I've decided to put this on the blog so I can really get my feeling out about all of this. I know some people will be curious about our reasons. I wanted a place to get it all out there. So, here it is... our big announcement! As of today, we have decided that beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, we will be homeschooling our 3 oldest girls!!!!
For as long as I can remember I've been intrigued by homeschooling. I've been a bit envious of families who homeschool. I even had a brief experience with it when I homeschooled Kaylin for 3 yr pre-k. I never thought I could really do it myself though once the girls got older. It just seemed like too big of a responsibility. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to teach them everything they were supposed to know. But I still had that wish deep inside that I was brave enough to do it. We were having such a great experience in public school though, I just never felt an overwhelming need to change anything. We have been blessed with amazing teachers and the girls are doing really well - all are well behaved, well liked, honor roll students. I felt secure with the way things were. But I still have this nagging feeling everytime the girls have to go back to school after a break. It's getting harder and harder to let them go. I want to be able to spend more time with them.
Shortly after Christmas, I just couldn't deny these thougts any longer. I knew that God was putting it on my heart that I could do something about the way I was feeling. I could keep my girls home with me and do this huge thing called homeschooling. But I was still terrified. I asked Jeff what he thought and he said he felt sort of like me - he was intrigued by the thought and the possible benefits, but knew it would be a lot of work. We started praying about it and I began to feel more and more like I could do it. I told Jeff that if I could just get past my fears, I thought I could make a decision. He reminded me that fear is not from God. The enemy knows that if I homeschool my children, the Bible will be a huge part of what they are learning. He knew the best way to prevent that was to place that fear in my way. Once I realized that, I was able to see the fear for what it was.
The next step was to approache the girls to see if they would be open to it. They were more than open. They were very excited about the prospect. No red flags there.
We had already started looking at curriculum and found TONS of wonderful options. We talked and talked about it and discussed the pros and cons. Here is some of what we have discussed along the way...
Pros:
1. We can make our own schedule. We won't be tied down to the public school schedule. We've always wanted to take a trip in the fall to see the leaves change colors in the Northeast. We've always wanted to go out west and see some of the landmarks like the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and Yellowstone when it's not in the heat of summertime. We'd love to be able to visit family for special birthdays and the like and not worry about having to rush back for school.
2. We get to spend more time with our girls. Right now, a 24 hour day looks like this... They are sleeping 10 hours. Going to school 7 hours. Trudging through homework 1-2 hours. Yes, they are home during homework time, but it's not time that I am just able to enjoy my children. Then there are usually a few hours of extra curricular activities... dance, gymnastics, Wednesday night church, art lessons, etc. There isn't anything wrong with those extras, in fact, they are good. But after everything is totaled up, we are only getting on average 2-3 hours a day with our girls. 2-3 hours! Out of 24! And those 2-3 hours are filled with rushing around getting out the door for school or fixing dinner or taking baths, etc. There isn't any time left to just sit and be together until the weekend comes. And that just isn't going to work for us anymore.
3. We can use the things they are learning about this world in science, history, literature, and even english and math to teach them about God. My heart's desire is that these girls will fall more in love with God everyday as they are learning about his creation. I am so excited about learning Biblical history alongside world history, teaching science through biblical eyes. All those things make me so anxious to start!
4. The girls can learn at their own pace. They each have their strengths and weaknesses and we can meet them where they are. If they need extra help in one area, we can spend some more time in that. If they are ready move on in another area - why not?
Cons:
1. Expense. We're trying to be wise as we choose curriculum. There are many good options out there, but some are extremely pricey. We're hoping to keep the cost to homeschool 3 girls next year between $500 - $700. That's huge for us. But if we need to pull back in other areas, we are willing to make that sacrifice.
2. They may miss being in school. Right now they are excited. I'm hoping they will stay that way, but I know that the time will come when they realize that there are certain friends they don't see as much of anymore. They will have plenty of opportunities to be with friends, but it's still going to be a big change.
3. The teachers we will miss out on. I still get sad when I think about the teachers that we have had already but will miss out on with the next girls coming up. There is a 1st grade teacher we have had with Kaylin and Annlee who I was excited about having with Maryella next year. We even debated sending just her to school so she could be in that class. I honestly don't think that would fly with Maryella though. I can't imagine that she would want to get up and go to school when her sisters are staying home.
4. Dealing with 3 different personalities, 3 different learning styles, 3 different levels of school. Honestly, I can still get panicky thinking of that. But remember where that fear is coming from??? I'm working hard on relying on God that he will help me through. I know he is wanting this for our girls, so I know he will help me the entire way.
