1st Grade, aka our Homeschool Adventure

I'm backposting this blog post for the ease of finding it later when I want to reference it and only know it was at the beginning of school in 2018. But for truth-in-writing, I'm actually writing this post at the beginning of October. I wasn't prepared to write the post in August. I had lots of big feelings, and hundreds of words floating around in my head, but none of them seemed like the right thing or best way to explain this life-choice that our family has made. 

Turns out, it's been almost two months and I still don't have all the right words. But I have more confidence and peace, and so I'll share a few thoughts. 

We're homeschooling Lydia this year. Instead of starting first grade at Fox Hollow with her friends, she's staying at home and learning math, language arts, science, art, plus a myriad of other things like love, family history, scripture memory work, poetry, and lots and lots of literature. I've thought about this very loosely for many years, but never seriously considered homeschooling until this past year when the thought of sending her to first grade made me physically ill. I am lucky enough to know several successful homeschoolers who I admire very much and after asking hundreds of questions, doing an incredible amount of research, and compiling a pro/con list with dozens and dozens of items on each side - we made the jump and decided to follow our gut and give it a try. In end, the list of pros was longer than the list of cons - and here two months later, we are thriving. 

The first week of school was a little awkward as everyone was talking about their new teachers, and conversation seemed to come to a halt whenever I was around - like people weren't quite sure what to say. I hoped that it would get better after the newness of school wore off, and that has absolutely been the case. Even with the initial awkwardness, I have been overwhelmed with how kind and supportive people have been, and I'm grateful that people don't seem to be bothered by us making this choice for our family. I'll be the first to say that it's not the right thing for everyone. But I'm grateful that we can all make choices that are the best for our own family and we can support and love each other through our similarities and differences.

It's Lydia who is starting first grade, but we are really all homeschooling together. The boys spend the whole morning with us as we read books, sing songs, and do our "Morning Time" routine. Caleb goes down for a nap and then we do our "Table Time" where we move downstairs and focus on Math and Language Arts. Austin sits at the table with us and works on his own toy/craft/coloring or he plays with his toys nearby. We all come back together to do our afternoon activities. I can't express how much I love spending this time with my children and I can honestly say that it's made me a better mother. I have guilt-free, uninterrupted time to dedicate to them, and it's filling me up. I want to teach them how to live their lives with peace and focus and goodness, and although every day isn't perfect (not even nearly), I feel like this is working for us right now. Lydia is thriving. Austin and Caleb are, too. It is bringing me so much joy.

I will say, about half-way through the first week I thought to myself "I've made a terrible mistake!" We were getting used to the new routine and I was filled with self-doubt, but we are choosing to have faith and to lean in to the choices that we've made and as we're doing that we are seeing the fruits of this lifestyle. 

One of the things that Lydia talked about missing the most from Fox Hollow is that she wouldn't be able to eat lunch in the lunchroom. Which is a completely understandable feeling. There are lots of things that she will miss out on, but we went to the store - bought her a lunchbox, packed a sack lunch and ate it at the park. That satisfied her, the sweet girl. The number one reason this has been so successful so far is because of her. Her goodness, her personality, her willingness to learn and work.

And so, here we are. We are choosing a different path, at least for now, for our family. But I have confidence that the Lord is with us. He will step in and make our homeschooling efforts better than we could do on our own. He will make up for any of the "cons" on the homeschooling list. I feel this way about both choices. Public School has pros and cons, homeschool has pros and cons. If we are faithful - it doesn't much matter what we choose because He will be there to make up the difference. But this choice feels the best for us right now, and I have faith that he is the one that is making it such a blessing to us - and I hope that I can listen to Him and let him lead and guide us as we are on this path. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is putting out a new home-based Gospel Learning program, and I'm feeling so grateful that our structure is already in place. We can incorporate it easily into our lives and hopefully our children will benefit from the goodness, the light, the faith that we will try to fill our days with. 

I know that homeschool is the unconventional choice but it's SUCH a good choice for us and our family and I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to take the leap and have this time together.