Homeschooling... "Blended-Style"

We shared last week that our sweet fam took on a whole new adventure this year… homeschooling “blended style”. Bless our hearts. Mike will share some of his thoughts on the beginning of our journey later this week ("HIS blend" style. In the meantime, let me just say I am SOOO glad to be doing life with my man). But for now you’ll get to hear Steph's version of this little venture ("HER blend" style).

Insert Sidebar: Before I go any further I think it’s critically important to add this. Through my maaany conversations with friends, neighbors, etc. it certainly seems to me that ALL circumstances regarding schooling this year have their own sets of beautiful blessings and crazy challenges. We can only speak to ours. So I hope as you read this, no matter what your family decided for this year, please know that we are pouring prayer daily over y’all, your homes, your kiddos. Whatever decision you made for your sweet babies is the right one my loves!!!!! End of sidebar. Let’s continue.

Emotions on our decision to homeschool 3 teen/pre-teen boys in 3 different homes have run the gamut this past week. Because of our kid’s schedules and home dynamics, we have one kiddo who started 4 weeks ago, another who started 2 weeks ago with partial curriculum, and yet another who just began last week (whew!). I’ve pendulum-swung between (and often times, had all these feels super weirdly simultaneously) excited!!, totally freaked out. Hopeful!!, completely overwhelmed. Encouraged!!, and that my masters degree is obviously worthless since I have to google basic 4th grade math daily. We came to the conclusion on 15 different occasions that we made a huge mistake and must immediately re-enroll our kids in public school to ensure they don’t end straight dumb as doornails, and all 15 times we talked each other off the ledge with discussions about how we. will. all. be. ok. and this WILL indeed be a blessing (AND without me succumbing to day-drinking. Success! But we did enroll Stella in part-time preschool on a biiiiit of a whim. So there’s that.).

You see, I NEVER thought I’d be a homeschool mom. I didn’t even think it was an option. As a blended family we have a LOT of people that have to come to a consensus on decisions such as this, and I just literally never even thought it mattered whether I wanted to or not – I just didn’t think we’d ever be able to do anything differently then we had been doing.

But God. Sometimes He calls us into (what seems to us like) totally crazy things. Homeschooling 3 kids in multiple homes seemed crazy. Thank God He doesn’t call the qualified, but instead qualifies the called. Qualify me, sweet baby Jesus.

Yes, there are things that make homeschooling a little more complicated in our home.

Yes, there are 6 different parents with 6 different views about how to handle teaching, curriculum, and just about ALL of the things.

Yes, there are schedules and checklists and coordination that can be mind-boggling just to ensure that we can keep track of where our kids left off and where we pick up, and then vice versa with kids shuttling between homes.

Yes, we have two sets of books and two sets of supplies and two sets of almost everything to try and keep life saner for all involved in both homes (jury is still out about whether that will actually be the case or not).

Yes, we need to keep a different level of boundaries around our marriage to ensure we are stepping into this new endeavor with grace and clear expectations with our respective ex-spouses (y'all there is a whole BLOG SERIES to come about the lessons we’ve learned regarding boundaries with past spouses and health in re-marriage, not just referring to homeschool).

And on.

And on.

And on. And I’m sure this list will grow and change as we’re slowly adapting to this new chapter of our lives and settling in more and more.

And I’m not sure how long this chapter will last, or what impact this will have on our children’s future education paths. We dedicated ourselves to ONE YEAR of this whole homeschool thing and promised to all reconvene to figure out how we feel about it and re-evaluate at that point. Everyone may love it, everyone may hate it, or we may have a combination of emotions and opinions that change the trajectory of next year, and then the next, and then the next. Who knows?

BUT right now, in this very space, I can see what a beautiful gift we’ve been given. My heart was so softened to something I thought was neeeever going to be for me (isn’t it funny how God blows those “I’d never” statements right out of the water????!!). I have already had such huge mental and heart shifts about education and learning and creativity and “how things should be done” that I can recognize that for whatever happens at the end of this, that I am a changed gal. And I pray on my knees that my kids are impacted in such life-giving, soul-altering ways during this chapter. That we have a chance to really dig deep, and engage with them on a whole new level. To focus on and teach the things that are truly important to us and our values – not just meet common core standards. To do things a little different.

We don’t know what the end of this looks like for us. But I do know that I read the following verse right in the middle of the struggle to even make our decision to homeschool, and I keep turning to it as the words have been like literal oxygen to my soul OVER AND OVER AGAIN. And I hope if you could also use a dose of “soul balm” that these words flow over you today as well. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21

I will yes and amen that ALL.FREAKING. DAY.LONG.