Being a Homeschool family with 3 kids under the age of 6

This is our first official year on the books home schooling and I honestly am a little scared. Did I always know I wanted to Homeschool? Yes and No.. Yes, because as a child I would teach to my stuffed animals and dolls. Once I had my first child I thought home schooling would be pretty cool. Then I started to get the cold feet on all of it, that is where the No comes in. I thought to myself “Can I really do this?” I mean I have no college degree in teaching. I went to school for Horticulture and Massage Therapy and when in high school my grades were not the best. So could I really teach my child? Then after talking with a family who home schooled and doing some reading on it I gained a whole new view of myself. I could teach my child as much as any college graduate teacher could. I taught her to talk didn’t I, so why not teach her everything else?

First year homeschooling. First day at HEART a homeschool co-op.

We are a little different from your typical Homeschool family in the fact that my oldest is disabled, so we do our work around doctor visits, physical therapy, and hospital stays. We found out at 20 weeks that our daughter would be born with something called Spina Bifida (spilt spine aka open spine) and Hydrocephalus (water on the brain). We were given the worst outcome by the doctors. Then once she was born their views changed. Her neurosurgeon told us that she would be a very bright child, and could become a doctor like she has said she wants to be.

Doctor visit

Horse Therapy after Physical Therapy

Waiting for surgery

 

 

She has underwent 11 surgeries so far and many more to come. Along with the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus she also has Scoliosis, Chari II Malformation, and a Neurogenic Bladder; which causes us to do cauterizations every few hours. She has to undergo a lengthening surgery every 6-8 months to lengthen her rods in her back. Her hospital stays are typically not long, unless a surgery is more extent than normal. So I’ll factor those into our Homeschool schedule. I have found that year round is our best bet for our family.

Collage of 2014-2015 school year

 In our state we have to do 180 days of school and keep a portfolio of work. This portfolio is encase an audit is done by the state. Honestly I like having a portfolio because it is a way for me to keep the special things they do, just like mom’s of public school kids keep little pages of things their child has done. It also gives me something to look back at and see how far we’ve come on things like writing.

my son at CC

my youngest daughter

Like I said earlier I homeschool with 3 children all under 6 years old. My oldest is 5 and is in Kindergarten, my next is 3 years old and is in Preschool/Pre-K, and my last is almost 8 months old. So as you may think our house is never dull. For our practice run in home schooling I purchased curriculum from a company called Sonlight. It was so nice in the fact that it had everything I’d need for that year in a box. The books we’d work in and read, a binder filled with each day’s work and broken down step by step of what/how I was to teach. I really loved it.

my oldest daughter at CC

Then came Kindergarten, I had been talking with a friend about a new approach called Classical Conversations. She had just started in a local community and filled me in on everything about it. I went to a meeting and talked with the director over the community and got some information about it. Went back home with a catalog in hand and set down that night and talked with my husband about it. After doing more research on it we thought we’d give it a try.

All you need to start CC

Man, Oh Man, am I glad we did. We found a campus in our local area, there are three in our county, and we LOVE IT!! My daughter has made so many friends and has never been looked down on for being in a wheelchair. Some kids that we have meet while at the park or out shopping have treated her as if she had a virus they could catch. Which brings be to another plus of home schooling. If I ever see or hear of a child bulling another, there is always a mom or dad there to talk with their child. Bulling is a very, very, rare thing with home schooled families, from what I’ve seen in our journey home schooling.

Our foundations on the go book

My upcoming blog will be home schooling the Classical Conversations way. So stay tune for that one. And until then, may blessing find you and may joy and happiness fill your heart and home.

God Bless,
Heather J.