Instead, I busied myself with everything non-school related completely convinced that I was done. Positive that as much as I wanted to do this, homeschooling just wasn’t for us.

Convinced I was a failure, I decided that homeschooling was just too hard for us.

Yet, no matter how much I tried to walk away, something kept nagging at me.

Learning About Homeschooling (Again!)

A few weeks later, more than a month after we finished the school year, I realized that all my reasons for homeschooling in the first place still existed.

I was still unhappy with the school environment, the endless testing, the peer pressure, and the lack of individualized education.

I still wanted to reclaim the hours I had already lost with my children, reclaim their childhood, and reclaim our family.

So, slowly, I started researching some more.

Soon I found homeschool groups on social media where I could ask questions, get recommendations, and learn from other homeschool families.

I spent hours online reading about homeschooling from some of my favorite bloggers, dug into curriculum reviews, and learned even more about the homeschool lifestyle.

Starting Over As A Homeschool Family

In August, armed with research, a new outlook, and a renewed hope in myself as a homeschool mom, we started our first full school year.

We began with some fun back to homeschool items that eventually became annual traditions.

We learned about starting off on the right foot (this year and every year since).

We even learned how to navigate the mid year curriculum swap when products we loved turned out to not be the right fit.

That first year, we still had bad days and lessons that didn’t go well.

There were still kinks to be worked out as we learned how to mix life and learning.

More importantly, we kept moving forward. We kept learning together, kept trying.

And the more we continued, the more we learned from our mistakes and successes, the more we began to realize that while homeschooling can be hard, it was also something we slowly learned that we could do.

Becoming Homeschoolers For Life

That year, I think I learned more than my children did.

Looking back at our humble and challenging beginnings, I am now grateful for the journey. It shaped me as a homeschooler and helped propel me into this world of helping other homeschoolers.

Today, homeschooling is no longer an option for us – we are homeschoolers for life. It’s who we are.

We are proud to be the crazy family who bucks the system in favor of what we think is a better way. We are content to stay home & sleep in while the bus drives by. Thrilled to take off both snow days and sun days. And excited when the lessons don’t follow the logical path because someone asked a question and we followed the learning.

Has it always been easy? No, of course not. That’s part of what I plan to share here on Hope In The Chaos. The real, the difficult, the days when lessons don’t go as planned and frustrations boil over.

Is homeschooling perfect? Again, I say no. But, I can confidently say it’s better than the alternative.

For our family, homeschooling is not only the right choice, I firmly believe it’s the only choice. No longer will I even entertain the idea of public education for my children. When I struggle, I will reach for the best books for homeschooling moms, ask questions in my groups, and find the answers.

Every day, our family grows and learns together. We succeed, we fail, and we get back up and do it again the next day knowing that our failures are lessons in disguise if only we are willing to learn them.

Today, I can look back on those early days and see a naive, over-confident mom who was convinced she could replicate school at home with ease and grace while maintaining the smile on my face.

Oh, how wrong I was! 😅

Today, most days are a world-class juggling act as I cover three different grade levels, chase a toddler, maintain our home, and get the children to a plethora of outside activities, you know, for homeschool socialization.

However, there is hope in the chaos that is homeschooling. A hope that each day I am better.

Better at planning, better at teaching, better at guiding my children through both the lessons and the struggles.

Each day there is a renewed hope that we can try again with the items that didn’t work well or a celebration for a new skill mastered.

Every day is a new opportunity to be better in my role, so my children can succeed in their roles.

More importantly, at this point, I have learned that homeschooling is not about creating school at home.

It’s about teaching my children how to learn rather than what to learn.

Teaching them to follow their passions and interests.

Giving them the opportunity to succeed or fail and how to pick themselves back up again.

Allowing them the chance to discover who they are.

For our family homeschooling isn’t just what we do, it’s who we are.

Do you have a homeschool struggle or success to share? Comment below!