Hi, I’m Cindy and my husband and I home schooled our 3 sons for a total of 31 years. They are all graduated and we are now empty nesters. If you ever heard the saying, “The days are long but the years are short”, it is true! Looking back, it sure doesn’t seem like it was very long.
Homeschooling my sons is something I would not give up for anything! Was it easy? Sometimes, but sometimes it was NOT. Were there hard days? Yes! Was it worth it? Absolutely! I am past my years of actively homeschooling but I cannot give it up in my heart or mind. I will always love it. The years I spent with my children teaching them will always be dear to me.
I wanted to start this blog to share my experiences with you in whatever part of your journey you are in to hopefully encourage you. In my writing about homeschooling, I am able to still have a part of something I loved doing, even though my kids are all grown.
Our journey into homeschooling:
Our oldest went to a Christian school from 1st-3rd grade. We actually “accidentally” homeschooled him for kindergarten before we even considered that homeschooling would be for our family. He learned his letters on the little wooden blocks as he played on the floor as I fed his baby brother when he was 3 years old. He learned to read as we read together after that. It just came naturally that I pulled out books that went through the phonics and he caught on to it.
When it came time for him to go to kindergarten, I asked what he would learn. I was told he would learn to read and to add and subtract from ten. Uh-oh, he already knew that. He would turn six years old in November and was too young to go to kindergarten last year so I had to keep him busy somehow while waiting to go to school. Plus, we enjoyed reading and doing little activities together. The school said to bring him in to talk to the first grade teacher and he read to her from the reading book she would be using in her class in the fall. It was decided that he would go to first grade in the fall; we had had our first year of homeschooling but hadn’t realized we were doing it. I always thought it was strange that he was too young legally to go to kindergarten one year but not too young to go to first grade the next. He went to first grade and made out just fine.
By the time he finished third grade, we had met several homeschooled families and fell in love with homeschooling. We had also moved to the country so were not near the school anymore and jumped into homeschooling “for real”.
Our homeschooling years:
We did not set out with the mindset that we would homeschool our kids for their entire education no matter what. While the boys grew up, we moved several times and some of the moves were to different states. Each spring, we assessed each child—with their input–and if what we were doing was working the best it could. Sometimes we changed curriculum and a couple of times we even put one or more of them into school. A couple of places we lived we had very good options for schools and that was good for a year or two. One son graduated from a great local Christian school and two graduated from homeschool. It was the right thing to homeschool this son the years we did and the right thing to have him finish his last 3 years in school. Our sons are alike in a lot of ways but they are different people and had different needs in their schooling.
A couple of things I learned:
Our prayer in raising our boys, and this applied greatly to homeschooling, was always that we would not miss doing something that they needed but also that we would not waste resources (time, energy, money, etc.) on things that did not matter. God blessed this prayer and they are all doing great as adults today.
Another thing that worked for us was to take one day, one year at a time. It was easy when they were young to wonder and worry what we would do for high school or whatever else was in the future. I really did not have to worry about that then! It all came together when it was needed. Really. It will. I am not saying not to prepare or plan or pray about it but don’t worry about it.
Well, I’m not sure how much to say here or how to end the About Me page but this is a sample of a few things I hope to tell you in the blog. I also have lots of ideas for worksheets, tips, recipes, unit studies, crafts and ideas. Stay tuned! 😊
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