My Homeschool Story

Who I am

I am the middle of seven children and I was blessed to be homeschooled my entire life. My Mama started homeschooling over 30 years ago before I was born. She is a major part of who I am today and I am honored to walk alongside her and learn from her. Every family’s story is different and unique to them. The journey into homeschooling for my family is interesting and has so many layers. I hope you find some of this relatable and can see how each of our paths – the way we balance the blessings and challenges of this life -is truly amazing and worth sharing.

Our homeschool beginning

My older sister did have a four years in a Christian school that did not go so well due to the dishonesty of the teachers and the faulty curriculum. After much talk and prayer, my mom felt God leading them to pull her out of the school. By this time, my oldest brother had already learned to read – quite to the surprise of my mom. She had noticed how bored he was and started giving him little assignments to do and teaching him normal pre-k things. Before she knew what was happening, he was reading at four years old.

Despite the school telling my mom that she would not be able to successfully teach her own daughter, my mom started from scratch and figured it out without much help. She did so much research, long before the internet was around, using the library and school catalogs. Soon, she had three children in different levels of learning and had found the curriculum she wanted to use. Then it was my turn and I immediately loved to learn what my older siblings were learning.

My earliest homeschool memories

I remember many days doing phonics as I sat next to my mom at her teacher desk in the school room. I learned to read and was overjoyed to be ‘catching up’ to my older siblings. Starting new school books was just as exciting as finishing old books. My mom came up with a system that worked for us and for her. We had plenty of time to do all subjects and play outside for hours on end. Besides riding our bikes on a dirt path in the woods, we also hiked, slid down hills, swung off vines, and explored to our hearts content.

Although we moved several times over the years, we still got to raise chickens, play with our puppy, cuddle our kittens, and harvest many successful plants from our gardens. The entire time, we grew our dreams to do all of this and more on a bigger piece of property. We had many building projects including a doghouse, a chicken coop, a sapling cabin, and even helped our dad build an entire deck and an outdoor wood room. Life was busy and school was just a part of it.

We all learned to sew, crochet, knit, cross stitch, etc. Story time was one of our favorite times of the day – summer or winter. We would gather to listen to Mama read from all kinds of books and series including The Hobbit, Elsie Dinsmore, Love Comes Softly, and George Macdonald, as we all worked with our hands.

When my love of teaching began

I loved all of this, but nothing prepared me for how much I would love to teach. When my little brother was born, I was 5.5 years old and ready to show someone else the ropes. When he started doing school, I was right there helping Mama teach him. By the time my baby sister was wanting to learn, I was already teaching her. I won’t forget the day she sat in my lap and read her first book aloud at only three years old. I had taught her the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, etc….during everyday life and with everyone’s input.

We all pitched in with things as our Mama had our next baby brother at the time. Every one of us loved to help out where we could. My brothers would read to our younger siblings and I would be there with them, making core memories. All of us had something special that we enjoying doing with each of the younger children. My older sister baked with us, my brothers and I would play outside with them – teaching them to ride bikes without training wheels or to play catch with a ball and mitt.

More excitement to teach

As the years went on, I gradually started doing more and more school with the younger ones. I helped out my mom wherever she needed me. We had fun with clipart – decorating their assignment sheets with their favorite things at the time. Then I was helping with the assigning and grading which was so cool to me! I was always glad to help them with their next math lesson or give a spelling test. Science was exciting with experiments and hands-on learning. History was a whole other level with acting out the maps and coming up with codes for the facts.

We made learning fun, as it should be – showing that tests are not that hard and that you could do what you set your mind to do. Math turned out to be my favorite subject and I’ve helped each one of my younger siblings through Algebra ½, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and even now with Advanced Mathematics. This made it easier on my mom as I had been through these subjects more recently than she had and I enjoy teaching. Our curriculum is mostly self-taught, but it is nice to have someone there to explain that small little trick that one is missing.

Using our homeschool system

Because my mom was so busy, we got ourselves organized with her system that she had created with us. It was awesome for us to know what books were next and what to do. She had made test and quiz schedules that showed us the next assignment. We each had our own grade or record book that we put our grades in and kept organized according to grade or subject.

Our college credits included upper level math and science curriculum as well as spelling, grammar, and many other extracurricular assignments. We wrote research papers on subjects that interested us and we even did a college French curriculum when we were very young!

Books are so important

One thing we did is we read a lot! Books have always lined the shelves and this includes many that teach how to live in the country, how to work on engines, how to build basically anything, how to garden, sew, cook, and camp. This family has collected many books and I have many list available here of our favorites!

Other ways we loved to learn

We were different than the typical homeschool families of the time because we lived further from town and those years there were not many co-ops around yet. Our school was a wonderful balance of hands-on learning and academics. Our field trips included the occasional family vacations and the monthly shopping trips that often included a picnic at a park.

As we got older, we were able to visit farms to see the animals, learn from the farmer, pick our own apples from the trees, work in the orchards, and run in the fields. We discovered new things as a family and learned together. It was extremely important for the whole family to seek healthy foods and the lifestyle that improved our health in every way.

Freedom to study

Being homeschooled gave us the freedom to explore more of our own hobbies and talents. Each of us has different things that we have learned and researched. We all had some piano lessons. We were blessed for a year of violin lessons, too. My brothers have taught themselves the guitar. We have learned by experience, taken online courses, studied YouTube or Skillshare classes that follow our interests.

Each of us has been what some would call apprentices to a trade – be it in agriculture, animal husbandry (including but not limited to – milking cows, raising chickens, training dogs, and taking care of horses), house-building and construction, woodworking, floral and event design, gardening, landscaping, etc.

All of this was because of the gift of time and the way these opportunities opened up for us. Each of these has been a blessing, a light to us all – helping us know what we want to learn. Now we are pursuing what we really want to do in our lives in many different areas. We all have our own interest with some overlap and huge dreams.

Getting through the challenges

Some things have changed in the later years with multiple moves and many challenges in life. Things have not been easy especially with one of my younger siblings being considered special needs and my oldest sister having a hearing problem, but we have leaned on our Savior and listened to His leading. Despite the challenges, we have stayed consistent and improved our curriculum where we could. We continue to homeschool as my youngest siblings finish up high school and start college work.

I am currently blessed to be teaching a few very little ones and loving every minute of it. I plan to share more of this as well as the things we have loved over the years. From curriculum to book lists and fun projects along the way, I am looking forward to sharing more of my journey past and present as I continually look to God in my everyday life.

Overflowing gratitude

So grateful am I to our Mama for our homeschool background and all that we were gifted to learn. I am proud of how far we have come and I am excited to see how much our experiences can help others find the joy in learning and teaching at home.

My passion is to encourage many moms and teachers, sisters and students –  that they can do whatever they were created by God to do because all of us are creators and teachers at heart. We all have so much to share and our own stories to tell.

This is just some of my homeschool story – and a small sample of what you will find here at A Basketful of Joy.  I hope you enjoy and are blessed with inspiration and encouragement when you visit. May the ideas inspire you to find that healthy balance in your homeschool as you pedal this path of life!

Feel free to reach out to me with questions, advice, wisdom, and your own thoughts or ideas.

Thank you and may God bless you!

My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness!
John 15:11 TPT