how It Began

I have had many moms ask me how I got into homeschooling so I suppose I will start at the beginning of my journey homeschooling. 2005. My first born, Jonah was (and still is) a sponge for learning!  He made teaching him and working with him fun!  He had a craving for knowledge and by age 18 months he knew his entire alphabet (both capital and lower case letters) and around 24 months he had learned the sounds of taht all the the letters make.  Moms in my social circle had begun talking about looking into preschools but I knew I was not ready to send him out in an environment other than our home.  We felt that young children were still so moldable and pliable and what better place to grow our children up the godly way we desired them to be, at a time when they were shaping the views of the world, than in our own family and home providing a biblical worldview?  However, we also knew that Jonah was ripe for learning needing more of a structured learning environment to challenge him.  I went to a one day homeschooling equipping day in July of 2005 that was put on by Smoothing the Way Ministries called Starting the Way.  The two biggest take away from that day that has stuck with me throughout all the years:

1.  You will never be able to teach your child everything they need to know, no teacher ever will.  Your job is to develop a love for learning so that they will want to go research it and teach themselves.

2.  Committing to homeschool your child(ren) this year does not mean that you will be homeschooling all your children until they graduate highschool.  Take it one child, one year at a time.

Shane and I just happened to be in Sam's Club and we saw a Hooked on Phonics package grds. K-2 and we thought that would be perfect for teaching Jonah and potentially Caleb, who was 21 months old and already showing a great interest in books.  This sparked a curiosity to begin exploring preschool curriculum ideas online.  I came across Brightly Beaming Resources and absolutely loved the structure this mom began teaching her preschoolers with!  So that summer I began writing my own preschool curriculum using the same structure as BBR only I traded out Nursery Rhymes for Memory Verse. 

Jonah turned three at the end of July 2005 and we kicked off this new curriculum in September.  We did preschool two days a week an hour at a time.  I typically did this while Caleb was taking his morning nap or as he got older that time became his "Room Time" in which he'd play in a pack-n-play with toys in his room.  Teaching my son preschool was an absolute delight!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching him grasp concepts and understand ideas!  It the most rewarding work I had ever done!

Here's an excerpt from my 2005 Christmas letter about our first year homeschooling:

In September Jonah started preschool!  I was a little hesitant as I am the one homeschooling him and I wasn’t sure how he would take to it.  From day one he loved it!  We had purchased the “Hooked on Phonics” Kit and to my surprise when opening it, I discovered that he was past the first 2 stages of the Kindergarten level; knowing all his letters as well as the sounds each letter made.  The next step was reading!  I could hardly believe he could be ready for such a thing but I trusted the system and set forth teaching him.  He did Day 1 and to my amazement it just clicked with him and he began reading words!  Now he has graduated through 4 “Hooked on Phonics” books.  Teaching him has been so much fun for me!  He makes it fun b/c he loves to learn!