Last Monday, just after breakfast this morning, my children gathered in our schoolroom at the sound of the bell. We stood together for morning prayer, and then my students took their seats at their desks to begin a new school year.
This is our third year of homeschooling. I now have three students and a tag-a-long little sister. This will undoubtedly be my most challenging year; it’ll be the first year that I’ll need to balance teaching and work.
Alison and I talked about homeschooling going back to the very beginning of our relationship. We weren’t committed, but it was an idea. In fact, we almost put Benedict into school his kindergarten year, only to pull him out just before the school year started. It would come to be our best parental decision to date, as a few months later, the pandemic shut everything down. I’m grateful that my children didn’t suffer any learning loss.
There are struggles in teaching, especially in subjects where I’m weakest, like math. We supplement with video instruction, but it’s still hard to teach a child something that I struggle with. There are moments of great edification, when my children know stories from the Bible better than I do!
Alison designed our curriculum, pulling together subjects from the vendors we determined to be the best. Benedict is starting Latin this year, and continuing to learn how to play piano. As we go through the weeks, I see the progress that they make. Felicity and Lucy are turning into strong readers.
There are many things to be said about homeschooling, but I think the simplest takeaway that I have is this. I like that my children are receiving a liberal arts education, starting from Day One of Kindergarten.
