Our homeschool journey started about 18 months ago while I was working as a teacher full time. Every morning, I was picking up two sleeping girls out of the bed and getting them ready, and then I was taking one to daycare and one to kindergarten. My two year old was the very first child dropped off each morning at early drop off, and my kindergartener was also an early drop off student so that I could make it to work on time. In the afternoons, after meetings and work responsibilities, sometimes I would pick my two year old up at 5:30. We would make it home by 6, and then I would feed them, give them a bath, and put them to bed by 7:30. Even with going to bed so early, my kids were exhausted. They would both fall asleep in the car on the way to school in the mornings and on the way home in the afternoons. I felt like we barely saw them during the week. I was also getting burnt out with being so busy. Every family is different, but I knew that what we were doing just was not working for our family and that we had to make a change.
Chris and I had been talking about having a third baby, and we were paying off debt and working toward a financial situation that would allow me to stay home with baby number three. This was my light at the end of the tunnel on the hard days. I knew that we were working toward something that would allow me to spend more time with my girls and also give us some rest.
I began to earnestly pray and ask God to help me find what was best for my family. About that same time, Jubilee started asking out of the blue if she could be homeschooled. It wasn’t something that I had talked to her about or talked about in front of her. (I honestly used to say I would never homeschool my kids.) She kept asking every day on the way to school if she could stay with me and if I could just homeschool her. Having been a student in a school of some sort for my whole life, and then a teacher at a school after my days as a student were over, homeschool was not something that I had considered. My husband was homeschooled as a child, and I remember after one of our premarital counseling sessions about children and school, I told him that I would never ever homeschool my kids!
As it turns out, you should never say never! God began to speak to me and change my heart about homeschool. He began to give me a desire to homeschool that I had never had before. I felt like Jubilee asking to be homeschooled was a confirmation for me and an answer to the prayer that I had been praying about finding what was best for my family.
When my school closed in March and we began to do school online, Jubilee’s age group only needed to complete 15 minutes of work each day, so I bought some homeschool curriculum and started homeschooling then, mainly so that I could entertain two small kids all day while still working online! What I found was that a homeschool schedule gave me a lot of stability and routine with my kids, so we kept on doing school right through the summer, just taking about three weeks off for vacation time. I filled out the withdrawal paperwork from public school, registered Jubilee as a homeschool student in our state, and we officially started first grade as a homeschool family this past August.
It has been a lot of trial and error, I’ve changed our daily schedule and our curriculum many times over the past 11 months, but I believe that God called me to homeschool my kids during this season of life, and I can see my kids thriving in a way that they didn’t before. I know that many people got thrown into homeschool or virtual school and it has not been an easy or a smooth journey, and I am praying for every family who is in this situation. I have talked to many people who are considering homeschool for next year, and if you are as well, I encourage you to pray that same simple prayer that I prayed and ask God to show you what is best for your family in this season.
Here’s a simple prayer:
God, please make your plans for my family clear to me. Show me what is best for my kids. Whether it is public school, virtual school, private school, or homeschool, I want your will to be done in my life and the lives of my kids. Give us the grace to do life in this season, and give me wisdom in this area. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” -James 1:5
If you are considering homeschool, or just struggling with virtual school at home, I would love to talk to you about it and pray for you. Just send me an email at sandyellynhunt@gmail.com, and we can talk!
