A Year Into Homeschool—Looking Back at Where we Began

I’ve been a bit nostalgic this week—the week that marks a year into homeschool. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since THE day. The one where I picked my kids up from school for the last time. Where we drove down Atlantic Avenue jamming out to Alex Cooper’s “School’s Out for Summer…” Our favorite words? “School’s out FOR-EVER.”

Okay, not really…we’d still be doing school, but it would be on our terms. We immediately went home where I instructed my kids to pack a bag. We were about to metaphorically (and physically) embark on a new journey.

Up to Richmond we went, for the annual HEAV homeschool conference. I knew that It would be important that, right off the bat, we felt like we were part of something bigger than ourselves.

You see, we had tried the homeschool thing in 2021 and it didn’t stick. With the world still being guarded and shut down post-Covid, it was impossible to figure out where to start with co-ops and “socializing” Emerson. It felt lonely and isolating. I felt guilty that I had taken Emerson away from her friends and she was bored. So, after just three short months in, it was back to school she went.

But, this time? This time would be different.

As soon as we got to the convention, we knew we were on the verge of something good. We had to be. There was no way that one 15,000 fellow homeschoolers could be wrong!

As we made our way around the convention hall, it felt like my head was spinning. I’m pretty sure that my brain, a usual sponge for knowledge, was fully saturated and then some.

Trying to sort through the rows and rows of curriculum choices, supplemental info, and electives felt like drinking out of a firehose. But I loved every minute of it. I watched passers-by…those who seemed completely comfortable and confident. And I knew that next year, that would be me.

Fast forward to today. As I purposefully strode through the same corridors, narrowing down the exact lectures that would suit my needs and scouting the used curriculum sale with exact items in mind…it hit me. We did it! After stepping into the great unknown a little scared, and a lot excited—we came out the other side so much better off.

Curriculums, friendships, deeper family connection, family adventures. It’s been a year of everything we hoped that it would be. Has it all been easy? Not in the least. But, that’s the thing about life. No matter which path you take, you choose your hard. The most important question? Which choices will lead us to the “hard” that builds a life worth living?

I’ll take the homeschool “hard” over the hustle and grind of traditional school any day. I love our slow mornings, devotional time over breakfast, and learning math sprawled out on the floor. I love our park time meet-ups with good friends we never would have met if we didn’t dare to say no to the status quo and embark on a different path.