Anything Goes: Why We're Homeschooling

Several years ago, when the kidlets were REALLY little, I mentioned homeschooling to the hubs and received the following response: "You can homeschool until Kindergarten."

And honestly, that was the end of the conversation. Until this year.

Long story short, after a lot of reflection and a lot of prayer, we decided that we would withdraw the kids from their Catholic school and embark on a year-long homeschooling/book promotion adventure.

In order to create the time needed to become the kidlet's teacher, I asked for and was granted a sabbatical from my school librarian job. And that was it. We were homeschooling. (Okay, yes, we had to file with the state, but that was just a form online.)

Four weeks in and I can honestly say that we are loving it. Although it was a challenge to keep up with summer activities like camp and the amazing library programs while doing four weeks of school, the flexible schedule allowed us to shape the next year the way we need it to be. To schedule in adventures the regular school calendar wouldn't allow.

But it's more than the schedule. I mean, that's nice and all, but I was also seeing one of the kidlets falling behind because of undiagnosed issues in his earlier school years and the other growing bored and frustrated due to his (please don't let it be OCD) need to understand everything at that moment. (Nothing against OCD, but our house would literally be torture for someone with OCD.)

But the real trick will be what happens in the next five months. In that time, It's A Wonderful Death will release, I have at least 8 events scheduled, our family will embark on a four week cross country adventure that will take us from Indiana to the Grand Canyon, through the Red Wood Forest, up to Portland, down to Yellowstone, across the Badlands with a stop to marvel at Mount Rushmore before crossing the plains of Iowa and arriving breathless, exhausted and (hopefully) impressed by our great nation. The entire time, the kidlets will be working on school and making some amazing family memories.

For those of you asking "Four weeks? It's insane and involves the hubs and I coordinating one-way flights so that they kids don't have to back-track to Indiana just to head back to the same place to start the trip. I'll post more on that later. But for now, I wish our Hoosier friends who are heading back to the classroom this week lots of learning power and for the rest of you, enjoy every moment with your kidlets and BE FEARLESS when you have the chance to go on an adventure. It just might save your life.