The Famous Last Words Series is our tribute to the unpredictability of parenthood. In this series, we will discuss things we said a long time ago (or maybe just a few weeks, days, or hours ago) that have been proven wrong, dreadfully wrong, since saying them. We share these stories in order to grow in parental humility, laugh at ourselves, and shed some light on what we know now that we didn’t know then. 

A lot of people who have met us in the last six years are surprised when they find out we never planned to homeschool. Considering how much I’ve grown to enjoy it, I’m also surprised. It’s such an important part of my life now that I can’t imagine things any other way. But it’s true that homeschooling was not the original plan. 

Our oldest child, Bradana, was the first person to decide we were going to homeschool. She brought it up around the age of 7, and despite all my excuses she continued to insist that she wanted to be homeschooled. I don’t even know if she really knew what homeschooling was, but something about it captured her imagination. Every month or so she would ask when we were going to start homeschooling, and I would insist that the answer was, “Never.” 

Around the time she was in 4th grade, she started to ask more frequently and earnestly. Up to this point, a big reason I had insisted we couldn’t do it was that I was working full time from home. We had just had our fourth child, Peter’s job was crazy, and I barely had time to help Bradana with the very light amount of homework she brought home from school at night. 

And then we made a big decision, halfway through the school year: I decided to stop working and be a full-time, stay-at-home mom. No sooner had we announced this big change than the little lightbulb in Bradana’s brain went off. “Oh Mama!” she exclaimed with delight. “This means I can be homeschooled!” 

It had occurred to me that she might bring up the matter of homeschooling when I made the announcement, but I didn’t expect her to be quite so excited. She’d had a bit of a rough semester at school, and we were struggling to maintain a balance between school work and extracurricular activities. And so after a bit of discussion, we made a second big decision: we would take Bradana out of school and give this homeschooling thing a shot. 

“We’ll just try it for one semester,” we said, thinking after that the romance would wear off and surely she’d want to go back to school. 

The Experiment

The following months were full of trial and error, as well as a good share of frustration. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, but I was determined that Bradana not get any whiff of that. We were also on a very tight budget. My “curriculum selection” basically consisted of me walking into a used bookstore, saying a prayer for God to guide me to some good books, and making my selections (although as it happened, there were some pretty good ones to choose from!). 

Despite the challenges, I loved it so much, as did she. I will always remember reading Anne of Green Gables together (first time for both of us!), studying the ancient Assyrians (who we both found so fascinating that we never quite made it past them), diagramming sentences, and practicing math. As the semester went on I realized that although I had a lot of work to do in terms of planning out the next year, I wanted to continue homeschooling. 

While all these changes were happening, another big transition was looming on the horizon: We were moving. As soon as the semester was over, we were planning to leave our home in San Antonio and head to Maryland, where Peter had accepted a position as a high school headmaster. Oh, and I was also pregnant with our fifth child. Lots of change!

Bradana was loving homeschooling, so we had already decided to continue with her. But what about the other kids? Our daughter Sunniva was going into second grade and currently enrolled in school, and our son Jude would be starting kindergarten. I wasn’t in love with the idea of sending some kids to school and keeping Bradana home. And Bradana was adamant that she wanted to keep homeschooling. So we made our decision. 

“We’ll just homeschool all the kids for one year.”

Almost exactly six years later, we just finished our sixth homeschool year. Next year, we’ll have grades 11, 8, 5, 3, and Kindergarten. 

What We Know Now

Don’t get me wrong: Homeschooling is not easy, and the last six years have been quite a journey. I’ve learned so much about myself, my kids, and our relationship over the last six years, and some of those lessons have been slow-going and frustrating. And I don’t think everybody should homeschool. There are so many factors that play into what decision is best for each individual family that it’s impossible to make a blanket statement like that.

But at the end of the day, I’m so glad we gave homeschooling a chance. 

On the days when our kids can’t seem to get along, the work drags on and on, or when I’m just not “feeling” it, I try to step back and focus on what I love about homeschooling. Just a few of those things: 

• I love learning alongside my children. 
• I love watching them grow closer to each other through learning. 
• I love watching the younger ones learn from the older ones, and I especially love seeing the older ones learn from the younger ones.
•  I love that when someone feels under the weather, they can rest and let their body recover instead of pushing through and getting sick. 
• I love that they have time to pursue their passions and break up their schoolwork by doing things they love.
• I love reading their books and planning their school year. 
• I love that they can integrate practical tasks like cooking, cleaning, and working on other skills into their school day.
• I love praying with them throughout the day.
• I love hearing them work through their struggles with each other.
• I love seeing them get excited about something they’re learning. 

…and the list goes on. 

And so even on the bad days, I love homeschooling. That doesn’t mean I enjoy every moment, but I probably should. Teaching our children and learning with them has been a tremendous gift I will always cherish.

If you’re interested and on the fence, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I could talk about homeschooling all day!

We are in the process of planning our YouTube channel where we will feature homeschool advice, curriculum reviews, and more. If there’s something specific you’d like to see, please comment below!