Coming back to this blog feels like visiting with an old childhood friend that I haven't seen in quite a while. As I scroll through older posts, I am revisiting a life I barely remember. Life in the city without kids is a far cry from where I am today. Life has changed immensely - as it often does. I am now married with two amazing and energetic boys. I have hung up my public educator lanyard for good and am now thriving in the homeschool world. It's not that everyday is peachy and perfect, but it is exactly the change that was needed for both mama and the boys.
If anyone told me that I would have prematurely left teaching in a brick and mortar, I would've been equally amused and insulted. While my passion for education isn't what has changed, the way I view it now is completely served as the night to the day that it once was. I think many educators can agree that our intentions have always been great but are often overshadowed by mandates, policies, and administrators that are as overwhelmed as we find ourselves. What I found myself observing over the thirteen years I spent in the classroom included - overcrowded classrooms that were lacking in supplies and support aside from what each teacher spent from their own pocket and personal time, ever-growing expectations of teachers without proper training or compensation, children coming into our care with needs that required way more than what we could realistically manage given everything else. It became harder and harder to leave work at the end of the day feeling like we were able to give anything 100%. Even if you did somehow manage to check all of the boxes in one area, all of the other areas took a seat.
When my first child was born, it hit me all at once that I wanted something different. I didn't want my son going off to someone that was essentially a stranger to learn how to walk, crawl, and all of the in betweens. I begged my husband to make the ultimate sacrifice for our family by becoming the sole financial provider for a bit. I wanted to be the one to witness the firsts, be his first teacher, give him all of the experiences that I could squeeze into a day. Well, doing this was honestly the initial domino that sent all of the others crashing down. While it sounds like a negative metaphor, it was a maze of dominoes that needed to come down.
I truly believe that while our schools have the best intentions, the kids that don't fit into the typical mold are either labeled, remediated, or offered as collateral damage. While we don't have formal diagnoses, conversations with doctors leads me to believe that my oldest may be neurodivergent. The mom in me isn't caught off-guard by this realization. My oldest has always marched to the beat of his own drum. The teacher in me also knows what this means for what his experience could be in the formal educational setting.
We needed a change. I wanted something different for my son.
As tough as the pandemic was, something very beautiful blossomed from all of it. We found a local community full of new homeschoolers. Some were testing the homeschool waters just while the world was upside-down. Some had plans to homeschool since they first saw the plus sign on the test strip. Some started the journey and found themselves thriving. I met so many moms from all different backgrounds and walks of life. Our Friday meet-up was my most favorite weekly commitment. Our kids became quick friends. We would find ourselves circled around giving each other advice on how to get our kids to complete work without whining, discussing curriculum options, and ironing out any wrinkles of our school day with our heads together. This was the replacement of grade level planning periods except we weren't getting pulled away for meetings, phone calls, and emergencies. It was all of the amazing components of teaching without the proverbial crap.
Here we find ourselves three years deep into our homeschooling journey and things haven't been better. My boys are thriving. They get to be with peers at a drop-off one day a week, they participate in multiple township sports. We play sports in a local homeschool league throughout the year. When we are tired of the four walls that surround us, we take our work outside or on the road. We study what strikes our fancies. My sons are free to be the individuals they are - boys that recognize when they need a break, need a snack, or need reteaching without being bogged down by behavior charts, losing time in class for interventions, and feeling different from everyone else. In our home, they are celebrated.