For us, the pros outweigh the cons. Nothing can replace knowing that the girls are going to be learning about God everyday as they study. They will understand that there isn't a separation between knowledge and faith. They go hand in hand. I am so excited about all the possibilities this will bring for our family. I'll try to keep things updated here, but honestly, I may be too busy spending time with my family. After all, that's what this decision is really all about. Faith and family. It's so exciting, I can hardly wait! Next school year can't come soon enough for me! Please keep our family in your prayers as we embark on this adventure! God bless you all and your families as well!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 10, 2011
Christmas in Bama
There's no place like home! There's just something about being in the house where you grew up. It's so nice and familiar and cozy. I love bringing my family there! We left the day after Christmas as soon as church was over to head up to Alabama to spend a week with my family. The girls were thrilled that we had snow flurries for nearly the entire ride - yes, even in Lake City! It had flurried all morning as we got ready to go to church. I kept trying to get a picture of it to prove that we really saw snow in Florida. This picture of a single snow flake on our black mailbox is the best I got, lol.
On that Sunday, we drove as far as Montgomery to Ma-don's house and met my parents there. We exchanged gifts with Ma-don and enjoyed a delicious meal with her.
The girls even had time to watch a Shirley Temple movie with Ma-don!
The next day, we drove to Mama and Daddy's house and got settled in there. We rested up for a day trip to Lindsey's and Chris's house the next day. They still had snow on the ground in a small spot behind their house and the girls had a blast playing in in for a bit. It was Elianna's first time to see snow.
We exchanged gifts with Mama, Daddy, Lindsey, Chris, Max and Trista. It was a great day and the girls got some wonderful things!
One of the gifts was Just Dance Kids for the Wii. We had a big laugh watching each other play that!
Max and Trista with their gifts from us.
Mama and Daddy with their gifts from us.
Lindsey and Chris with their gifts from us - have I mentioned here that Linny is pregant? Their baby is due June 6th and we are SO excited about it! We gave them Auburn and Alabama baby caps for the baby to wear next football season.
Wednesday, we got our nails done with some gift certificates from Granda. The girls LOVED that!
That night, Uncle Doug and Aunt Becky came over with Morgan and Nathan. They brought Johnny (Doug and Daddy's stepdad) with them and Elianna found a new friend.
Thursday was a fun day. We baked cookies with colorful cookie dough, made bead necklaces, and went to the movies to see Yogi Bear (another gift card gift!)
Thursday night, we went to Max and Trista's house to see the work Max has done on his basement. It looks GREAT! I can't believe he has been able to do it himself.
Friday was the day that the big girls had been looking forward to for a long time! Me, Mama and Lindsey went shopping all day! We had a great time! I didn't take my camera to get pictures of that, but I'm sure you see plenty of pictures of things we bought in the months to come!
Friday night, we celebrated New Year's Eve. We celebrated abound 7ish and it was a little rainy. But we didn't let that stop us. We had a great time bringing in the new year!
Saturday was spent at Mama and Daddy's house and we enjoyed a delicious meal.
Trista and her Mama got to come over too.
Sunday was travel day, unfortunately. It was time to get back to reality. But first we got to worship in church with our whole family. It was very special.
We hated to leave everyone, but are already looking forward to seeing them all again - hopefully soon!
On that Sunday, we drove as far as Montgomery to Ma-don's house and met my parents there. We exchanged gifts with Ma-don and enjoyed a delicious meal with her.
The girls even had time to watch a Shirley Temple movie with Ma-don!
The next day, we drove to Mama and Daddy's house and got settled in there. We rested up for a day trip to Lindsey's and Chris's house the next day. They still had snow on the ground in a small spot behind their house and the girls had a blast playing in in for a bit. It was Elianna's first time to see snow.
We exchanged gifts with Mama, Daddy, Lindsey, Chris, Max and Trista. It was a great day and the girls got some wonderful things!
One of the gifts was Just Dance Kids for the Wii. We had a big laugh watching each other play that!
Max and Trista with their gifts from us.
Mama and Daddy with their gifts from us.
Lindsey and Chris with their gifts from us - have I mentioned here that Linny is pregant? Their baby is due June 6th and we are SO excited about it! We gave them Auburn and Alabama baby caps for the baby to wear next football season.
Wednesday, we got our nails done with some gift certificates from Granda. The girls LOVED that!
That night, Uncle Doug and Aunt Becky came over with Morgan and Nathan. They brought Johnny (Doug and Daddy's stepdad) with them and Elianna found a new friend.
Thursday was a fun day. We baked cookies with colorful cookie dough, made bead necklaces, and went to the movies to see Yogi Bear (another gift card gift!)
Thursday night, we went to Max and Trista's house to see the work Max has done on his basement. It looks GREAT! I can't believe he has been able to do it himself.
