You're Doing What?

You're doing what? 

That was the response I expected to get when we told friends or family we decided to homeschool this year. 

Cause let's be real at times my inner voice was totally shouting that at me.

To my surprise though that is not what I received. I love my family and friends so I should have known no matter what choice we made for school they would be supportive. 

But why homeschool?

Well back in July when it was decision making time for school there still seemed to be a lot of uncertainty up in the air. Digital learning? Face to Face? How was it all going to work? 

And that dreaded C word of course kept rearing it's ugly head. Covid. 

As a family we are not afraid (is that even the right word to use....) of Covid. In fact with Hubs being an "essential" employee I expected us to catch it at some point. Knock on wood up to this point we have remained healthy and praying to continue it stays that way. I know some may disagree but to prevent catching Covid we have done the same stuff we do to try to prevent catching the flu, strep, the stomach bug and all those other viruses that run rampant as soon as school starts back. Because let's face it I really don't want Covid.... but I also don't want that violent stomach bug that seems to go around at least once a year that we have been lucky to avoid thus far. --> To stay healthy we practice good hygiene and take vitamins.  

So with Covid playing such a large part on how school would go this year we were afraid that if school went back like normal it may after a few month be forced to digital. 

Now this is where every parent has to decide what is best for their child. 

Maddie is an interactive, hands on learner. She needs to talk about it with someone. Based on her learning style we did not think digital would be beneficial. 

But homeschool? I didn't know where to start. So I Googled programs..... let me to tell you that is information overload. So many programs. But how do you know what is the best? 

Then I found Classical Conversations. And I just so happened to know the director in our area. Meeting with her and speaking with her I knew this was the right fit for us. Maddie would still have interaction with kids and I would have a community of other momma's if I had questions or needed help. 

I knew I liked the idea of Classical Conversations but it was not my decision to make. This was definitely a family decision. One that we also let Maddie have a say so on. So after some discussion and family talks about pros and cons we decided to give Classical Conversations a try. 

As a family we wanted to turn this negative year into a positive. We hope to use this school year and homeschooling opportunity to spend more time together as a family. Maybe take Miranda the Avion on some camping trips close to home. Make memories. When Maddie is grown our hopes is that she will look back on 2020 and think "wow in the midst of all the chaos mom and dad really made that a fun year."

They are only little for a short time. Make the most of it.