Why We're Homeschooling
Homeschooling was not the path we always planned to take for our kids. I remember having conversations with Matt early on in our marriage. We agreed that unless we were spending long spans on the road because of Matt’s music, we would plan to put our children in public school. After all, we both came out of public schools with mostly positive experiences.
When I was dreaming up what mom life would look like, I couldn’t wait to cheer my kids on from the sidelines like my parents always did for me. I pictured passing out juice boxes and fruit snacks after games, homecoming week festivities and Friday night football games. When Cyrus was just a toddler, we’d go for family walks past the elementary school and talk about how great it would be getting to walk Cyrus to first grade every morning.
But parenting is a funny thing. We enter in full of gusto and grand ideas on precisely how we intend to raise our children, only for them to sweep into our lives full force with their own personalities and dreams and tendencies. And we reach a point where we can either continue trying to squeeze them into that mold we always envisioned them becoming, or we can step back. We can listen and observe and pray and ask for wisdom. We can ask ourselves (and them, when the situation warrants it) what they need. What they desire. We can either push back and try to control out of fear, or we can watch with bewilderment these wonderful, unique individuals thrive and become. We can rest in the fact that the journey for every child looks incredibly different and the tools one may need to flourish are just as diverse and varied as the individual.
For us, we are trying something new with homeschooling. As we’ve watched Cyrus grow and become the little boy he is today, we have had several revelations. One being that there is a very real possibility that cheering from the sidelines of a field may not be in our future. But you better believe that we will be cheering him on wherever he is. Another revelation was that Cyrus is freaky smart. Like, could identify and pronounce the names of over 30 types of dinosaurs before his third birthday. He is also very self driven. He will spend hours on an art project, making his own book, looking through animal encyclopedias, or engineering his latest invention.
When I drove him to his first day of Kindergarten last year, I had a sneaking suspicion that we were going to know pretty quickly whether or not public school was the best route for him. My biggest fear was that the rigid structure and long school days would squelch his love for learning (an attribute we wanted to protect at all costs). But we also didn’t want to keep him from friendships and the sweet experiences that come from school. So we tried it. And by Christmas break I was ready to take him out to homeschool (although we ultimately decided to finish out the school year).
There are no clear cut paths guaranteed to work. So we seek and discern God’s will and we course correct along the way.
There was nothing inherently bad or wrong with kindergarten. He did make friends and we went to all the holiday parties and celebrated grandparents day and ate with him in the cafeteria on his birthday. He came home most days pretty happy. But he was exhausted. He wanted to come home and crash on the couch after spending all day being told what to do and how to do it. He had mastered most of the course content early on in the year except for reading. I truly think because he didn’t get one-on-one time early on in the classroom it just never caught on and he never sparked an interest. And after picking up my exhausted five year old after a full day of learning, I never had it in me to force him to spend more time reading at home.
So when I brought up the idea of homeschooling him earlier this year, Cyrus lit up. He was excited about the prospect of getting to learn about things he was passionate about, in ways more conducive to how he is naturally wired. For months I researched and reached out to other homeschool moms. I found a petting zoo in the area that offers a weekly homeschool class training kiddos how to care for the animals. I’ve planned out unit studies and field trips based on topics I know Cyrus will love, and I’m getting to build Christ-focussed learning into our daily routine. We get to go at our own pace, taking more time on areas that are a struggle and blazing forward in others. We are only a little over a week in and I’m already seeing how important one-on-one instruction is for him.
Our desire to homeschool has so much less to do with homeschooling itself as it does with being willing to try whatever it takes to see our boys thrive. To raise them to be kind, compassionate, curious boys who know the love of Jesus. To be life-long lovers of learning who think critically and ask hard questions. Maybe next year we will try something new. But one of the biggest lessons I’m learning right now is that being the best parents we can be is truly trial and error. There are no clear cut paths guaranteed to work. So we seek and discern God’s will and we course correct along the way.
If you are considering homeschooling your children (or future children), my only advice would be to first listen and observe what your child may need most. Let the journey teach you and lead you to deeper dependence on the One who intricately wove you together. And don’t be afraid to try something new. If nothing else, I think it shows our children that there is freedom in the process and every season has a purpose.
