A year of changes.

Our house. August 15th 2009.

Here I am at my computer, and I'm thinking about the past year and all of the things that we've done. Then it hit me. August 15th was the day that we moved in last year. Holy Moly!! We've been here a year?! I can't believe it!

I realized that a lot did happen to us. We moved, lost a job, had a baby, started homeschool, got a new job. (Not in this order :) All in one year!!! Each one by themselves is life changing! ...Wow, I guess Joe and I like to do things in groups......Well, heck if that was last year, then I expect this year to be pretty boring......Hopefully. This past year was pretty tiring. And I must say that we made it through okay. (No wonder potty training Abby was tough, poor kid.) Hind sight is always 20/20, haha. :)

Doing homeschool in the "fort"

So now I'm looking at homeschool this year. And I feel like I'm totally starting fresh. I feel like I have an idea of what it's like to homeschool, so now I'm not so scared. I also learned A TON about myself last year, and what kind of person I am. And I've also learned about what my children DIDN'T learn in school. And I also learned WHY they didn't learn it in school. :) But you know what the biggest lesson I learned this past year?

I am the best teacher for my children.

Even though I might not have all the answers right away. I will eventually get the answers. And I love them SO MUCH. I so much, want the best for them. What better teacher can you have than that?

I've talked to so many mothers that are doing the same thing as I am. They pray and work and worry. (Sometimes I wish I could see into the future and make sure that I'm on the right track!)

My homeschool group is great! There's the newbies like me, that don't know what they're doing. (Okay, we know some stuff, but you know.) And then there's the professional homeschool moms that stand by us and help us along, and teach us and support us. It's such a great group! It would be impossible to do it if I didn't have this group.

Then there's of course my dear husband that helps me too. If it weren't for his love and encouragement and support, I don't think that I'd still be homeschooling. If anything, Joe has been there to tell me that I need to keep going and don't worry about what other people think. That's been the biggest obstacle for me so far. (That's another thing I really learned about myself. I worry too much about what other people think.) Whenever I felt like giving up, Joe would be behind me to pick me back up.

I'm like all parents where I constantly worry about my children. Are they learning enough? Are they falling behind? Maybe I need to make sure they're staying really far ahead. Should I teach things in a certain way? Did they understand what I taught them? How do I know for sure?

I found out that there isn't a right or wrong way to homeschool. You do what is best for your family and go by what the Spirit directs you to do. It's been a comfort for me to know that I have the Holy Ghost to direct my path. Heavenly Father is up there watching me and telling me where I need to direct myself and my kids. I've definitely put my family on a path where we're going to learn and grow A LOT! More so than, I think, than keeping them in school. I'll tell you one thing, doing it this way is more scary than leaving it up to others. I'm the one responsible now. I can't blame it on the school system if my kids end up not learning anything. But I know that if we do what the Spirit directs, we'll have a far better education than keeping the kids in school. Joe and I included. Our house is definitely a place of learning! I found out that just doing something in front of them is a powerful tool. I was surprised how much they learned just by watching me. SCORE!

So even though we did a lot of life changing things. I'd dare say that pulling my children out of school and homeschooling them has been the BIG EPIC ONE. Our lives are not the same as most others. And that right there is HUGE!

......Life is good..