Middle of Nowhere
Our decision to homeschool all started with moving to Montana. We lived on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. To some people this might mean 15 minutes from town. That is definitely the outskirts of town to what I am about to explain. As we were driving for a job interview I told my husband, “I really don’t think we can move here. It’s like Yellowstone.” That was until I saw a beautiful kitchen, a walk in closet, and a jacuzzi tub. I was ok with moving as soon as possible. So middle of nowhere began with 45-60 minutes from town and only 10 minutes of that on pavement.
Preschool Experiences
When my oldest child was old enough, or at least I felt like he was, I started lots of different things with preschool for him. I kept meeting lots of new homeschool moms. Every time I met one it seemed like the thought of homeschooling was heavily on my heart. Just like Mary in the Old Testament how she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. My kids grew up and we added more children to our family.
Our kids started school in public school. When each of my babies left for kindergarten we’d have a full drawn out mom and kid separation crying session. I was heart broke and they were sad that they had to leave me.
Life gets too busy- My kids were never home
My 3rd child started kindergarten after our community opened schools again. The schools had been shut because of covid. At the end of that school year one of my children was struggling heavily especially with math. In addition to this, my kindergarten child fought getting on the bus. Sometimes the bus driver even brought him back to me because it was going that bad. He just really didn’t want to go to school. He was fine when he got there, but he really didn’t want to go.
I also started to see some of the values we had taught our children go down. They were being taught things completely contrary to our personal views.
To add to those pressures, we decided to do baseball with my kids. It was in town 45 minutes away Monday-Friday. They also had games on school nights most the time 2 hrs away. When we did get to stay home we had to somehow fit in dinner, scriptures, playtime, and sometimes lots of homework when my kids got home around 5 pm and needed to be in bed by 7 pm so they could get up at 6 AM. It just wasn’t working out. What could I possibly to do get time back with my kids?
Led by the Lord to homeschool
I met a new friend around this time that was a homeschool mom. I asked her how she decided to homeschool. She told me people just kept coming into her life that were homeschoolers, and she felt led by Heavenly Father to do it. She explained how it was something that was always on her heart and how the homeschoolers she knew always seemed to be on her mind and heart. It totally explained the way I felt for a long time. The scripture Deuteronomy 6:7 was heavy on my heart too. “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children…and talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
With all these things on my heart, and knowing that as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the most important thing that I could teach my children was to love God and love Jesus, we decided to research homeschooling. My husband let me buy some curriculum to do with my daughter who was struggling over the summer and a science unit to work on with all my kids. I bought that knowing we were going to homeschool.
Loving our Wonderful, Unexpected Life
That is how we got started. We absolutely love it! I can’t say there is always peace in our home. I also can’t say that my kids don’t sometimes miss their friends. Nonetheless, my children are taught about Christ throughout the day and that makes every moment worth it.