When my oldest was starting 1st grade I was thrilled. Ave would begin a French immersion program where she would learn French for half of the day with a French teacher, and then study her English Language Arts with another teacher. I was excited for her to enter into this new phase of learning. She loved kindergarten and we adored her kindergarten teacher so much that we requested her for our second daughter Tay. Our two oldest girls are only 18 months apart and a year apart in school. When the school year began (fall of 2012), I had a strong gut feeling to question what my kids were learning. I had no idea why I had these feelings and I had never been worried before, so I was left a little unsure how to proceed, so I began to pay attention.
After school began things were great...at least so I thought. I was amazed at how quickly Ave was picking up the French language and how mature she was becoming. I also loved watching Tay learn how to read and count numbers. Over time however, I began to notice some things that I began to question. Ave's English teacher was told to stop teaching a poetry program because it deviated from the curriculum. I found it odd that a teacher was forced to stop teaching poetry. Since when was poetry a bad thing and when did a teacher lose the ability to teach her students what she felt they needed to know. This was my first red flag.
I also began to notice changes to the curriculum that Tay was learning. Because we had the same kindergarten teacher the year before, I felt I had an idea of what to expect, however when we were in kindergarten the second time around, I noticed a lot of things that were different. My kindergartner was no longer learning how to spell and the way they were introducing math was very. Tay's teacher wrote home to inform the parents that they no longer were able to do fun activities in class or have computer lab time because of this new curriculum. School was becoming strange and sort of a drag.
After Christmas break in 2012 I remember reading an article in the newspaper regarding Common Core. This was the first time I recalled ever hearing anything about education standards and the changes that were taking place in public education. As the year went on I began to notice both of my girls falling behind in math. This caused me to start asking more questions to better understand Common Core because I could see it was effecting my children. I spent many late nights reading the Dept. of Ed. website, studying about Common Core and searching Utahns Against Common Core. I met with my daughters teacher and asked her about these changes. She honestly didn't know what Common Core was and she had a curriculum adviser meet with both of us to explain. After meeting with her I felt that I had more questions than answers. I felt in my gut that this wasn't good, even though I was hearing otherwise. I saw my girls struggle to learn right before my very eyes, meanwhile the curriculum adviser is telling me that these standards are "rigorous" and better than what we had before. What I saw compared to what I was told did not match up. I knew something wasn't right. So...what was I to do?
My husband and I began to weigh our options. I found myself being pulled in the direction of homeschooling. HOMESCHOOLING! What a crazy idea! Just six months earlier I had a conversation with a friend of mine about how I could never home school because I wouldn't have the patience to be with my children for that long. But homeschooling continued to come into my mind. I began to panic with feelings of inadequacy. I questioned my qualifications and how would I know what to teach my children. I didn't want to take them out of school because of a knee-jerk reaction to changes in education of which I didn't fully understand. All I wanted to do was the right and best thing for my children and our family.
Homeschool? Where would I start? What was I to do? I found myself on bended knee pleading with my Father in Heaven to guide me. I was going into the dark and I had no idea where to start. This is when I remembered my cute neighbor across the street who moved in a few months earlier and she happened to homeschool. I called my neighbor and she gave me some books and websites to reference. She was so kind and encouraging and she expressed faith in my abilities when I doubted them. A couple months later, their family moved to a different home. I know Haley was placed on my street just for me to help me get started on this path. I am forever grateful for her help and friendship.
After months and months of researching endlessly for curriculum and deciding which curriculum would be best for our family, I realized that it was time to talk to my kids. My oldest Ave was on board. She had always been a homebody and she loved the idea. Tay was not so excited. She is my social butterfly and loves being with friends. This is when I suggested that we try homeschool over the summer. If it didn't go well, we would go back to public school and we could at least say that we tried. When we did our summer school we took a relaxed approach and just focused on reading and math. We did work 2-3 times a week. I wasn't concerned with the amount of work that we accomplished, only that we were as consistent as possible.
As the summer of 2013 came to a close, it was time to make our decision. I was weighing our options and scared to death to take the plunge. Over the summer I had asked my girls to pray about this decision . If they weren't okay with it by the time school started then I knew it wasn't right. This is when Tay, my social butterfly approached me and said, "Mom, I want to go to a new school... I want to go to the school of mom!" My daughter that didn't want to homeschool had now changed her mind. The answer was clear. We were all on board. We had survived the summer, we still liked each other and they wanted to continue. Holy cow!
I suddenly found my fears turn to excitement. I was thrilled that we had made it to this point. There is something very comforting about feeling that you are moving in the right direction in life. To date, we have successfully accomplished our first year of homeschool. Our experience has been very positive and my children are thriving. This blog is an attempt to document our journey as well as provide a resource to anyone who is looking to embark into the world of homeschool. This is how the school of mom came to be.
