Discerning Home Schooling

When the idea of home schooling came to me I was rather skeptical. As the daughter of public educators and as a member of a parish with a fantastic Catholic school it didn’t even make sense.

Why would I consider educating our children at home?

For the better part of a year, prior to our oldest approaching school age, the Lord pursued my heart heavily to educate our children at home. He gave me the desire to share learning in a gentle child-like way in an environment that was shaped to each child’s readiness and interests.

Kindergarten at home was a trial year to test the waters of home schooling. Our days were filled with nature walks, hands on activities, and lots of reading out loud. We started the Little House series and spent the year immersed in Laura’s adventures as a pioneer girl. That trial year was everything I had hoped for and more.

When our second year approached, I became more serious about our mission of education. This was the year that our daughter was officially old enough to be enrolled in school and we needed to come up with a name for our school to register with the state. We chose St. Michael the Arch Angel and wrote out our mission to help guide us on our path of learning.

Our mission and top three priorities were outlined as:

1) To lead our children to heaven.

2) To cultivate lifelong learners.

3) To produce a strong work ethic.

It also became evident that it was time to choose a curriculum to follow. After a grueling search through an overwhelming amount of information I found Charlotte Mason and her gentle way of teaching. I agreed with her way of presenting learning and how plenty of time was made available for the child to pursue their own learning interests.

We are now more than halfway through our fourth year. I can hardly believe it! We have taken each year one at a time. As far as the future we don’t know how long we will home school each child. Through the elementary years? Middle school? High school? It’s hard to say. It will depend on the child and the situation. But we can say with confidence that we haven’t regretted one minute spent learning together as a family!

Many of you who are curious about homeschooling may question how it all can be done. Maybe even feel that you could never do it yourself. Let me encourage you today by telling you that not one of us that chooses to home school has it all together. We do the best we can on a day-to-day basis. Some days are more Shakespeare and fractions. And others are more Netflix history, laundry, and grace.

But all of lessons at home are important learning. Because raising a well rounded individual isn’t about memorization of facts. More so, it is the raising of an adult that is a self taught learner. One that can solve problems, overcome adversity, and most importantly be grounded in their faith.

In my next post I will share with you a little about our eclectic {{Catholic}} Charlotte Mason, Montessori-ish education and how we make it work in our home with an 8 year old, 4.5 year old, 2 year old and a newborn. (YES! We had our baby! Baby Henry was born earlier this month and we are so in love!)

So, tell me! Are you considering a home education for your children?

How can I encourage you?