Last Spring, after years of discussion, we made the decision as a family to homeschool our children. We made our choice for a whole host of reasons: curriculum choices, family values, and one to one education. Libby and Emry both have low vision and as parents, Lee and I wanted to make sure they got the one to one attention they need, especially in the formative years. We have worked with low vision experts and early intervention since Libby was a few months old and they also strongly agreed that for us this was the right choice. For Whitney we decided that even though she doesn’t have the low vision issues her siblings do, we could still provide a more tailored education to her learning style and give her the best education just like Libby and Emry. Curriculum was also a biggie for us. As I’m sure every family does, you have strong opinions as to what and how your child should be taught. Some families choose public school, some choose private schools but everyone picks what they believe will work best for their family.
As we researched more and more into homeschooling we also realized a big factor that we really hadn’t even considered…family time! As a family we are able to set our own schedule. We have the freedom to travel as we please without worrying about missing school, we just take school with us. This was a big tipping factor for us in favor of homeschooling. We could create an educational plan for each child, that suited that child’s learning style and follow it at our own pace.
I have a Masters Degree in Elementary Education and taught public school for nine years. I feel confident in my abilities to educate my children and Lee believed in me too {probably more than I believed in myself}. I have learned after twelve weeks that homeschooling looks a lot different than the regular classroom I was used to. It is less formal and way less structured. It took me some getting used to, switching from Mrs. Scarborough to Teacher Momma but I think I have just about released all of my old ways and embraced the beauty of homeschooling. I mean, in a regular classroom does your teacher let you wear pink fairy wings?? 😉 
This year Libby is in Pre-K. Our focus this year in on getting our routine down so when she starts Kinder next year we have a system in place. We are also working on phonics and early reading skills, counting and number manipulation, science, history, Latin, fine art {art skills and music}, timeline and geography.
I did A LOT of research and spoke with A LOT of parents that homeschool when choosing our curriculum. We decided to go with Classical Conversations. It provided a community setting {we go to tutoring once a week and Libby has a class}, it incorporated all the religious values we want to instill into our children and the curriculum was all encompassing. We also picked up A BEKA as a phonics component because I really like the style that it uses to teach the skills.
We have completed the first half of our school year {12 weeks} and we are really enjoying our experience so far! Libby loves going to “class” on Tuesday and getting to interact with all of her classmates but we also love the fun learning time we have at home!
Some of our favorite parts have been:
Science experiments
Weekly Presentations
The Fun Songs!
Astronomy
Math
Phonics Games
Hands On Activities
Geography
Overall homeschooling has been a very positive and rewarding experience for our family so far. No, everyday hasn’t been easy…I have two very small kiddos that don’t always understand that mommy needs to devote extra time to Libby at certain points during the day. However; the leaps and bounds Libby has made this year is worth every ounce of frustration I feel some days. We are a homeschool family for sure!
Let's talk, tell me what you think.