Coming from a public school background, if you would’ve told me 15 years ago that I would homeschool my kids one day,  I’d have said “No, I don’t think so”.

Fast forward to today and we’ve been homeschooling for 4 years, with the last 1 ½ years of that being on the mission field. Isn’t it funny how sometimes God gives you, what you never knew you wanted. That’s not to say it’s easy, or that I’m good at it…oh no… it is a learning process all the way. Sometimes I wish I could just be Mom, and not my kids’ teacher too. But through it all, the ups and downs, I’m thankful that I get to spend as much time with my kids as possible – because I know that in a blink of an eye they will be grown.

I remember when my oldest was about 3 ½ years old we started considering homeschool for elementary. We had no idea where to start, so I sought out some veteran homeschool moms for advice. One after another they told me; you just have to jump in and see what works for your kids. They refused to give me a hard and fast rule of what curriculum was best, or what method to follow – they just told me to go for it and I would figure it out along the way. At the time that was so frustrating – I wanted someone to hold my hand and tell me what to do. But now I see that they were right. It takes time to see what works for your family and it takes flexibility and patience to get to that point. All that to say; every homeschool looks different, and that’s ok. And not everyone is meant to homeschool and that’s ok too.

So what does homeschool look like for us?…
Our homeschool schedule has changed a lot over the years. Just recently we switched to a 4 day school week with Wednesdays off, which has been a morale boost during this quarantine time. A typical school day lasts from around 9am to about 12:30pm each day. While our youngest (who just turned 4) only spends about 30 minutes doing preschool work with me before being excused to play.

I plan for 180 days of school just like we would need in the state of Virginia, and currently our subjects of study include; Math, Phonics, Reading, Spelling, Handwriting, Bible, French, History, and Science. Our core subjects; Math, Phonics, Reading and Bible, are done everyday and the others vary throughout the week.

Actually, being on the mission field hasn’t affected our homeschooling journey much aside from our lack of resources (we really miss the library and amazon). Because of this I have to think ahead, and figure out the logistics of getting the kids’ school books overseas without exorbitant shipping costs. This has led me to use an eclectic yet minimalist approach to curriculum. Thankfully my parents brought some of next year’s books when they came in February – otherwise the lockdown would have me stressed out about what to do.

So that’s a snapshot of how we homeschool during this season of life…I’m really just skimming the surface here, but I don’t want to bore you with all the educational philosophies etc. that can go quite deep.

If you have any questions for me I would love to help in any way I can.

-Rachel