It's hard work having a family, homeschooling, running the errands, keeping up with the house, spending quality time with the family, and sometimes just life itself. Throw in a rare, terminal disease and it can sometimes be downright chaos.
In the beginning stages of the pandemic, I got sick, so sick I had to leave my 60+ hour demanding job as a facilities manager of 50 sites, not to mention the 20+ hours worth of paperwork that I brought with me. I could no longer keep up with the vigorous routine and physical demands that my job required.
This obstacle caused me to step back and reevaluate my life. With this diagnosis, plus the boredom my children were facing with "occasional, not required " zoom meetings, I started homeschooling my children, and was all set to spend much more time with them.
At the time, I figured it best to mimic what they were used to in school. All day at a desk, with breaks for sunshine, personal business and lunch.... boy was I wrong.
My kids quickly showed me that was not the way. I didn't realize they were burned out too. So we soon kicked the desks, quite literally, to the curb. Sign: FREE, First Come, First Serve on our local "free" site.
Next came something none of us were really prepared for, but which we craved immensely with all that was well in our souls, and all that wanted to be. We relaxed... while working, while being productive. What?!? Right?!? I know.
I never thought it possible.
So now we don't force it (often). We do I guess what one would consider eclectic homeschooling. We let the kids lead, we spend A LOT of time outdoors Spring-Fall, we explore and create, we do chores, we bake with or without relation to our lessons (although it's more fun with), and unfortunately, yes, we do still do the dreaded Math... although we don't adhere to anyone else's schedule of where we "should be," multiplication took a LONNNNNNNG time to master. Me personally, I loved math, in most every instance you get one answer, in black and white, for every question. Little did I know my kids are more square peg, round hole. But we get through it, sometimes with grace and dignity, sometimes with tears and tantrums.
Throughout our now 3 year journey, has it really been 3 years, gosh!?!, we've learned, we've laughed, we've cried (didn't I just mention that), but most of all, we've grown. And that's the most important part.
I've enjoyed watching my kids turn into little farmers, scientists, bakers, artists... but the thing that really cemented in my heart that we were doing the right thing... was when my youngest told me her favorite subject was Bible. She loved reading the Bible, learning about all the heroes/heroines and not so heroic people in the Bible, and connecting these life lessons to our daily lives. I believe this spiritual connection is important in not only who we are, but who we are becoming, and hopefully these connections will last throughout their lives.
So join us as we bumble our way through this crazy little thing called life(schooling).