Home Sweet Homeschool.

This girl.

To most people she is a bit on the reserved side.
Enjoys her personal space.
A bit shy.
Slightly introverted.
BUT...
to us she is sunshine. always happy. always positive, always smiling.
At home she excels, her confidence soars. she laughs a little louder. smiles a lot bigger.
She lets loose. unbridled. Since she was a baby she loved to be at home.
She is my little home girl ;)

She is over the moon excited about the upcoming year. After many sleepless nights, lots of long conversations & earnestly praying over her.
We have decided that this year we are taking the PLUNGE!
We are HOMESCHOOLING! {As you can see she is slightly excited! LOL.}

She has been begging to home school for years. At times I don't even think she knew what it was, she just knew it had the word HOME in it, so, it must be good! :)

As for me, I am terrified & excited! I have spent more hours reading & choosing curriculums than I care to admit. I knew I grew up with a family of teachers for a reason!!

Why is it always so scary to live outside the "norm"?  I have a million questions & a million worries: Will I really be able to teach her? Will I be able to juggle everything? How does this work with a 3 yr old in the house? what if I fail? What if she hates it? What if I don't teach her what she needs to know? What if she loses touch with certain friendships? What if she feels different? What if I'm not smart enough?

 ...What if, what if, what if...  BUT...

What if I am able to take her further academically? What if she actually learns things that she will use in life? What if this is freedom for our family? What if this gives us more time to focus on what really matters? What if this actually helps my 3 yr old? What if this helps them develop a friendship that will last a lifetime? What if she meets new friends? What if she excels? What if she can learn things she is actually interested in? What if we learn together? What if she socialized with people of all ages not just kids her age? What if she sees living different as a positive thing? What if she realized that life is more than academics? What if we are able to focus on her gifts & what she was created for?

Living differently than the norm is hard, it is scary at times. But I believe that many of our greatest achievements & dreams live on the other side of fear. So this year we are taking a HUGE jump, we are officially a full time family. We are all excited, even Mere Mere (our almost  3 yr old, who will be doing a preschool curriculum while her sister does her school work).

This past week we spent hours redecorating & preparing our "homeschool room." I know it isn't necessary to have a homeschool room but I don't function well in chaos & am a bit OCD, that everything must have a space. For under $100 we were able to create a room that we LOVE & is super functional. I have already found the girls playing up there, Karly's been teaching Meredith her letters & drawing shapes. One night I found Karly just sitting in her chair. I said " Hey what are you doing just sitting there?" Her reply, " I just love this room & mom, I am just so happy." That was priceless for this mama to hear. All my worries vanished in that one moment, it was conformation that we are doing what is best for her.

She has already started planning our first vacation/fieldtrip to KY to visit the Life Sized Noah's Ark. And when I say planning, I mean yes, she will be given a budget & have to plan for lodging, food, tickets...  Why because Jason & I strongly believe in life application. We may be slightly bias, but we believe that too many kids graduate school missing life skills, like changing a flat tire, cooking, laundry, how to change their oil, budgeting... Yes, we will learn all the core subjects but the beautiful thing is we can also focus studies on things she is actually interested in, and skills she will NEED in life. We can take field trips around the world if we choose. So far she has plans for KY, talk of Pittsburgh, of course a visit to Fl to meet up with some fellow homeschooling friends & a family missions trip to an orphanage.

I am not sure where this journey will take us, if it will be for a year or through high school, but I am confident that this is the perfect fit for Karly now. And I am so grateful & privileged to have the freedom to not only be her mom but her teacher. I cannot think of a better job in the entire world.