What lead us here?

Since before I had kids, I thought about homeschooling.

I remember the first day I looked into it. I was at work, part time job at a local therapy office, when I had this sudden urge that I needed to stay home and raise my 7-month-old baby. I was researching stay at home mom schedules, what to clean on what days, how to meal plan, how to make cleaners from scratch. And then, how to homeschool. I wanted all of that. A few weeks later I quit my job and stayed home.

How we came to the decision

Despite all my research on Homeschooling, my husband and I sent our 4-year-old to preschool in 2017. We both grew up going to public school and knew no one who had been homeschooled, so we felt more comfortable doing public school that year. I always thought about homeschool and it remained on my mind daily.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and it now was an option, unfortunately thanks to Covid. I spent all summer reading books, blogs, watching YouTube videos on what curriculums to use, started following people on IG for inspiration and getting questions answered. That’s all it took, and I was HOOKED. This was the right path. I was really excited and had a fire inside me that this is what we are meant to do.

So, I started buying supplies, we built a homeschool shelf, I got a new rug for our dining room. I wanted to have our school room downstairs, but with a little baby, it made sense to keep it all upstairs.

Homeschool VS Public School

The spring of 2020, we had to do distance learning and that was very difficult. Since it had all happened so fast no one was really prepared for it. It made me question if homeschool was like this.

Turns out it’s not! Homeschooling was so much easier than I had excepted. It took time getting use to the amount of time it took to school. But with the curriculum we bought, it was made simple for us. I would open the book, read the ‘teacher’ paragraph to the kids and it would explain it all for me. Then they’d do their work and we’d be done.

Curriculum

We started off using TGATB (The Good and The Beautiful) for Language Arts and Singapore for Math. In MN those are the only two subjects required at age 7. I did do art and science on my own. I also bought All About Reading. I didn’t like it at all. I did use the coloring sheets that came with the curriculum and worked into TGATB.

After about 2 months into using Singapore Math for my oldest, we switched to Horizons. The concept taught in Singapore was too much for us. So, I picked something that was a little simpler and it was a perfect fit.

We joined a local homeschool co-op that met every other week. The kids had gym, science, and art. It was Christain based and such a great experience. This was the main reason that I didn’t worry about teaching a science or art curriculum.

Great first year

It was a great first year and every single day I woke up feeling like I had found my true path in life. Everything about homeschooling, homesteading and the co-op felt so perfect.

Whatever school option you choose, I pray that you feel confident and happy in it.