Thus Ends the Beginning

Today ends my first full year homeschooling.

Our daughter Kaylee was in public school and emphatically did not want to be homeschooled. By the time Scott was five and we were starting homeschool preschool, she was entering high school and we respected her wishes.

But, we always planned to fully homeschool the boys. A few months into kindergarten, I realized I was ill-equipped to teach Scott, our son with autism. At the time, we didn’t even have a diagnosis. We just knew he had developmental delays, unspecified. We tried private school, and that was a dismal failure and a story for another day. Somehow, despite everything, all of our desires and convictions and aspirations, Scott entered public school kindergarten halfway through the first semester of his kindergarten year.

Fast forward seven years. It’s Christmas and Scott is in seventh grade and Jeb is in sixth. I say to Gregg, “We really need to get the kids out of public school so we can teach them at home.”
Unfortunately, I had never been able to write while the boys were physically present. Where I was in my career couldn’t really be stopped. I had deadlines, responsibilities, and obligations. I had to keep the boys in school and just continue to pray over them as they left the house every day.

A few months later, Covid hits and Gregg comes home first. He’s a consultant in the health care field, and they shut down the office for his current contract early. A few weeks later, the boys came home.

I don’t know what changed. They’re older, I’m a more mature writer — whatever it is, I found that I could work when they were home! I’m slower. My days are nowhere near as productive writing-wise, but I’m capable and that’s what matters.

It was super, duper easy to say, “Yes! It’s time to homeschool!”

Before the year even ended last year, we’d bought this year’s curriculum and researched the laws for our state.

In August, we started our year, officially.

It’s been fantastic. I work. Gregg works. The boys work. They have beautiful setups in their rooms and we’re able to stream their monitors onto our big screen so one of us is always aware of what they’re doing.

We’ve supplemented their curriculum with Bible studies and life-based application studies (Every Young Man’s Battle – highly recommended), and we’ve poured into their education.

We have zero intention of sending them back to public school. Scott starts high school in the fall, Jeb starts eighth grade. We have plans to enroll them into the Creation Museum’s weekly science course and are building amazing field trips. Gregg is still working remotely, my books are due September 1st (so our first day of school will be the Tuesday after Labor Day) and next year our focus will be on our boys and their education.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to see that I am able to work now with boys around, that Gregg and I do have the ability to teach Scott and engage both boys in their education. I am especially thankful for the resources that give us the opportunity to provide them with the very best education we can.