A Big Change this School Year

 I have been sad this past week.

Like, crying and unmotivated sad… Because we’re sending the boys to school in the fall. 

And when I say “fall,” in Alabama, that actually means two weeks from today.

My husband and I have decided I need to bring some additional income in.  And to do that, I need time to work. 

And that doesn’t leave much time for homeschool.

The truth is…I’m heartbroken. 

Our need for me to get a job does not change the passion in my heart and my opinion that homeschool is the best fit for our boys.

So let me skip the pity party that I’ve been wallowing in since we decided.  I’ll go right to the part where I found some silver lining (because, really, who wants to read about a pity party?)

The whole process of getting them into school has gone as smoothly as it possibly could so far.  I have met the boys’ principal and have been to their school and I never thought I’d say this but I’m actually a little excited for them.  Just a little ;).

As for the boys, we’ve got one who’s excited, one who has agreed to go (this is big because when he first found out he simply said, “No.  I’m not going.”)  Our oldest is the one I’m most concerned about getting in the building, though….

Hands down, the hardest part is going to be getting ready by the ungodly hour of 7:15…someone pray for us on that one!  We have been practicing and our time is getting better, but I know it will still be a shock to the system when we actually have to do it.

The other piece of silver lining I’ve found deals with the actual teaching part.  

When we decided, I felt like a badge had been taken away; like a part of who I am as a mom was chipped off.

I mourned the loss of my role as their teacher. 

Until something dawned on me…

I finally realized that sending them off to school did not mean I would no longer teach my children

Parents are teachers.  Bottom line.

We’re instructed to be in God’s Word:

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. – Deuteronomy 11:18-19

Whether you do it full time as a homeschooler or not.

So no, I did not take all of my posters off the wall.

No, I did not pack up my planner or all of my teaching manuals.

I might. But not yet.

I started to think of “teaching” things I would do anyway, had I never decided to homeschool my children.

I would still read and I would still teach the bible. 

So, all the reading-based curriculum stays.  I can still read from their history book, poetry, literature and even science.  

And all the bible curriculum stays because that is something the public school cannot teach them.

As I read over my curriculum plan for the upcoming year and realized that much of it would not go to waste, the sadness got a little easier to swallow :).

So what does that mean for this blog?

I mean, a third of it is about homeschool.

Well, it would make no sense to delete all of my homeschool posts.  And like I said, a parent is a teacher – no matter if it’s full-time or part-time.  That fact, combined with our need for structure while everyone else is taking fall and summer breaks, means I will continue to post on what I’m affectionately calling Supplemental Homeschooling – or “Supp School” for short. 

I shouldn’t really claim rights to this title; I googled it and turns out I’m not the only person doing this. 

I will continue to post on teaching my children as well as our many adventures in the great unknown (a.k.a. public school…).  Stay tuned for some exciting times :). 

Next week we’ll talk about what curriculum I’m keeping.