Friday was the day that the big girls had been looking forward to for a long time! Me, Mama and Lindsey went shopping all day! We had a great time! I didn't take my camera to get pictures of that, but I'm sure you see plenty of pictures of things we bought in the months to come!
Friday night, we celebrated New Year's Eve. We celebrated abound 7ish and it was a little rainy. But we didn't let that stop us. We had a great time bringing in the new year!
Saturday was spent at Mama and Daddy's house and we enjoyed a delicious meal.
Trista and her Mama got to come over too.
Sunday was travel day, unfortunately. It was time to get back to reality. But first we got to worship in church with our whole family. It was very special.
We hated to leave everyone, but are already looking forward to seeing them all again - hopefully soon!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Christmas Day
Waiting in the hall to go see what Santa brought
Coming in to see their stockings
Checking out what's inside the stockings
Santa loot
Going to see what Santa brought to some sweet girls
The famous pillow pets that they all asked for!
Maryella dances with the ballerina that Santa brought to her.
Kaylin is excited to open all her gifts from Mama and Daddy.
Elianna feeds the new baby doll she got from Mama and Daddy.
Annlee sings into her new CD player
OK, so now for a story from our Christmas Day. The girls had all asked for a guinea pig for Christmas. When they went in and saw all of their gifts that Santa had brought, there was no guinea pig. No one said anything, but after the excitement wore off, I could tell that they were bit disappointed. Well, our Christmas tree had a section of lights that kept going out, so Jeff asked the girls to come look for a missing light. While they were looking, Kaylin found a small box tucked in the tree. She says, "Hey, what's this?", opens it up and says, "There's a note in here."
She starts reading... "Dear Tate Girls, While you were in here opening your gifts, my elves delivered one more gift to you. It's in the other living room. Love, Santa." There was total silence for about 3 seconds and then one of them screamed, "THE GUINEA PIG!!!" They went flying into the other living room and there was the guinea pig cage with a cute little guinea pig inside.
They were thrilled! After going through several name ideas - Scooter, Josh, Skittles - they settled on Squeakers.
I'm so glad that they didn't get the guinea pig until after everything else. I think he would have overshadowed that other things. It all worked out perfectly!
After all the excitement of the morning, we enjoyed a yummy Christmas lunch. Maryella lit the Christ candle of our advent wreath and we read our last advent devotion. Then it was time to play with all the toys for the rest of day (while Jeff and I packed for Alabama! Stay tuned for a future post about that!)
Coming in to see their stockings
Checking out what's inside the stockings
Santa loot
Going to see what Santa brought to some sweet girls
The famous pillow pets that they all asked for!
Maryella dances with the ballerina that Santa brought to her.
Kaylin is excited to open all her gifts from Mama and Daddy.
Elianna feeds the new baby doll she got from Mama and Daddy.
Annlee sings into her new CD player
OK, so now for a story from our Christmas Day. The girls had all asked for a guinea pig for Christmas. When they went in and saw all of their gifts that Santa had brought, there was no guinea pig. No one said anything, but after the excitement wore off, I could tell that they were bit disappointed. Well, our Christmas tree had a section of lights that kept going out, so Jeff asked the girls to come look for a missing light. While they were looking, Kaylin found a small box tucked in the tree. She says, "Hey, what's this?", opens it up and says, "There's a note in here."
She starts reading... "Dear Tate Girls, While you were in here opening your gifts, my elves delivered one more gift to you. It's in the other living room. Love, Santa." There was total silence for about 3 seconds and then one of them screamed, "THE GUINEA PIG!!!" They went flying into the other living room and there was the guinea pig cage with a cute little guinea pig inside.
They were thrilled! After going through several name ideas - Scooter, Josh, Skittles - they settled on Squeakers.
I'm so glad that they didn't get the guinea pig until after everything else. I think he would have overshadowed that other things. It all worked out perfectly!
After all the excitement of the morning, we enjoyed a yummy Christmas lunch. Maryella lit the Christ candle of our advent wreath and we read our last advent devotion. Then it was time to play with all the toys for the rest of day (while Jeff and I packed for Alabama! Stay tuned for a future post about that!)
Christmas Eve
The day of Christmas Eve was fairly relaxing at our house. We enjoyed one another's company. The girls did a craft after lunch - see the previous post about painting the tree. We just spent the day at home until about 3:00 when we had to get up to the church. The girls had to be there to practice for their parts in the nativity that would be a part of the 4:30 family service. Kaylin was Gabriel, Annlee was a wise person (the only one this year!), and Maryella and Elianna were sheep. They made a very cute and outgoing flock.
