2016-17 Homeschool Update

Let me start by saying that God has called us to be a homeschool family. Click here to read our homeschool testimony.

Last school year, (2015-16) I did some preschool activities with Olivia and Sophie. However, in the Fall of 2015, I gave birth to my 3rd daughter Matilda. It became hard to keep up with school activities, because I was overwhelmed with trying to take care of my new baby. Technically...we never completed preschool.

Fast forward to this year, I was determined to try homeschooling again. Olivia would be in PreK and Sophie would be in preschool. I wanted this year to be better than last year, which would include actually finishing our school year. Leading up to the 2016-17 school year I did a lot of research about different homeschool curriculums. We attended a homeschool conference. I even watched YouTube videos to learn from other Moms who have gone before me. All of this helped me to know how to structure our homeschool and become more familiar with this style of education.

As far as curriculum goes...
For Olivia, we chose Sonlight as our main curriculum, because we thought would be best for our family. This curriculum comes with a weekly lesson plan, which has been helped for me (the homeschool newbie). We have paired Sonlight with Math-U-See Primer; Sing, Spell, Read, & Write; & Handwriting without Tears.

For Sophie, we chose to use ABC Jesus Loves Me and Playing Skillfully. The girls do school together, so Sophie has read all of the Sonlight PreK books too.

As a family, we have had such a fun year learning together!! We've read lots of amazing books, completed lapbooks, finished projects, gone to the library, gone on field trips, watched a play, traveled to China, colored, cut & pasted, the list goes on and on.

I'm excited to say that we are just a few weeks away from wrapping up our first official  school year as a homeschool family!! I have learned so much this year. I can't wait for us to start a new year of homeschooling this Fall.

Our Homeschool Testimony

Today, I want to share with you how the Lord called us to be a homeschool family.

Jon was homeschooled and I went to public school. Understandably, we each had very different ideas about what kind of school our future children should attend. Education became one of those hot topics in our marriage that we tried not to talk about, because we only seemed to disagree.

In 2010, while I was listening to KLOVE radio, I decided to do The Love Dare challenge. On Day 12 of The Love Dare it said, "Today’s Dare: Demonstrate love by willingly choosing to give in to an area of disagreement between you and your spouse. Tell them you are putting their preference first."

While reading this dare, the Lord immediately brought homeschooling to my mind.

What!?

I couldn't believe that the Lord wanted me to give up my own views of education and submit to Jon's ideas. I wanted to obey the Lord, but it seemed like there might be an easier way than giving in to homeschooling.

I was wrong.

When Jon got home that evening, I could barely get the words out. Eventually, I told him that as far as education goes, I would be willing to homeschool our children, if that is what Jon thought was best.

At the time, it was hard to lay down my pride and my views. However, I'm so thankful that the Lord settled this issue for us long before we had children. It's never been a sore spot again and the Lord has blessed us as we have followed Him in obedience and homeschooled our children.

Now, we've almost finished our first year of homeschool and I'm not sure who enjoys it more, me or the girls.

Homeschooling has been such a blessing for our family!!