(This is another guest post by my wife, eb. Let her know if you liked it, so she’ll keep writing for FloridaHillbilly!)

In mid-December, we, as a family, decided to homeschool our 9 year old daughter.  DB wrote about the thought process and how this came about in an earlier post.

As a quick recap, the idea to homeschool our kids has been something we have talked about doing since before we had children.  When our first child was born, we both had corporate jobs and I was determined to move up in the company.  Our second child was born and we decided to become a single income family.

As the girls got a little older and the youngest approached school age, we re-visited the homeschooling conversation.  As much as I wanted to do it, I admit I was scared.  I was afraid I wasn’t good enough, smart enough, patient enough or unselfish enough.

Instead, we moved to a school district that we found to be better and more importantly, the new district wouldn’t bus my kindergartener 45 minutes away from home.   Seven years later, we are on a road trip to visit a friend, listening to a podcast of In the Rabbit Hole and we were inspired.  The deal was sealed when our youngest daughter added “be homeschooled” to her Christmas list. We started this adventure in early January, just after winter break.  Our schedules allow it right now and our commitment is solid.

Our first step?  Withdraw from the school system.  For me, this step was awkward.  Going through the process of withdrawing her from school felt rebellious (I am not usually the rebel child).  I thought I was going to get asked a lot of questions, like “Why?”.  I didn’t.  I thought I was going to be looked at funny when I spoke to other parents and teachers.  I didn’t.  Well, not that I saw anyway.

We met with our daughter’s teachers to clean out her desk and pick up her stuff.  DB walked into the principal’s office to personally thank him for doing what he does.  I thanked her teachers for doing what they do and assured them that our decision had nothing to do with them.  Our daughter loves her teachers, as do I.  We have been very lucky to have great teachers for our children.  They were all very sorry to see her go.

Our daughter, on the other hand, was very excited and very anxious to get started.

When the withdrawal was complete and reality hit me…. I was scared.  I was just as scared and unsure as I was 9 years ago.  The difference was that this time, I had the confidence to follow it through and, as mentioned earlier, the commitment.

Where it came from….I have no idea.  Maybe it is age, maybe it is maturity, maybe I just realized that this is a ‘sink or swim’ situation and I don’t want to sink.  Make no mistake though, confidence to follow it through and get started does not, by any means, keep that pesky, nagging voice in the back of my mind from wondering…”What on earth do I think I am doing? Am I insane?”

Now I really try not to say that out loud, especially when DB is around, it has the same cricket effect as “Does my butt look big in these jeans?”  Since embarking on this adventure, I have, as DB puts it, been keeping my tear ducts very clean and clear…daily…with such thoughts as….

“Is she really better off with me?”

“Is she happy?”

“Is she challenged enough?”

“Is she learning anything?”

“Am I doing this right?”

“Should I be doing something different?”

“Is she learning enough?”

DB is a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of person and is taking this way lighter and easier than I am.  He doesn’t have the same issues with it that I do.  However, I will give him this, he has been incredibly supportive.  After all, we are in this together and it could not be done any other way.  Much of this is me being overprotective and taking the burden on all by myself.  Many of us moms do that, it is just what we do, and I am thankful to have a grounding force beside me.

After almost 4 weeks of homeschooling, I can happily say that I, and consequently everyone else in this household, are doing much better.  Our first two weeks and even a bit still, have been overlapping with material that our daughter has already learned in public school.  We started mid-year and we were warned that this would likely happen.  I’d like to share with you some of the things we learned since this life changing of an endeavor started.

1. We learned that there are better times of the day than others for certain subjects.  For example, we are much more successful with math lessons done in the morning than in the afternoon.  This is the only subject we have found so far which has a built in time clock.
2. We learned how many vocabulary words is too many in 1 week (and no I won’t tell you how many is too many).
3. We learned that our awareness for ‘learning opportunities’ has been well heightened.  We thought we were relatively aware of opportunities pre-homeschool.  But now?…even more so.
4. We learned that my daughter and I both really enjoy sitting side by side at our desks and working together.  Sometimes in our PJs, and sometimes we actually get dressed and presentable for the day.

Having said all of this, I must stress that we are very aware that we have A LOT more to learn about homeschooling.  I am pretty certain we will learn A LOT more about ourselves and our children, which for me, is very exciting.   Only 1 month in and I already feel like I’ve ridden a roller coaster of emotions, decisions, self-doubt and joy.  All the while DB is playing it cool without a worry at all.  And who says men and women aren’t of two difference species?  HAH!

During all of this craziness, we have been very fortunate to have a great support system around us.  I don’t know what we would do without it…great friends, great family and especially great Moms.

Thank you all for the encouragement to get started and thank you for your continued support!

Until next time,
eb