Mish Family Homeschool

We’re homeschooling Emily this year for Kindergarten! You may have heard me mention it before, but God has certainly humbled us over the years as we’ve made a lot of definitive remarks like “we’re just going to have two kids” or “we will never homeschool our kids” and God continues to show himself to us and reveal pride and areas of our lives that we cling tightly for control instead of letting Him lead us in these decisions. With that said, God put it on our hearts last fall to possibly homeschool Emily for kindergarten. We spent a lot of time talking about what it would even look like and prayed for guidance in this decision. Then came March and preschool closed and I was thrown into “homeschool” for the last couple months of preschool, and it was great. She learned so much and we had a lot of fun figuring out this whole homeschool thing together. It became clear that we were going to give homeschool an official try for her kindergarten year.

I am nervous about how it’s all going to play out, but also confident that we made the right decision for her and this season of our lives. I anticipate us both learning a lot this year as we navigate homeschooling together! As I’ve spent months preparing for this start, I took some time to write out our core values and what is really important to us (so that a couple months in when I’m feeling overwhelmed or distracted I can look back and be reminded of why we’re doing this and what is truly most important to us)! Here’s a look at some of the core values we wrote down:
– Connection
– Love of learning
– Grow in our love for and understanding of Christ
– Build deeper relationships
– Have fun
– Delight in the Lord and His creation

Here’s a little FAQ about the start of our homeschooling journey:

What curriculum are you using? We are using a mix of several different curriculums, specifically The Good and The Beautiful for language arts, Masterbooks God’s Design for Life for Beginners for science and Horizons for math. I plan to work through some basic social studies topics (communities, maps/globes, early US history, etc) that we will just discuss and use library books. For handwriting we will just practice with the scripture memory that we are working on each week and the Write the Word for Kids journal. And I’m also doing “Kindergarten Enrichment” on the side for some fun extra ideas. We’re going to see what works and what doesn’t and mix in a whole lot of fun, adventure and exploring.

What’s your schedule going to look like? With very little experience under my belt, I’m just going to see what works. Ideally, I plan to do a morning and afternoon “session” Monday-Thursday each week rotating through all our “subjects.” But this is very much a loose plan and one that I anticipate us changing as we get into a rhythm.

What are some homeschool books, blogs and other resources you’ve been enjoying? Some homeschooling books that I’ve read over the last couple months that have been really encouraging are “Teaching from Rest,” “The Read Aloud Family,” and (I’m just finishing) “The Brave Learner.” “The Call of the Wild and Free” is next on my list! I’ve also enjoyed the Read Aloud Revival blog and podcast as well as the Awaking Wonder series Sally Clarkson has been doing on her podcast as well!

Are you homeschooling Ethan? As of now, we still plan to send Ethan to preschool. We’ve love the program and are willing to give it a try knowing that if it isn’t going well or if there are any drastic changes due to COVID, I am prepared to bring him home for school as well.

Here’s to a new a fun school year ahead!! If you are also homeschooling this year, I’d love for you to reach out and let me know how I can be specifically praying for you and your family as you get started!!