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 yr. 

Hello associates!

I hope that you just’re having a tremendous week and I’m so pumped that so lots of you have got 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. Should you’re on the lookout for a blast of motivation as we head into spring, that is the proper solution to do it!

For at this time’s put up, 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 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 tough line to stroll, particularly after 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, checks, and assignments. It was particularly exhausting along with her competitors dance schedule. We switched studios and reduce her hours in half, and he or she was nonetheless up till at the least midnight each night time (for the previous 2+ years) attempting to complete the whole lot for varsity. I’m an enormous believer in exhausting work and I believe 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 huge sis in school, 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 anxious 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 typically twice every week. Her abdomen ache and nervousness bought so unhealthy that she missed many days of faculty, and we have been right here attempting to maintain up with the insane quantity of homework, classwork, and checks.

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

I by no means supposed 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 price mentioning right here that I made a decision to do a Food Sentivity Test (and another useful labs) and bought to the foundation 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 tremendously decreased.

Our plan now:

– She’s on the waitlist for Liv’s new college however realistically received’t be capable 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 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 anticipate to show their children extra successfully than a instructor?”

In the course of the women’ time in class, we’ve had some extraordinary academics who’re the whole lot academics ought 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 college atmosphere ALL the time, if you end up paying in 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 night time educating anyway, as a result of they weren’t taught the content material throughout their courses.

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

Although I’ve seen associates homeschool and sort of daydreamed about how how enjoyable it might be, I didn’t think about it a chance as a result of I do business from home, juggling shopper calls, content material creation, podcast interviews, Zooms, IHP work, and many others. I didn’t really feel like I might add one other issues to my plate, however I didn’t even suppose twice about it after we bought up to now. I’ve shuffled my schedule round lots so that the majority of my content material creation is finished over the weekend, and the wonder about homeschool is that it solely takes round two hours every day at this age.

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

Thanks in your kindness and being so wonderful over the previous few months. It’s been a tough yr in some ways (this is only one of them) and being right here with you all every day is a serious shiny 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 provides!

xoxo

Gina