This happens a lot more than you think.
Ever since I was a very little girl, I wanted to be a teacher. I loved children and I adored learning how to teach in college. But, as I started to complete my practicums and go into my final internships, I was starting to become concerned. I had amazing teachers to work with but everyone seemed so burned out and frustrated with the system. The kids were amazing! I again became disheartened at parent teacher conference time because we were telling so many parents their kids were behind, but I knew these kids were working so hard! Not to mention, they were six! Developmentally, they were not all ready for the tasks that laid before them. I was heartbroken, my live’s dream crushed. I was pregnant with my oldest and decided I would stay home with her full time instead of going into this broken system. It was also during this time, I decided that I would homeschool my own children. I had my teaching degree and so I was going to be amazing at homeschooling. I laugh at my twenty-five year old confident self now! Pride goes before the fall.
A beginning homeschooler
While still pregnant and for the next four years I devoured every homeschool book out there. I had this, I was going to homeschool and I was going to rock it. Obviously, God still had a lot of work to do in my heart. My oldest had the complete boxed curriculum at three years old. I was going to do this right. I loved the first two years. There was so much cuddling on the couch and just reading books and playing games. It was lovely. Her kindergarten year, not so much. By her kindergarten year, we had added three more kids to the family and I was pregnant with my fifth. Reading didn’t come easy for her. She is very intelligent, but certain subjects were very difficult. We were dealing with dyslexia, but I didn’t know that at the time. I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. Why wasn’t she getting it? Also. I was seeing I had large holes in my education as a teacher. I didn’t actually learn how to teach a child to read, so I was winging it. My next two children were later diagnosed with autism and intellectual disability, learning for them and teaching for me, were harder than I could have ever imagined. I had to look into new curriculums, therapy and sometimes tutoring to get through the next few years.
Seasoned homeschooler
My point in telling you all this? My degree hasn’t actually served me much in this homeschooling journey. I am so thankful I pursued it because now I am able to provide testing and evaluations for other homeschool families. I earned that degree and mistakenly thought it would make homeschooling super easy. In some ways, it was a hindrance because I thought I needed to recreate school at home. Many people have told me they couldn’t homeschool because they don’t have a teaching degree like I do. Please do not let that stop you from homeschooling. If you love your children and want to provide them with a quality education, then you can homeschool. There are moms with all types of different educations homeschooling across the world. You love your child more than anyone else, and that will make the biggest impact.
