The busyness of summer has taken over and between the gardens in full swing, consultations, and homeschool planning the energy of high summer has put some other things on hold as life tends to do. I know there’s a lot of other mommas and papas out there getting ready to send their kiddos back to school or planning for schooling them at home if they haven’t already started. Not many of you may know but last year like many other parents I chose to pull my then 5th and 8th graders out of the public school system that they have always belonged to, and instead made the decision to homeschool them. Honestly, I never knew homeschooling was a thing I could do. I mean kids spend 13 years in a public or private school right… what else is there?
Then my daughter started struggling with being bullied around the 4th grade simply because she’s an amazing human who always feels the need to stand up for what she believes is right. I hated seeing her come home crying due to another “bad day” at school. Her grades were also never anything to truly smile about. She struggled horribly with math and would often ask her teacher for help but because she didn’t have a label of ADHD from her doctor, no help could be provided. I knew she struggled with focus and attention difficulties. I was her mom and trust me I was blatantly aware of how hard it was for her to get any task done. I asked for help from external resources from pediatricians to therapists but nothing was offered ever. She fell through the cracks of the system like so many due. So now that she was nearing the end of her middle school career and was really aware of the fact she was struggling in school the only way the school would allow her to get academic support was through a diagnosis of ADHD from her doctor. I hate labels. I mean I HATE labels. I feel they minimize you into solely what that label is defined by and it’s meaning takes over your life. That’s another blog post for another day though. I was going to have her evaluated again just to have her get the label so she could get the academic support she needed as I had no way to help her without knowing what she was actually being taught in school.
Then the pandemic hit.
As a family who was hit with Covid in the very beginning and fully embracing all of it’s long haul systems (even my children) there was no other option in my mind but homeschool. Luckily I already worked from home running my own business, but unfortunately I also worked from home running my own business! Some parts had to be put on hold to explore this new path I never knew was a thing. It’s one of the few parts of the pandemic though that I think will result in a major amazing impact on my kids for the rest of their lives for the better.
The beginning, the middle, and the end of the first year of homeschooling sucked. My house was a mess, I felt overwhelmed, and thought I was failing my kids. We had so many moments of arguing, giving up, and feeling frustrated. Right in the middle of it I actually lost my voice for 3 months while recovering from Covid. I had to resort to writing out what they needed to get done and no more stories that mommy could read. I admit I got overwhelmed and for 3 months they did very little besides Math as I couldn’t handle juggling seeing clients, running a farm, preparing home cooked meals, working on my own health issues, plus homeschool. By the end of that first school year I planned on both of them going back to public school in the Fall as we all needed a break from each other and I was ruining their education… I thought.
This summer my daughter told me she doesn’t want to go back to public school. It’s not just the bullying that can happen again that worries her, but that she has learned more in the past year and thrived in a way she never ever has in public school. I was blown away. A bit stunned and I admit full on panicking that I needed to do this again. WTF was I going to do was pretty much my first thought.
Sigh… SSSIIIGGGHHH. Oh there was a lot of deep breathing that went on for a month as I had to wrap my head around this. During that time I realized something as I contemplated the previous year. My daughter learned two years of math in one year. She went from failing math and being way below grade level to understanding math pretty well and at grade level. My son who is going into 6th grade is about to do 8th grade math this year and start working on 9th grade. My daughter can tell me more about US history right now then I ever knew happened. Granted I suck at history, not going to lie. But she could easily write me a very lengthy paper on pretty any topic in US history and would love doing it. And I don’t mean the version of history that is told in public school… I mean the version of history that is so much removed from the story telling. The documented truths that occurred from viewpoints far beyond just the male European viewpoint. The love she has developed for history is as equal as my love of the plant world. Now that is immense and I never thought it was possible. I knew the path she was going down before we started homeschooling despite how amazing she is. The path before her now I realized… it’s endless. She has learned to learn. Despite my “lacking” as a “teacher.” Both of my kids are completely changed in only one year. They question EVERYTHING. They ask questions CONSTANTLY (honestly they don’t stop talking… how is that even possible when we have seen each other every single day constantly for the past year… momma does need a break sometimes!!!).
Here I thought I was failing them and I realized they have learned so, so much. I’m in awe to even begin to think what this next year will bring for them. Don’t get me wrong I’m still saying WTF in my mind, but I know I got this. I can do this, they can do this, and it’s soooo not as difficult as my type A mind lets me think it is. I will start year 2 off all planned and regimented like before, then life will take over and we will end up rolling into a more relaxed schedule, but they will learn, and soar.
I hope if you are considering homeschooling you will give it a chance. It’s completely doable and I know I didn’t provide any resources or tips in this post, but I knew my reason why and how it went needed to be told first. I will create a blog post soon with some amazing resources and curriculums I have found and the one’s that we truly love.
Be in touch if you have any questions (or advice)!