I just love this picture. It tells a completely different nativity story than any you've ever heard. There are curious sheep, distracted camels - so funny!
After that service was over, the girls went to the nursery to eat dinner while I practiced for the handbell song we would play during the second service. The 6:00 service was a beautiful music filled time that reminded us all of why we were celebrating. Jeff did a wonderful job leading us through the scripture readings.
When we were done with the service, we came home and the girls opened their traditional Christmas Eve gift of new pajamas.
They didn't match each other this year, but they did get a tiny set of jammies to match their dolls and animals. They were very excited about that. For a bedtime story that night, we read the Christmas story from Luke and sang (at Maryella's request) Santa Claus is Coming To Town. Funny story about that song. Maryella loves it, but won't let us sing the verse about Santa making a list and checking it twice. Apparently that one makes her worry that he has found out who is the naughty one in our house. LOL
We then set out the hot chocolate and cookies and carrots and sent our 4 little darlings to bed. I'm not sure who was more excited about the following day - us or them!
I just love this picture. It tells a completely different nativity story than any you've ever heard. There are curious sheep, distracted camels - so funny!
After that service was over, the girls went to the nursery to eat dinner while I practiced for the handbell song we would play during the second service. The 6:00 service was a beautiful music filled time that reminded us all of why we were celebrating. Jeff did a wonderful job leading us through the scripture readings.
When we were done with the service, we came home and the girls opened their traditional Christmas Eve gift of new pajamas.
They didn't match each other this year, but they did get a tiny set of jammies to match their dolls and animals. They were very excited about that. For a bedtime story that night, we read the Christmas story from Luke and sang (at Maryella's request) Santa Claus is Coming To Town. Funny story about that song. Maryella loves it, but won't let us sing the verse about Santa making a list and checking it twice. Apparently that one makes her worry that he has found out who is the naughty one in our house. LOL
We then set out the hot chocolate and cookies and carrots and sent our 4 little darlings to bed. I'm not sure who was more excited about the following day - us or them!
Christmas Activities
We are always so busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas! I've tried to condense the majority of our month into this one post. These are just the highlights, but you get the idea. We had a blessed and memory filled Christmas season.
Each of the girls had a school party. Kaylin had a brunch on the 16th of December.
Annlee had a Polar Express Pajama party on December 17th.
Maryella had a program on the 10th of December and a party on the 17th.
The kids all sang in church one Wednesday night in the Children's Christmas Musical Extraveganza.
Kaylin performed in the Nutcracker as a toy soldier and did a beautiful job!
She was so pretty!
After school was out, we had a week to fill with fun before Christmas arrived. Mema and Papa visited and brought gifts for all of us.
The girls had been begging for this Barbie Jet, so it made a BIG hit!
They also looked really cute in some hats from Aunt Jan.
The same day, we had a pancake breakfast with Santa at church.
The candy canes are a favorite with my candy loving sweeties.
The rest of the week was filled with crafts and fun. We made candle holders with jars and tissue paper.
They turned out really cute!
The girls painted a Christmas tree that lights up.
They spent one whole morning dancing to Christmas music in their jammies.
We drove to Stephen Foster Park one night and saw Santa and some really pretty lights.
They decorated cookies for Santa.
The first row on the left is Elianna's, with help from Mama. The next row is Annlee, then Maryella, then Kaylin.
We also made a Christmas cake to take with us after Christmas to Alabama.
The girls did almost everything and did a great job!
Each of the girls had a school party. Kaylin had a brunch on the 16th of December.
Annlee had a Polar Express Pajama party on December 17th.
Maryella had a program on the 10th of December and a party on the 17th.
The kids all sang in church one Wednesday night in the Children's Christmas Musical Extraveganza.
Kaylin performed in the Nutcracker as a toy soldier and did a beautiful job!
She was so pretty!
After school was out, we had a week to fill with fun before Christmas arrived. Mema and Papa visited and brought gifts for all of us.
The girls had been begging for this Barbie Jet, so it made a BIG hit!
They also looked really cute in some hats from Aunt Jan.
The same day, we had a pancake breakfast with Santa at church.
The candy canes are a favorite with my candy loving sweeties.
The rest of the week was filled with crafts and fun. We made candle holders with jars and tissue paper.
They turned out really cute!
The girls painted a Christmas tree that lights up.
They spent one whole morning dancing to Christmas music in their jammies.
We drove to Stephen Foster Park one night and saw Santa and some really pretty lights.
They decorated cookies for Santa.
The first row on the left is Elianna's, with help from Mama. The next row is Annlee, then Maryella, then Kaylin.
We also made a Christmas cake to take with us after Christmas to Alabama.
The girls did almost everything and did a great job!
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