It's Finally Here

It's finally here, it's actually here! Having made the decision to homeschool our children when our oldest was only 6 months old, it was a very long wait to actually start doing it, officially atleast.

When Dude was 6 months old, I started to look into some information on homeschooling. I reached out to some friends who had been homeschooled themselves but also is the president of HSLDA Canada. Really, everyone needs a great friend like this :) He passed along some great information and studies about homeschooling. It actually became a fairly easy decision for us! Now, while I completely respect the decisions any of you have made for your children, we just could not knowingly put our children in the public school environment (cue paranoid government rant). Anyways, our decision was arrived at very easily. The only thing that seemed like a con at the time was the whole idea of "socialization", we have since come to view this in an entirely different manner and now realize that socialization is NOT being surrounded by 30 kids the same age as you all day, everyday. But, at the time we thought about what we thought was socialization and Daddy and I realized that all of our friends throughout school and the ones we have remained friends with, were ALL from our church...not school! This was very reassuring to us that we were making the right decisions for our family.

Well, since we arrived at this decision quickly and easily....now what?!?! It was kind of like a wedding and we were in that middle of planning lull. We had made the decision and now just had to wait 4 years!?!?! Oh boy, as a very type A, over-organized, slightly anal person this was a lot to ask!

I have researched, read, studied, read, watched videos, read, etc all about homeschooling in the last 4 years. I also found some homeschooling blogs that I loved and started to follow and slowly build some lessons and worksheets from over the last few years. I researched lessons, and curriculum so much that everything began to just blend together, I knew too much!!! There was sooo much to choose from and unfortunately now I knew about everything that was available. What else was I going to do during the last 4 years of waiting to start homeschooling? I will expand on what we are using and how *I* chose it in my next post.

So, cue Monday September 10th, 2012....OUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
yay! It's here! I can finally put everything I have learned in the last 4 years to good use.

Dude is a Kindergartener!!!

Strawberry is a PreSchooler!!! (really that just means she wants to participate, so I make extra copies for her)

And last but not least Linebacker is in "totschool" (just to include him)

Actually getting started was so exciting and the kids were very receptive and really enjoyed it.

And just a fun picture of what happens a lot around here, at the end of our photo session a royal rumble. And as usual, instigated by the youngest.

For His Glory!

Our Journey

It all started many years ago, Daddy and I are highschool sweethearts! We started dating at 16 years old, we got engaged after highschool and married the following summer when we were both 20 years old.

The 'odds' (and the world) were against us, being so young. But that didn't matter to us because God was for us! We knew it wouldn't be easy starting out so young, but we placed our trust in God to lead us in our marriage and to be at the centre of it.

In the fall of 2003 (1 1/2 years into our marriage) we decided to try to start a family. You'll soon find out why I said "we". Well, we're both 21 almost 22, this shouldn't take long, right? We're in our prime, right? WRONG!

Month after month of nothing! We had friends who started dating, got engaged, got married and had a couple of kids all during the time we were trying to have 1. It was heartbreaking. We never went to the doctor about it, I think out of fear of what we'd hear.

Anyway, spring of 2007 (yes - 4 years later) Daddy calls me on his way home from a friend's house to see if I want anything. "Sure, salt and vinegar chips and rootbeer, please" I said. These are things I never liked before, and I didn't catch on to that. Daddy arrived home a short time later with my snack and a pregnancy test! Apparently this wasn't the first odd thing to make him wonder. I was shocked, but obliged.

POSITIVE!!!! what?!?! positive???? How can this be??? We found out I was already about 10-11 weeks along.

So, back to the "we" issue. In 2003, when we decided we wanted to start our family, we didn't consider God's timing for our family. So, in 2007 GOD decided it was time to start our family. We were thrilled! We didn't understand the timing than but I am starting to grasp it now.

Our little Dude entered the world in December 2007. He was our greatest miracle!

Now, here is how I now understand God's timing (but didn't until even a few months ago):
Dec. 23, 2007 - Dude is born.
Jan. 2008 - My Dad is diagnosed with advanced cancer.
Mar. 2008 - Daddy and I sell our house (after only 6 hours on the market) so that we can move in with my parents and take over the house expenses.
April 2008 - My Dad passes away.
May 2008 - we move into my parents house.


Now fall 2008, because of our budget being in a really good place, we decide that I will not return to work and instead will become a stay-at-home-mom. This is something that could not have worked had we still been at our house. Now, we have the entire house for us and my Mom and brother live in the granny-suite Daddy originally built for us.


Now, because I was at home, Daddy and I were convicted to homeschool our children. I now realize this was all part of God's Will for our lives and His timing is everything! If it were up to our timing, we would not be able to homeschool our children, or even be home with them everyday.

This has been shown to me even more so since Strawberry and Linebacker each came about after a single month of trying.


And now...another single month of 'trying' has us here:

Baby 4.0 is due March 2013!




For His Glory!