Why We Decided To Homeschool
Our first week of Kindergarten is behind us & I have to say, we had a great start to our homeschooling journey! The last few weeks as school was starting back up, I had a lot of people in our real lives & online asking me about why we decided to homeschool, what curriculum we were doing, and how it was working out for us. Although it’s only been a week, I can already say how JOYFUL I am with our decision to keep Ryland home and really do school our own way! Even just in 5 days of teaching, learning, and adjusting, I can already see that this was the best choice for us as a family.
Something that I find funny is that homeschool parents always seem to have to prove themselves and their decision to everyone around them. Now, I do have to say that virtually everyone has been supportive of us, but they still ask “why” and “will we do that forever?” as if it’s something that shouldn’t be the first option. For us, we knew that this would be the right choice for so many reasons, but here are just a few of the top ones!
1. We wanted a flexible family schedule.
We LOVE to travel – as you all know & we want to be able to pick up and go on trips when we would like & accompany Dad on his work trips, too!
2. We wanted to bring learning outside the 4 walls.
Being able to learn at the park, the museum, or on our travels was important to me. I also want to teach my kids a ton of practical life skills around the home, community, and beyond.
3. We wanted Ryland to be able to be involved in our family life still, not separated from it.
We love that we get to work from home & we also love including our kids in the process. Ryland and Landon love to be involved in the inner workings of our family business & it’s amazing to let them be a part of growing a business. We can see the entrepreneur spirit in them – even at this young age.
We are using the Florida Virtual School FLEX program. This is a free program online through the state of Florida for residents. Everything is 100% online & you can sign up for as many or as few classes as you would like. Since we are doing the full Kindergarten schooling at home, I signed Ryland up for Language Arts, Science, Math, Social Studies, Art, and Physical Education. I am already happy about my choice because it has made the process so streamlined. We simply follow the lessons provided – with all the interactive activities, readings, quizzes, etc! We turn his work into the portal and he has a teacher that grades it for him. There are also weekly “class times” online that we can log into and turn on our video camera and microphone and he can be involved with the teachers and other students, just like a regular class. These are optional, however, so if we have time to do them, we can, but if we happen to be traveling or out that day, we aren’t required to log in. I love that it gives us the ability to follow the same curriculum he would be learning in school, but at our own pace and integrated how WE want! I have been loving watching Ryland soak it all in this week. He has been having a blast and really loves learning and feeling like a big guy!
As we learn and grow in this new role, I will definitely be sharing more about what we are doing and how it is going! We are thrilled to be doing this – as we know what is best for our family – however, I truly believe that everyone should make a decision based on what fits YOUR needs! If you have any questions, I would love to answer them as well!
Do you homeschool? Would you ever?
