Homeschooling: A New Adventure

“You’re gonna make me do what I don’t want to do, aren’t you?” I said while staring reluctantly up into the sky. With a deep sigh, I unlocked my car door and climbed into the drivers seat. Before racing off to make it home in time for my kids’ bedtime routine, I sat in the dark, quiet parking lot of my church processing what just happened.

To establish some context, I have never considered myself good with kids. In fact, up until I married my husband, I was adamant I’d never have children of my own. Although having children has been one of my life’s greatest blessings, I still find myself occasionally struggling to embrace the “MOPS” mommy mentality.

Compounded with the fact both of my kids are neurodivergent, parenting has been a particularly difficult journey. Where most moms cried on their children’s first day of school, I rejoiced (don’t worry, I stopped the car before pushing them out…LOL). Likewise, where most moms jumped at the opportunity to volunteer at school, just the thought brought tears of anxiety and panic to my eyes.

Years of advocating for my kids at school, doctor’s appointments, therapies, family/friends, and church left me feeling exhausted, isolated, and judged. School and church activities became opportunities of respite instead of opportunities to serve. Little did I know, God was preparing me for something greater than I ever could have imagined. Now, let’s go back to the night where I’m sitting in my car knowing everything was about to change.

Where God Leads, God Provides

After years of practice, advocating for my kids had become my biggest strength. So when my church asked me to attend a brainstorming meeting about opening a special needs ministry, I was ready for battle. Well, within reason…

On the night of the meeting, I was willing to give my input as a special needs mom. After all, I’ve walked the walk and talked the talk. I was also willing to tap into my prior event planning and design skills to help design the room. BUT, I drew the line at actively volunteering IN the room on Sundays (cue God’s laughter). Working with kids clearly wasn’t my gift. BUT, by the end of the night, standing by my car door, I knew God was calling me out of my comfort zone and into something big. “You’re going to make me do what I don’t want to do…aren’t you?”

What started as an opportunity to advocate, turned into a divinely inspired room design that fell together in an hour. Over the next couple months, that room design turned into volunteering as the room family advocate and resource librarian. Which, then turned into taking the role of creating weekly curriculum. And finally, designing successful church curriculum is what gave me the confidence to pursue the next level of calling…homeschooling.

Everything Has Led To This

I’ve always felt like my kids would benefit from homeschooling. Neither one of them fit in to the classroom “box” and they were always falling behind. Up until this point, I had never had the patience, ability, or skills to successfully homeschool. But that’s the beauty in the way God works. His inspirations and timing are always perfect.

After a falling out with our current school district, my daughter transferred to a new district. She is now THRIVING! Unfortunately, my son’s para requirement meant transferring him was a much bigger challenge. So, when the choice came down to enrolling him in the district we despise, or homeschooling him, I knew the path was clear. God had just spent eight months with me in the special needs room paving the way.

My Homeschooling System

Despite how far I’ve come, I knew that the make-it-or-break-it of our homeschooling success was going to boil down to the way I structured our system.

First, I knew the lessons had to be active and engaging. For this reason, I chose to follow curriculum based on the Orton-Gillingham method. I chose to use a variety of curriculum from The Good and The Beautiful, IXL, workbooks, Pinterest, and misc. games and manipulatives.

Next, I knew our system had to be flexible and portable. So, we enacted the “daily basket” method. Each subject has it’s own plastic envelope. Every night, I fill each folder with the required materials such as worksheets, notebooks, and flash cards. Anything that doesn’t fit into the folders gets put into the basket.

Every morning, we grab the basket and work our way through the envelopes. The basket is portable for on the go learning as well as flexible with no set schedule. Some days we’re done by 9 am. Other days we’re done by bedtime. Some days we school at home. Other days we work at the park. Our success during these first few weeks of school is dedicated 100% to this system. There’s been many days where a more structured system would have been overridden by busy life schedules.

Conclusion

In the book “Experiencing God“, authors Henry and Richard Blackaby along with Claude V. King made a bold statement about how God uses different seasons of life to hone specific skills. Over the course of a lifetime, these skills polish your character and enable you to fulfill your purpose. I can personally testify to the validity of these words.

My past experience in event planning and design helped me create an organized homeschool system that works best for us. The growth from working in the special needs church ministry enabled me to see I am capable of designing and teaching my son’s curriculum. Pouring my heart into this blog has helped me define my identity and break away from “social norms.”

It’s pretty cool to see how each experience has led to this point. I’m no longer standing outside of my car, gazing into the sky, saying “You’re going to make me do what I don’t want to do, aren’t you?” Instead, I find myself creating and teaching kids’ curriculum seven days a week, saying “Thank you God for helping me do the things I didn’t think I could do.” And that’s pretty cool…