Homeschool Life

Perhaps you are not that familiar with me and my family, but we have been a homeschooling family for a long time now. It is a job that I take very seriously and would consider it my full time occupation for the last 15 years.

We are about to embark on our 16th year homeschool and for the first time in about 8 years, I lost a student. My oldest has now graduated and it is just our three daughters in our school. We also are doing things slightly different in that we moved away from the charter school we had been members of for the last 12 years after deciding that many of the policies were not for our family. The school had changed a lot over the years and the options for parent chosen curriculum were not allowed and the education agenda of the state is not the best for our children. Our model of homeschooling has always been that I choose the curriculum, write the lessons, teach, grade and keep the records, the only thing the charter school did for us was provide additional resources but in the post-Covid world these extra curricular activities were no longer funded by the school.

For those that enjoy the details, here is the current plan.

For my sophomore in High School, she will be taking French, English, Geometry, Biology, Bible, through a mixture of online and textbook formats and some financial and entrepreneurial courses from Dave Ramsey.

My 8th grader will be doing English and science using The Good and the Beautiful curriculum. She will be using Teaching Textbooks for math as well as taking a personal finance course from Dave Ramsey for middle schoolers. These are both online which has benefits for her auditory learning style. We are in year 4 of the Story of the World for history. I will be writing a Bible curriculum specific for her as well. She will continue with her amazing tutor that she has had for 3 years already where they continue to make progress through the Susan Barton curriculum to help bridge the language barrier presented by her dyslexia.

Lastly, my 5th grader does not do well with online learning so she has all text books. Her math, science, and English are all from The Good and the Beautiful. History is done with her sister so that is the Story of the World as well. Bible will be written by me, and she is enjoying learning some Spanish from the Duolingo app.

Physical Education is necessary for all the students in our school. The older girls have been riding horses for several years now and the youngest is a fantastic martial artist. They additionally do chores at the ranch and are required to help prepare and clean up after meals. We also enjoy playing disc golf as a family, and try to play a round twice a week.

Overall, I am really looking forward to this upcoming year. It will be the first one in nearly 5 years where I am not also going to school and I can spend more time, energy, and effort making learning the most enjoyable I can for these beautiful ladies in my life. Our biggest educational goal has always been to create life long learners and thankfully, this is something that both my husband and I have lived out in front of our children their entire lives and they know there is always some new information to be gained.