These past few weeks have been jammed packed with every last bit of summer we can fit in. To me summer is all about sun and sand and water and fresh air in high dosages. I’m like the squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter, except I’m hoarding experiences and hoping they will tide me through the dark winter months until we emerge from hibernation in the spring.
As we hastily lap up the last days of summer, a new beginning is quickly approaching. Homeschooling. It’s a new chapter for us as we plunge headlong into Sophia’s first official year of homeschooling. I’m excited for the opportunity to teach her in the way I’ve always wanted. I realized this weekend that if I had continued as a teacher, this year would have marked my 10th year of teaching. For five years I was a high school English Teacher. I was passionate and cared deeply, not so much about what my students learned, but how they learned and who they were becoming. I wanted them to fall in love with writing, instead of seeing it as a chore. I wanted them to find their voices, to learn to persuade and convict and inform and move their audience with the words they crafted. Eventually I burned out. I got tired. I became discouraged. I escaped the stress and bureaucracy of ‘School’ and stopped teaching.
Now I’m trying to rekindle the dying embers, what’s left of my passionate teacher-self and pour that into my own kids. I’m excited and scared all at the same time. I feel inadequate. Rusty. I wonder if Sophia and I will butt heads, because she’s not just a kid I’m teaching…she’s MY kid. And it feels like there’s so much more riding on how I teach.
I’m sure our experience will be far from perfect. I mean who am I kidding, there are no perfect experiences (except maybe long summer days filled with sun and sand and water). We’ll fumble for sure, but hopefully we’ll make our own way and enjoy the journey.
—Sarah
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I’m looking forward to hearing how homeschooling goes! I taught for 8 years, and am thinking about homeschooling ours through elementary school.
Good luck and yes find all the joy in the journey!!
I think you’re going to do a great job! I anticipate all the same things to happen when my daughter reaches that age, as I’m also thinking about homeschooling!
Hi, curious: What are your reasons for home schooling? I’m a teacher and I’m always very interested in talking with home schooling parents. Thanks!
I think our number one reason to homeschool is freedom. Freedom to move at the pace of our children, freedom from stress (no rush in the morning to get out the door, no stress at night with homework), freedom for them to be kids, freedom for us to pick and choose curriculum that works with their learning styles, freedom to travel and spend time as a family. Both my husband and I are self-employed, we like the freedom of being our own bosses-even though it can come with challenges. We want out kids to value freedom and independent thinking as well, which is a huge part of why we’ve chosen to homeschool.
Very cool! Thanks for taking the time to lay out such a nice response.
Wow, that is amazing. I give so much credit to moms that homeschool. I don’t think I could do it. I’m sure there will be bumps in the road, but what a cool gift to give your daughter!
Thank you. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it either. HA! Just one day at a time I guess:)