About Me

No one is more surprised than me that I am writing a blog about homeschooling.

You see, I had been married for years and didn’t have any children – and honestly I wasn’t even thinking about them. I was working as an Emergency Room RN and I was totally fine hanging out with my husband and our fur baby bulldog.

Years before that, I was in college and rooming with an early childhood major. I remember thinking her future as a kindergarten teachers sounded really boring.

Oh my, I had no idea what I was in for as my own future started to unfold!

I found myself with not one, not two, but THREE kids that were 2-2.5 years apart.

As they got a little older, I told so many people I could never homeschool them.

Well, at least not until my kids were already reading…at a minimum. 

But probably not all.

Because I was going back to my job as an RN in the Emergency Room. And my kids were going to go to school like everybody else’s kids. 

I had a four-year degree that needed to be used.

I had financial plans.

I had personal plans.

But here I am with three kids…going on seven years of homeschooling. 

And I have to tell you, that I am deliriously happy.

Like, I’m a little embarrassed about how much I love being a homeschool mom, teaching my girls, learning right alongside them, and seeing them grow.

Just today we explored and discussed modern Japanese culture, studied and discussed the Bible, bunny trailed into a conspiracy theory discussion on where the Ark of the Covenant ended up, read about how Abigail Adams championed women’s rights and furnished the first White House – all before lunch!

It was such a rich morning of discussions, learning, and just being together.

If you want to know what finally pushed me over the edge to pull my oldest from school, check out why I finally started homeschooling.

But this about me page is not about why I homeschool.

It’s about communicating to you why I started this blog.

You see, I started this journey before COVID. Before homeschooling was slightly popular. Before it was considered almost normal.

Some might even say homeschooling is a desirable privilege now.

In all reality, I first tried to start homeschooling when my oldest was getting ready for preschool. I was shocked at the monthly cost, but I felt it was an absolute necessity. 

So I thought maybe I could try my hand at homeschooling. I mean, how hard could it be?

I sauntered over to my 3-year-old and wrote down A, B, and C on a piece of paper. I confidently told her the names of these letters and asked her to repeat them back to me.

We worked on this little exercise for about 2 minutes, I balled up the piece of paper, threw it in the trash, and decided homeschooling was ridiculous. People go to school for this kind of thing, so why would I think I could do it without the proper training???

So my little girl went to preschool, attended pre-K, and I proudly dropped her off at kindergarten. 

The summer before she started 1st grade, I decided to try my hand at homeschooling again. This time with proper curriculum. 

We started on July 17th, so that when it blew up in my face, I would have plenty of time to just put her in school…like a normal person.

We started with a box curriculum…and it took off like a rocket. My little girl loved school…and to my complete shock…I loved it too. 

I had some challenges.

Okay many challenges.

Like learning how to suppress my type A personality when I teach math.

And how to juggle my 3 and 1-year-old while I was teaching school.

How to handle bad attitudes.

How to help my homeschooler make friends.

How to handle rude questions from strangers and rude questions from family.

How to motivate my kid to complete her work.

How to juggle schooling multiple ages.

How to manage my own anger. Yes, that’s a common homeschool issue, unfortunately.

How to pay for all of it on one income.

But after 2 years of homeschooling, I felt like we were in such a sweet spot.

Unbelievably, I was fielding questions from other moms about homeschooling. I could tell they were interested in homeschooling, but they were so nervous.

They kept coming up with reasons that they could never homeschool. I felt like they would never believe that I was the most unlikely homeschool success story ever!

So I decided to write it all down.

I wrote about how to start homeschooling, to leave a pathway for other timid moms like myself to follow.

I wrote about my homeschooling solutions. The methods that worked for me. The successes that I found along the way.

I wrote encouraging posts to help boost homeschool moms on their worst days.

I wrote about the curriculum. I strive to be searingly honest with all my curriculum reviews. I write as if I’m talking to the mom next to me at co-op. 

I wrote about simple activities and started to create free printables. I was shocked to find out that I actually love making worksheets that are free and easy to print!

I also started to write about teaching reading and book lists. The one thing I was sure that I would never do – teach reading – I have done three times over. 

I wrote all of these things down so that a mom out there would know that they could do this too.

Homeschooling is possible.

It is actually fun!

And you can do it!

Follow me on this blog to get started with homeschooling and to keep going on the journey!