Homeschooling found us

We turned to homeschooling out of desperation. Looking back I can see Gods will in our change to homeschool.

We sold our house, and while we decided where we wanted to be permanently, we rented a house in the same school district our 4th grader was in previously. It was the same city. I called the school board and made sure if we lived in the same city she would attend the same school. They assured me she would. We started packing to move to our new house. I got a call from the secretary warning me that our new address, although the same city, was a different district. This  different district was out of the question.

I jokingly said something that would change the course of our lives "I could just homeschool". 

After saying this my husband, a very wordly man, at the time said "Yes thats what we will do."

I was excited and terrified all at the same time! As I began looking for how this would be accomplished I came across verse after verse about "training up your child". It became clear to both my husband and I that training her up should be our main focus. I was working part-time as a nurse at the time.

The end of our Artsy girls 4th grade year we dove in to books and wrote a lot of papers. I thought homeschool meant I sat at the table with her and "taught" her for several hours a day. I thought this was so easy and as we rounded in to summer I realized she had not learned a single thing.

In panic mode I signed her up for K12 and was so excited to have teacher backup. My Artsy girls fifth grade year was spent mostly at a computer learning what the state wanted. I constantly felt I was behind because I had to grade everything and was always days (sometimes weeks) behind. There were days I creid and wanted to put her back in public schools because I felt so inadequate and unprepared.

Every time I hit these lows there would be the resounding answer from God and my hubby to keep with it becasue it would pay off.

Spring 2013 Arty girl took her acheivement tests.... AND Passed. Not only did she get higher than state average in Math, her hardest subject, but she also got exceptional scores in science and reading. I was thrilled. I cannot describe the feeling of having a intregal part in teaching your child the things she/he needs to know. I felt so proud of her and accomplished as a mother. By this time though we had Brown eyed girl who was 4, Blue Eyes who was 2, and a moving Smiley baby.

For sisth grade we signed up to start K12 again and when the first week rolled around I realized that we would have hardly any time as a family anymore becasue Artsy girl would be spending all her time meeting with teachers. I was not ready to give up so much time with her and so much of the time she has to work on her interests. Thats when I stumpled upon Easy Peasy allinonehomeschool.com. If you are considering homeschool and cannot afford the curriculums this is the place to go. Everything is there and is so easy to use.

We have had less arguments over how to do math and I have had to remind her to stay focused so much less with this program. She looks forward to it and can accomplish everything in just a few hours. She has plently of time to draw, look further in to other subjects of interest, and spend with her family.

Homeschool has been an immense blessing so far. It is so nice to be able to spend time as a family, be the major sources of encouragement and teaching for our children. There are still days I want to run and hide for a few minutes but they are so fewer and far between.