If you have been following my blog or social media for any amount of time, then you know that I share my life journey with you. I try to share the good, the bad the ugly. I mostly write about the bad and ugly here on the blog and post pictures of the good on my social media because let’s be honest……sometimes I need the highlight reel to remind me of what IS good. So here I am again, sharing with you all another chapter in our family journey. My goal is to connect with those that may be in the same position as I was in and trying to figure it out. We need more connection, more open communication and that’s just my personality. Anything I learn, I will probably share it.
So…its true! We are officially a homeschooling family. I never thought I would say those words. I have always thought “those” moms were a little crazy and that burden was TOO heavy to carry. I mentioned it a ton of times on my various social media channels, but here I am….that crazy mom. For one, I started thinking about homeschooling after I had some issues with my kids current school. Nothing really bad, but enough for me to start looking into other options for them. That was back in November 2019. I remember calling my friend and asking her some questions. I also asked other homeschool moms and saught out any and everyone that could help me. The book my friend Sethie referred me to “Homeschool Bravely” really made it clear. Even then, I resisted. That was back in January 2020.
Then the pandemic hit. Our kids early childhood Christian private school closed down. I say school, because it was not a daycare. They went to a school that started at 18 months and went through 12th grade. They could have literally stayed there the whole time. Once the pandemic hit, they tried to do things with us online, my daughters attention span was not having it and trying to teach 2 year olds on YouTube……is quite a task. You need to bring out ALL the bells and whistles and have AMAZING music to keep there attention. Needless to say, the last two weeks of March was a wash.
Going into April, I saw on Myleik’s instagram page a curriculum that she found called Playing Preschool by The Busy Toddler. I looked it over and said, I don’t want April to be a wash for their learning so I bought it. I was only $39 at the time. I used on both my kids and over the course of the month, they learned so much. It was then that I thought, wow….I know there learning patterns and behaviors BETTER than even their teachers. I see how they learn and as long as I had the tools I could do this. Now don’t get me wrong…..at first, I was losing it. I cried, was stressed out, was looking BUSTED because I felt like I had no time to myself. My husband was working longer and extra hours. Having to think of breakfast, lunch and dinner was a lot and my house was a HOT MESS. Listen….a MASSIVE tornado that ADDED to the stress of this whole thing.
But in my silent prayers at night when I would have my quiet time with God, I would hear him whisper “you can do hard things Bridgette”. The ONLY other time he whispered that to me was before I became a Dallas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for abused children back in July 2019. Those words made me realize, I can do more than I think and I am much stronger than I give myself credit for. So here I was again talking to God about doing a “hard thing”. YES! It was going to be a lot. So I took my conversation to my husband. He had to be on the same page with me on this. We were going to do this together with me being the main facilitator of it all. His questions were “Are you sure you can handle this load?” “What can I do to help given my schedule” “Do you think you will be too stressed out?” My answers were “No, I can’t handle this load alone. But with God and your help, I can do this.” I also went on to tell him that I needed breaks and times when he took over a few times a day and on the weekends. We solidified a schedule that worked for us.
I truly believe there will be some days ahead that I think, what in the world. I literally had that thought the DAY after we withdrew our kids from their school. I had been looking forward to the day they could go back! So to realize, I had made the jump and there was no going back anytime soon was a lot. Every single day, I took my worries and concerns to God. This is going to be a very close journey with God as He leads because as she stated in “Homeschool Bravely” I feel CALLED to this. God has orchestrated our lives for me to do this and with HIM all things are possible. I shared more in the video below but that’s pretty much the basis.
Also, I don’t know what going on with this whole pandemic things so its a public health concern as well. So yes, I will be sharing this journey…..I want to thank EVERYONE out there that creates content around homeschooling. I have probably read it or listened to it in the past month or so. So of course, I’m going to give back as well. Here we go!
