Sonlight is having a monthly blog linkup this year, in honor of their 25th anniversary.February’s topic is to share how you first decided to homeschool, and how you decided on a curriculum.
I thought it would be fun to join in on the linkup because I believe in Sonlight and want to support them in this endeavor. I also want to write more about our homeschool journey as I get asked lots of questions about it and this is a great way to share!
The question of how I decided to homschool our children has come up in several conversations I’ve had with friends recently. I’m not sure I’ve ever shared about that in detail here, although I’ve been blogging throughout our homschool journey.
Why Homeschool?
I always begin my answer to this question by explaining that I was a public school teacher for six years before I had children. My experience as a middle school special education teacher sparked my interest in homeschooling.
I knew there had to be a better way to educate than the way I was seeing it done. So many of the students I had in my special education class could have been helped much earlier.
I also knew that I didn’t want a future child of mine receiving their education in the environment in which I taught.
You see, I didn’t teach in the best schools…you know the ones that you live near because they offer the best. I taught in very rural communities and for the most part I saw things that I never would have wanted to have children of mine to see or experience. If I wasn’t on hall duty, I purposefully closed my classroom door so avoid hearing the language spoken by these young adolescent children. My first year of teaching, I took on a classroom of students in which the previous year about half the class was expelled for doing things children at that age shouldn’t even know of. I don’t mean to make this experience sound terrible…it wasn’t. It was my ministry for six years, but it was not a place I would want to entrust my future children.
My husband and I had a vision for our future…a vision that we believed God had placed upon our hearts and called us to. Our vision included my staying home with our children and homeschooling them.
And when our first children, twin girls born ten weeks premature, our that vision and calling became even stronger.
For the first several weeks of their lives, I couldn’t be their primary care giver. They were cared for by nurses and doctors and there wasn’t much that I could do for them.
I felt a deep sense of responsibility for my children. I wanted to be the one taking care of them. And I knew that wasn’t just for the moment. I wanted to bear the responsibility for them…for as long as I could.
God had entrusted these precious lives to me and I wanted to do all that I could to take care of them.
And that included educating them.
My husband agreed with this wholeheartedly. He has been my biggest supporter in our homeschooling decisions and I am incredibly thankful for that.
We didn’t struggle over this decision. There wasn’t a family meeting where we weighed the pros and cons. We just knew…we KNEW that this was our calling.
And on the days when homeschooling is hard, it is that calling that I cling to.
Why Sonlight
When it came time to choose a curriculum, I began doing research on the options that were out there and Sonlight seemed to be the most natural choice.
I have always been an advocate of reading and of rich literature.
And that’s what Sonlight is all about, being is a literature based curriculum. But, not only is it a literature based curriculum it is also Christ-centered and literature rich!
The appeal of teaching “the way I wish I had been taught” was promising.
I read through Sonlight’s website, their educational philosophy, their reasons NOT to use their curriculum and reasons why you should and everything I read only confirmed that I made the right decision.
Another thing that appealed to me was the instructors’ guide that is provided with each core that makes it so easy to set out a plan for each year, week by week.
I ordered Sonlight’s P3/4 core curriculum and we began our homeschool journey over five years ago.
Look how little those three are!
We are now seeing the benefits of my decision to homeschool and to use Sonlight as our core curriculum.
My children love to read. They love to learn. The bonds that have grown between them because of shared book experiences are so strong. They have deep understanding of History and the world, and of our Christian faith. They have a love for people of other cultures and they see adventure and courage in stories of missionaries who have given their all to spread the gospel to unreached peoples.
Are you a homeschool parent? I would love to hear about how you made the very personal decision to begin homeschooling your children!
I look forward to sharing more of our homeschool story with you throughout this year.
Sheila @ The Deliberate Reader says
I love hearing stories from parents who are ahead of me on the homeschooling journey. 🙂
Heather says
Nice to “meet” you via the SL link up! I’m always interested in how former classroom teachers make the transition to homeschooling!
Luke Holzmann says
This is a great point I hadn’t considered before: “So many of the students I had in my special education class could have been helped much earlier.” Thank you for sharing your experience and joining the linkup [smile].
~Luke
Sheila @ Sheila's Potpourri says
So much of what you’ve shared I’ve experienced too! Same feelings, same attitudes…Thanks for sharing your story!
Karla Cook says
Wonderful story! I’ve also found homeschooling to be so rewarding! I’m glad you are joining in the Sonlight blog party. I look forward to reading more of your posts throughout the year.
Dawne says
What a great story, thank you for sharing. 🙂
Karla Cook says
Congratulations! You won the February prize package!! Please email me with your mailing address and I will get it out to you. Thanks so much for participating!