why we determined to homeschool

sharing extra about how lengthy we intend to homeschool, and why the heck we’re doing it with just a bit over a month left of the varsity 12 months. 

Hello mates!

I hope that you simply’re having a tremendous week and I’m so pumped that so a lot of you may have signed up for our Spring Ahead wellness problem. Ensure to enroll right here – it’s completely free and it’s going to be a ton of enjoyable. In the event you’re searching for a blast of motivation as we head into spring, that is the right technique to do it!

For at this time’s publish, I wished to share just a little bit extra about our homeschool journey and what’s occurring. I’ve alluded to the truth that we’ve had a tough time the previous few months and it’s been tough to navigate how and what to share. I’ve at all times been open with you guys relating to my life, however the aim of the weblog has at all times been to share MY expertise; not my kids’s. It’s a tough line to stroll, particularly once they’re an enormous a part of my life and I really feel like so a lot of you might be part of our household. On the identical, I by no means need them to really feel like their privateness has been invaded by what I share right here, so I’ve at all times tried to take a fragile method to my content material, particularly as they’ve gotten older.

The nutshell model is that this: we ended up transferring Liv to a different personal faculty in January. We had been all combating the mind-boggling quantity of homework, exams, and assignments. It was particularly exhausting together with her competitors dance schedule. We switched studios and lower her hours in half, and she or he was nonetheless up till a minimum of midnight each evening (for the previous 2+ years) attempting to complete the whole lot for college. I’m an enormous believer in exhausting work and I believe tutorial rigor has its place, nevertheless it was an excessive amount of for everybody. So, she switched and has been thriving.

When she switched colleges, it was the primary time P hasn’t had her massive sis at college, which was difficult for her. The Pilot additionally retired, which was an enormous transition, and she or he began to have extra frequent stomachaches. (Her abdomen has bothered her on and off for years, which has at all times frightened me since she had severe reflux as a baby and was on Prilosec and Zantac, which has been recalled for terrifying causes.) She noticed a number of docs, had an ultrasound, her abdomen was deemed “wholesome,” and their solely suggestion was to place her on a PPI once more. She was additionally doing CBT weekly, and generally twice per week. Her abdomen ache and anxiousness bought so dangerous that she missed many days of faculty, and we had been right here attempting to maintain up with the insane quantity of homework, classwork, and exams.

The Pilot was residence for retirement and was educating her the content material, ensuring she accomplished the massive packets of classwork, and taking her to highschool for exams. He had return to business airline coaching and I couldn’t fathom solo parenting, working, and attempting to maintain up with the entire faculty work she was lacking, so I requested her to both select to return to highschool or we may pull her out, and she or he mentioned, “Please homeschool me.”

I by no means supposed to be a trainer, however I’ll do something for our infants and if it’s what P wants proper now, I’m going to do it.

(We love Nicole the Math Lady! An amazing rec from Brittany.)

Additionally price mentioning right here that I made a decision to do a Food Sentivity Test (and another useful labs) and bought to the basis reason behind some intestine points, and her gluten sensitivity was extreme. No marvel her abdomen was hurting :/ Since she began the protocols and eliminated gluten, her abdomen ache has significantly decreased.

Our plan now:

– She’s on the waitlist for Liv’s new faculty however realistically gained’t be capable of get in till fifth grade

– We’ll homeschool till then and if she decides to return, that’s nice, and if she doesn’t wish to, that’s okay, too.

The humorous factor is that I was actually cautious of homeschooling. Pre-kids thought to myself, “How on earth can a mother or father count on to show their children extra successfully than a trainer?”

In the course of the women’ time at school, we’ve had some extraordinary academics who’re the whole lot academics needs to be. They love children, love what they’re educating, they’re above and past. However on the identical time, some academics are…not good. They are saying weird issues at school, disgrace kids in entrance of their friends, and this occurs in a personal faculty setting ALL the time, if you end up paying on your child to be taught by instructors who don’t appear to love kids in any respect. A overwhelming majority of the time, we spent the three to 4 hour block every evening educating anyway, as a result of they weren’t taught the content material throughout their courses.

Rising up, I additionally thought that homeschooled children had been most likely awkward as a result of they don’t have as a lot social interplay. The fact is that the entire homeschooled children I’ve met are type, articulate, pleasant, and extremely good.

Regardless that I’ve seen mates homeschool and type of daydreamed about how how enjoyable it could be, I didn’t think about it a chance as a result of I work at home, juggling shopper calls, content material creation, podcast interviews, Zooms, IHP work, and many others. I didn’t really feel like I may add one other issues to my plate, however I didn’t even suppose twice about it after we bought thus far. I’ve shuffled my schedule round quite a bit so that the majority of my content material creation is finished over the weekend, and the sweetness about homeschool is that it solely takes round two hours every day at this age.

This publish is already tremendous lengthy, so I’ll share one other publish quickly with the curriculum we’re utilizing and the way we construction our days.

Thanks on your kindness and being so superb over the previous few months. It’s been a tough 12 months in some ways (this is only one of them) and being right here with you all every day is a significant vibrant spot. We completed our first full week of homeschool and I’m feeling fairly excited and hopeful about it! I’m additionally grateful that we get to spend some further time collectively and are trying into the entire cool homeschool actions that Tucson affords!

xoxo

Gina