How and Why We Started to Homeschool

Are you wondering how to homeschool and why you should homeschool? Did you used to think homeschoolers were weird? or “unsocialized?” Did you also think homeschoolers were bound to have gaps in their education and end up behind? Well….I used to think that too. I was a strong supporter of public school and when I had my first baby, I started getting excited about her learning and eventually going to Kindergarten.

5 years later the day finally came and I rushed her off to school, FULL day Kindergarten at that! She didn’t even look back at me before going in with her class. She’d always been a social butterfly but I expected her to be a little scared being in a new place with people she didn’t know. I shrugged it off and told myself “this must be right,” since she went along with it and seemed happy.

Homework

Maybe a week into her first year of school she started bringing home homework. And I don’t mean a couple easy worksheets on colors or ABC’s. The work they sent home would take ALL evening to complete. I had to sit down and help her with most of it because she struggled and she got frustrated easily. This made it difficult to make or prepare dinner. I ended up ordering take out while helping her, and even then it would take the rest of the night to handle her homework and get her ready to go to bed, just to get up in the morning and do it all again.

I was appalled at the homework my daughter kept bringing home. Kindergarten was supposed to be fun and simple. From what I remember, we learned our colors, we learned the ABC’s, had story time and recess. We had NO homework, other than trying to figure out what to bring for ‘Show and Tell’ on Fridays. I was so confused. Why would public school try to cram so much information down our children’s throats at such a young age? This was the time to be taught how much fun learning could be, and how to get used to a school environment. Not stress them out and cause anxiety disorders.

School Closures

I didn’t pull our daughter out of public school at first but the homework and curriculum they were teaching continued to frustrate me as time went on. My husband and I were both working. We had opposite schedules so someone was always home and able to pick her up or drop her off. It was impossible to afford daycare. Eventually, March 2020 hit. Her school decided to close and gave a laptop to each child. They would continue school via Zoom calls. Our daughter was half way through 1st grade at the time. We hadn’t yet taught her how to use a computer. She was already glued to the TV every chance she got and we were trying to limit her exposure to screens and internet. Needless to say, this ended up being a difficult transition.

The teachers had multiple websites with different logins and passwords she was supposed to keep track of. We had to sit there and help her with the computer. Even my husband and I had trouble keeping track of the programs and sites. We felt like she wasn’t learning ANYTHING!

Starting our Homeschool Journey

So one day, jokingly, I told my my husband it would just be easier at this point to homeschool her! We could choose what to teach and how to teach it, we wouldn’t have to deal with all this other stuff. We were already spending all this time helping her anyway. It would probably take less time to homeschool. My husband thought about what I said and then he looked at me like a light bulb had just turned on. I was surprised. He took me serious and actually agreed! So, we let her finish out the 1st grade year and my husband sent the letter of intent to her school for 2nd grade. It was done! We were officially ready to homeschool.

Deschooling

I was home in the evenings, my husband was home in the mornings. He also worked less hours than I did so he planned to do the homeschooling. Before starting out, he read a few books to prepare himself. The first was “A Thomas Jefferson Education” by Oliver DeMille and the second was “Dumbing Us Down” by John Taylor Gatto.

He decided the best approach for her would be to start out “deschooling.” This was due to her frustration levels and anxiety when it came to learning. He wanted to make sure she could be in a good, calm demeanor before he tried teaching her. Deschooling is not doing any “school” or “structured” learning for a while. This allows your children to decompress. In public school children are conditioned to raise their hand to speak, to sit at a desk quietly for hours on end, to ask permission to use the restroom etc! He wanted her to unlearn these things so they could start with a clean slate. They spent about 3-4 months deschooling.

Now despite the fact he deschooled her, when they tried sitting down for structured learning, she still had some anxiety. She would fight the learning process and get very frustrated. Many lessons he attempted would lead to tears. I can only imagine it would’ve been worse if he’d jumped right into the homeschooling instead of deschooling first.

Reading Resource

At this point, my daughter was still unable to read, other than a few site words she memorized. My husband chose to use a book that ended up being a miracle! He used “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, Elaine Bruner. After a few lessons, I heard my daughter reading words and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest! I was amazed at how easy he taught her after she struggled with reading for so long! Afterwards, he worked in some Math lessons and eventually found a Homeschool Co-op to join. They had Music lessons as well as History and Nature Study.

Another Big Leap

Finally about a year later, I decided to quit my job and be at home full time. We were looking at our finances and after some calculations we came to the conclusion we would be better off if my husband could work more hours and I just stay home. As a Massage Therapist he could make way more money than my office job combined with his part time hours. My full time 9-5 schedule was making it difficult for him to work on his private practice. Me staying home allowed him to open up his schedule and build more clientele.

Now I’m the one doing the homeschooling. I do things different than my husband did. I also do things very different now from when I started out. But that is the beauty of homeschooling! You can do it your way, and if you change your mind about something, you can go a different direction. I truly love this about homeschooling. I make it work for my family and our routines. If you’re still sitting on the sideline debating whether to homeschool…..take the leap my friends! You will not regret it!!
If you want to know more about my homeschooling methods, please drop a comment below. I would love to write another post on this topic!