Our New Season of Homeschooling

A few friends have asked me why we have decided to homeschool. They have asked me why now. They have asked me what changed my mind. So I am writing a blog post explaining our family’s reasons. After teaching public school for 11 years, this thought was a super surprise to me when God started putting it on my heart. 

Contrary to what some people might think- Abram does amazingly well in school, both in grades and behavior. His teachers love him and he has good friends. So, why have we made this decision? Why now? Well, I have come up with four reasons why we feel like this is what is best for our family right now:

1. Calling:  When I told Abram we were going to pull him out of school and homeschool, he of course asked, “why?” I told him that I have felt twice in my life God specifically telling me to do something. The first time was to adopt, the second time was to homeschool. I felt it heavy on my heart one afternoon. I just kept hearing the words over and over: “homeschool him.” Chris and I strongly feel that this is what God is calling us to do right now. 
2. Attachment:  As some of you may know, we have been struggling lately with Abram in the area of attachment. He just isn’t attached to us completely. It is painful to see and it hurts our hearts. I have always felt like we should be doing more and as soon as I heard God call us to homeschool, I felt in my heart this is the "more."  Our prayer is that spending one on one time with him learning, reading, playing, and talking will only help him. 
3. Transitions:  Since we move so much and sometimes we never know how long we will be in one place, this will hopefully help in making the transitions better. We will have an established routine wherever we go. 
4. Dissatisfaction:  I’ll keep this part short (because my intentions are not to offend or hurt feelings). Chris and I are dissatisfied with what the public schools are teaching and what they aren’t teaching. We feel there are things Abram should know and also there are things that he shouldn’t be learning at school.

Okay, so that’s why we feel like this is best for our family--hopefully that answers some questions! 

Now, to answer the question: "How will you teach Abram?" We have chosen to join the Classical Conversations community. It is a Christian community group that meets on Tuesdays and is based on the Classical model of education.  At Classical Conversations they work on Science, History, Bible Memory, Latin and Geography.  At home we will be using Math U See for our Math Curriculum and our plan is to start using the Language Arts curriculum from the Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW) in the fall. Right now, we will be starting in Fix-It Grammar and First Language Lessons. We have also been slowly building our read aloud library and I have been following Sarah Mackenzie with the Read Aloud Revival. Reading aloud will be a huge part of our day. 

I have all these plans, I have the curriculum, I have a rough outline of our day- but I am still very nervous and overwhelmed. I want to pour into Abram (and soon Jack and Luke, too). I want to build a strong relationship with him and get to know him. I want to teach him well and I want to point him to Jesus.  Those are my goals, but I can't do any of this without daily (hourly) relying on Him. Yes, I taught school and I have a degree in Elementary Education- but this is so much more and I want to do it well. I am trusting God will work in Abram's heart, that He will guide our days, curriculum and plans. 

This is the verse I am clinging to right now, "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." (I Thes. 5:24)

Abram's First Day!

Our curriculum for this semester- can't wait to dive into it!

His weekly memorization work for Classical.