In honor of Mother’s day this month, we are featuring articles from some of our volunteers about various aspects of motherhood.
Homeschooling for us was not something that I felt called to do from the beginning. I thought we would just send our little one off to school, maybe a Christian school, and that would be that. Then we had triplets. When our triplets were 18-months-old we found out we were expecting twins. We had a house full very quickly! Suddenly, a Christian school was way out of our budget. And the thought of five different schedules, five different teachers, five sets of homework and five lunches to pack – everyday – was just too much.
Then, as our children reached the age of about four, it became very clear that they would benefit from homeschooling. I had one triplet reading from the encyclopedia, one triplet rarely talking and the other triplet in between, and two little ones right behind. I started talking to my friends who were homeschooling, asking lots of questions, and we attended a state homeschool conference. There is a vast amount of information available, a variety of curriculums to choose from and tremendous support.
Our children are thriving in this atmosphere. They are each performing at grade level or above and they love the flexible schedule. They are able to take sewing, piano, swimming and gymnastics and still be done with all schoolwork before 3 p.m. I highly recommend homeschooling. And if you think you surely can’t be qualified to teach, just remember that no one knows your children like you do, no one loves them more than you do, and no one wants them to succeed more than you do. That is all the qualification you need.