This is our 3rd year homeschooling! I can’t even believe those words are coming out of my mouth! … Or, my fingers (since I’m technically typing them and not saying them ya know? … )
Homeschooling has been the absolute best journey I never thought I would go on. It has been all of my life’s greatest tender mercies all wrapped into one big, beautiful, edifying package. It has helped me embrace the facets of motherhood I never embarked on before. It’s pulled me, stretched me, and helped me to take my weaknesses and try (and try and try and try) to make them into strengths. The Lord has such a funny way of answering our prayers at times, doesn’t he? “Lord, please give me the patience to love my little people and teach them in a way that is pleasing to thee”. …. Answer: Homeschool.
In all honesty, homeschooling has changed my life and I have never looked back. Never wished for my kids to be anywhere except home with me in our school room learning from the best books, and inspiring their little hearts that will one day turn around and inspire the hearts of many people that they associate with.
One of my favorite things to do each year is to freshen up our homeschool room. (I actually like freshening up every room in our house, and shop for new furniture, rugs, decortations, etc. My husband loves it.)
I love the feeling of a “new” school year. A “new” school room. New crayons, new pencils, new rhythms and new goals. It’s the fresh start we all loved about Back to School growing up. (Don’t forget the new school clothes. That’s a favorite tradition I will never give up!)
Our new school room is so much more functional! I love all the book shelf space. I love the sofa addition. The girls have already spent hours in that spot reading.
Our first year of homeschool we had a desk set-up. But last year I opted for a table situation and I have really loved that journey for us. I love sitting next to all the kids at one time and seeing each others’ faces while we interact and journal and sing. It makes sharing the crayons a lot easier too.
The typewriter is our newest addition to our school room and curriculum as well. I realized my kids needed to learn typing but, as you may know, I am quite against screens. I don’t like them, I don’t trust them and I don’t like using them in our homeschool. I wanted my kids to learn to type on a typewriter so I didn’t need to monitor them every time they wanted to type. So they could type freely any time of the day without the worry of the internet. So, we bought this amazing one-family-owned typewriter that is just a beautiful antique and such a fun treasure to bring home from England. The girls have typed page after page of poems, short stories, and a lot of jibberish from Tess.
We had our annual Back to School night the day before we started and we revealed the NEW school room to the girls. They were all smiles and squeals. This is the kind of excitement I like to encourage when it comes to home educating. It’s so fun to see them looking forward to another year of memories and hearts being tuned. After writing down some goals in our new school room, we had our annual BTS dance party. Highly recommend. And just like that, we are ready for school year 2022-2023. Learning in England is amazing and there are so many fun field trips we have planned! I am really hoping to make it to Scandinavia this year to see some of our favorite places we have learned about!
If you are homeschooling, what are you most excited about this year? I would love to hear from you!
