our homeschool journey

 

today i'm sharing our home school journey, how it all began and how we've gotten to where we are now. i'm even sharing how our home school space as far as setup has evolved because it has most definitely taken a lot of revamping until we finally got it right (the end product is the last photo in this post)!

our homeschooling journey begins with covid unfortunately. we home schooled our son for 3k (the class before pre-k). in new york city you can send your child to public school for 3k, however we chose to keep him home and i taught him. then when pre-k rolled around we decided to enroll him in public school. i was in the middle of building my own small business and we thought the best thing for our son would be to send him to school. he did well in pre-k but when kindergarten rolled around things began to change. i had a huge pull on my heart. i felt god speaking to me in ways i was so unsure about. i had a small business that i was building and running on my own and my son was enrolled in public school but was not thriving in that environment. what was i to do? my heart and mind kept going back to me wanting to home school our son. it's something that we had discussed in the past and we also knew how much my son had learned with me before he ever even stepped foot into a school but was pulling him out of school mid year the right answer? well, god knew what he wanted me to do and what his plan would be. 

when february arrived covid was on the rise and things were progressing really quickly. there were talks about closing schools and with covid cases popping up all over the city including our neighborhood i felt completely uneasy with keeping our son in school. so we decided to keep him home and 3 days later nyc public schools shut down followed by our country going into quarantine. these were definitely some scary and unknown times to say the least.

was this what god had planned for me though?! i honestly can't answer that but what i can say is that this was the beginning of our home school journey and what gave us the final push to deciding to keep our son home. once things shut down i began to lose my business unfortunately and with schools being shut down my son was now doing kindergarten remotely. to say it was a rough time is an understatement but my trust in god was strong and that trust carried me through it all. 

 

once our son graduated from kindergarten we withdrew him from public school and never looked back. he is thriving more then ever and we have built a home school that works for our family but i will admit that did not happen over night. it took time, communication and a whole lot of patience. building your home school shouldn't be rushed. it will take time to figure out your child's learning style and personal needs when it comes to educating them. it will also take time to adjust to now being your child's teacher and "unschooling" your brain because the last thing you want to do is replicate the public school classroom in your home school. 

 

i found that the most important thing in building our home school was the communication between myself and my child. yes, your child is a child but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't have a say in their education. just as charlotte mason, a british educator who invested her life in improving the quality of children's education believed that children are born persons who should be treated as individuals as they are introduced to the variety and richness of the world in which they live. 

 

when we first began homeschooling we tried several different curriculums and learning methods. many didn't work for us or our specific needs. this happens to pretty much every homeschooling family. things take time but overtime you will get there. you should also remember that children grow and change and so will their needs which you will need to adapt to.

you are the best teacher for your child. no one knows your child like you do. so make sure to remind yourself about that on those challenging school days because you will have them. we all do. but the reward of homeschooling our children far outweighs those tough days. it is truly a blessing, a gift to be able to do this. 

let the world be your school. yes, spend time on core subjects but spend more time on the things that really matter, like building a relationship with your child/ children. teach them about character, disciple them, read to them. show them love, kindness, the beauty that nature holds, the love that god created us with. those are the things that truly matter. those are the things that will grow the type of person this world needs.

the things you see in these photos are great for homeschooling but they are most definitely not necessary. all you really need is a library card, some paper, pencils and crayons! oh and a bible ;)

i absolutely love homeschooling our son. it was the best decision we ever made for him and like i mentioned above his choice and voice in this decision was and is very important to us. i make it a point of sitting down with my son every couple of months to reevaluate and make sure that homeschooling is something that he wants to do. of course i'm the parent and i know what is best for my son but i want this to be a journey that he is apart of and has a voice in. if there's something he's interested in, a hobby he wants to try, a subject he wants to learn, i want to know about it! there is nothing more beautiful then child lead learning. watching a child's mind at work... exploring, investigating, asking questions, wanting to know more. that is learning! that is education! 

i hope this post encourages you if you are thinking about homeschooling your child or perhaps you are in the thick of it and need encouragement. 

you are not alone. 

the homeschooling community is a beautiful one and so many mamas just like myself want to support you in any way they can. 

you can do this. no one knows your child better then you!