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 college 12 months. 

Hello buddies!

I hope that you just’re having an incredible week and I’m so pumped that so lots of you might have signed up for our Spring Ahead wellness problem. Ensure that to enroll right here – it’s completely free and it’s going to be a ton of enjoyable. For those who’re on the lookout for a blast of motivation as we head into spring, that is the proper approach to do it!

For at the moment’s publish, I wished to share somewhat 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 troublesome to navigate how and what to share. I’ve all the time been open with you guys in relation to my life, however the aim of the weblog has all the time been to share MY expertise; not my kids’s. It’s a difficult line to stroll, particularly once they’re an enormous a part of my life and I really feel like so lots 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 all the time tried to take a fragile strategy to my content material, particularly as they’ve gotten older.

The nutshell model is that this: we ended up transferring Liv to a different non-public college in January. We have been all combating the mind-boggling quantity of homework, exams, and assignments. It was particularly arduous along with her competitors dance schedule. We switched studios and minimize her hours in half, and he or she was nonetheless up till at the very least midnight each evening (for the previous 2+ years) making an attempt to complete every little thing for varsity. I’m an enormous believer in arduous work and I feel tutorial rigor has its place, but it surely 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 he or she began to have extra frequent stomachaches. (Her abdomen has bothered her on and off for years, which has all the time apprehensive 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 nervousness received so unhealthy that she missed many days of faculty, and we have been right here making an attempt to maintain up with the insane quantity of homework, classwork, and exams.

The Pilot was house for retirement and was instructing her the content material, ensuring she accomplished the large packets of classwork, and taking her to high school for exams. He had return to industrial airline coaching and I couldn’t fathom solo parenting, working, and making an attempt to maintain up with all the college work she was lacking, so I requested her to both select to return to high school or we may pull her out, and he or she mentioned, “Please homeschool me.”

I by no means meant to be a instructor, 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 value mentioning right here that I made a decision to do a Food Sentivity Test (and another useful labs) and received to the basis explanation for some intestine points, and her gluten sensitivity was extreme. No surprise her abdomen was hurting :/ Since she began the protocols and eliminated gluten, her abdomen ache has tremendously lowered.

Our plan now:

– She’s on the waitlist for Liv’s new college however realistically gained’t have the ability to get in till fifth grade

– We’ll homeschool till then and if she decides to return, that’s nice, and if she doesn’t need 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 dad or mum anticipate to show their youngsters extra successfully than a instructor?”

In the course of the women’ time in class, we’ve had some extraordinary lecturers who’re every little thing lecturers must be. They love youngsters, love what they’re instructing, they’re above and past. However on the identical time, some lecturers are…not good. They are saying weird issues at school, disgrace kids in entrance of their friends, and this occurs in a non-public college atmosphere ALL the time, if you end up paying to 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 instructing anyway, as a result of they weren’t taught the content material throughout their courses.

Rising up, I additionally thought that homeschooled youngsters have been most likely awkward as a result of they don’t have as a lot social interplay. The truth is that all the homeschooled youngsters I’ve met are variety, articulate, pleasant, and extremely sensible.

Though I’ve seen buddies homeschool and sort of daydreamed about how how enjoyable it could be, I didn’t take into account it a risk as a result of I do business from home, juggling consumer calls, content material creation, podcast interviews, Zooms, IHP work, and so forth. 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 received thus far. I’ve shuffled my schedule round loads so that almost all of my content material creation is completed over the weekend, and the wonder 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 to 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 serious vivid 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 additional time collectively and are wanting into all the cool homeschool actions that Tucson affords!

xoxo

Gina