The less traveled road: Our Homeschool Quest Story

Maybe not the less traveled road anymore; the choice of homeschool seems to be growing by the numbers lately, but it was a very foreign land to me when back in 2009 I began this "quest" of homeschooling my first child.

Let's begin with a little background; many people seem to have a profile for homeschoolers here in the US; homeschoolers are timid, nerds, religious fanatics or even strictly reserved to the outcasts. Personally I was unaware of what homeschool was until I met my husband. I graduated from a private Catholic school in Bogota, Colombia. Where I am from, our youth studies in a private or public school, period, maybe some tutoring on the side but, I never heard before of mothers schooling at home their children; so with that in mind I had no prejudice or rehearsed opinion about homeschool when I made my choice.

As I mentioned before, the first homeschool person I met was my husband. So when he explained to me what it was, I was in awe to think that it was an education choice this country offered their people. Odd to me, but fascinating. Why fascinating? Because it brought​ back the classical tutoring school from the colonial times to one of the most advanced countries in the world! So It took me a while to wrap my head around that.

Only when my first born turned three I began to explore my school options. I was disappointed from the beginning, I wanted a private school but it was for our family astronomical impossible to pay. There was not middle. We did only the Pre-K year, but public or even charter did not end up convincing me. I wanted to offer the quality of education that I had: classical yet updated with out the costly tuition.

As we finished her VPK year in a local Christian school, I continued to search online for private education. Trying to get lucky I came about an appealing Catholic curriculum that brought back memories and new hopes of forming my children in the faith, but wait... What? Homeschool? What do you mean? I would have to do it all? like the whole thing? Uhmmm ... Nope. Next link please! I wasn't qualified... I continued to scroll my google search but not one local institution fit my needs, that one link called to me; my only problem? my job. I did not have the time, neither the preparation to educate, but as I looked back through the site I read how gentle approach their curriculum was meant to be and also how they offered a planned teacher manual that guided you to  teach your child the subjects! uhmmm... I liked that! why not? maybe we could try it for the summer and be ahead by the time we found a "suitable" school ...

I know that they are many schools that could fill the gap of getting my kids educated, I also know personally many amazing teachers, but what that summer did to my family has no price, that curriculum gave us wings! we shared remarkable milestones that as a working mother I would never witness if it wasn't for homeschool. It made our days fulfilling, we became involved, we shared our faith, we got a new view of what our family could become.

As time went by, I became more familiar with the curriculum and got the hang of it. I began to teach my child and learned to see every occasion as an educational opportunity. I still worked but decided I could do both. By the time my second baby came along I took a break and explored strongly the possibility of doing this full time. So  I did!

Exploring through this less traveled road: "homeschool" doesn't reveal the many challenges one has to go through.  Challenges like: how to homeschool your child plus a baby, how to homeschool different ages and grades, to burnout and exhaustion. This quest for fulfillment is hard! I had come close to quit millions of times; as I mentioned it before, I fell in love with this curriculum and for what it did with my family life. I was not going to quit then, and so far I haven't quit. Bottom line... the full picture at the end keeps my heart with homeschool.

Whatever your choice for education is for your child, remember: we are not meant to fit a cookie cutter, there is beauty in homeschooling, like there is in kids going to an institution, just keep in mind as a parent to enrich and witness as much as you can of these forming years with your kids. Each time of the day, each milestone they accomplish, be present, engage and celebrate!

This is a window through my choice, if you see you can relate I hope you enjoyed this reading, if you cannot relate at all, take the heart of it, and know we share motherhood, and even though we approach this subject differently we care immensely for our children and go through number of choices that define the shape our families.

I celebrate each one of you! Thanks for taking the time to read this post.