My homeschooling journey began several years ago when I was fortunate enough to be seated next to a young boy on a flight home. I couldn’t believe this polite and interesting person was not even 10 years old! As we were disembarking, I told his mother that I thoroughly enjoyed the company of her son. The only thing she said to me was, “Thank you. We homeschool.”

That’s odd. What in the world is homeschooling? You mean, you “school” them at home? You’re kidding me. People do that?

In reality, I was rather speechless and barely mustered “Oh” as a reply.

Fast forward a year later to the birth of my first child, Austin, followed by my second son, Noah, two years later. During my rare quiet moments, I’d think about the kind of young men I wanted my sons to be. Then I would remember that boy on my flight. He was bright, kind, and actually able to hold a conversation with an adult—different from other kids his age. Maybe I should look into this homeschooling thing? I really like being around my kids. Nobody knows them as well as I do or cares for them as individuals as much as I do. I want them to love to learn, have a Christian worldview, pursue things that interest them, and experience the kind of learning that really “sticks.”

God continued to encourage and grow this “idea” of homeschooling in my head and my heart. He also directed other homeschoolers to cross my path—at garage sales, the grocery store, and even at a new church that was full of these “homeschooling” families. It seemed like homeschoolers were starting to crawl out of the woodwork! At the same time, He opened the hearts of my husband and family to the prospect of educating our children at home.

I began our first year of homeschooling very tentatively and decided to take it one year at a time. I continued to read all the books on homeschooling that I could find at the library and kept our kindergarten goals VERY simple: learn to count, read, and write. Surprisingly, it was a lot easier than the impossible task I originally thought it would be!

Writing took a little more work than learning to count (which my oldest guinea pig, er, son, could already do). We struggled with learning the mechanics of holding a pencil but finally progressed to drawing big lines and circles and even forming the letters of the alphabet with Getty and Dubay’s Italic Handwriting Series: Book A. Wow, I think I can do this!

For reading, I plopped him in front of the television. Okay, so it was a little more than that. Leapfrog’s Letter Factory DVD was instrumental in teaching the letter sounds before we moved on to putting the sounds together. For that, we used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which had short, fully scripted lessons—exactly what we needed. By the end of 100 lessons, he was reading beyond a second-grade level! Another reading incentive that I cooked up was creating a chart numbered with 100 squares. After each lesson, Austin would put a sticker on the square, getting a small treat after every tenth lesson he completed. At the end of the 100 lessons, the whole family celebrated with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese— talk about being the family hero! However, his favorite reward for learning to read (and write) was a new wallet—and his very special, very own library card! That’s a proud big-boy moment if there ever was one!

It’s hard to believe that we’re entering our fourth year of homeschooling! Noah is now the one learning to read, and we have a third son to boot! Things are a little more complicated with two schoolaged children and a toddler, but we have been able to adapt and take advantage of many teachable moments. Our school day begins around 9 AM and usually wraps up just in time to make lunch at noon. My 2-year-old is occupied with a special box of toys reserved only for school time. He also merrily helps himself to the piano, crayons (mark on paper, bite crayon, mark, bite, mark …), slide, CD player, etc. If he’s too much of a distraction, we postpone lessons until his naptime. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in an uninterrupted hour or two! So all of you mommas of little kidlings, take advantage of that naptime!

Another time and sanity saver for me has been to combine as many lessons as possible with my two big boys. While they have their own math and handwriting levels, we do subjects like science and history at the same time.

With my husband’s ever-changing work schedule, we have decided that for the sake of our family life (read: daddy time) we would school year-round. We basically have lessons every day that we can. That way, we don’t have to feel guilty about “bad” days, doctor’s appointments, lazy days, or taking the day off just because daddy is home! Not to mention the hectic holiday months or when family comes to visit. Some weeks this means lessons five days in a row or maybe just one day. Either way, I am thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling affords us. If my children were sent away to public school every day, they might see their daddy two whole days a week (if that).

While each day is different around our house, here is the nitty-gritty on what we regularly use for learning around these parts:

Bible: Leading Little Ones to God by Marian M. Schoolland (Illustrator); The Holy Bible (KJV); Master’s Club at church on Wednesday nights
Math-U-See
Italic Handwriting by Getty & Dubay
Sonlight (history, grammar, readalouds, science, spelling)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (minus handwriting portion)
Art: Draw•Write•Now
Logic: Mind Benders by Bright Minds
Extra goodies: library; Wee Sing CDs; classical music; Your Big Backyard magazine; Five in a Row by Jane Claire Lambert; Quarter Mile Math CD ROM; www.starfall.com (fun reading/ phonics website for children); KUMON workbooks

It has been an extremely fun and educational journey so far. I’m not sure who has learned more, me or the kids! God has taught me to relax, focus on the important goals, and turn each day over to Him. I am SO incredibly blessed to spend the entirety of each and every day learning alongside and growing WITH my children. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Marsha Drews has been living her happily-ever-after with her handsome husband, David, for the past 10 years (and counting!). You’ll find them in Porter, Texas, with their three lively boys, Austin (7), Noah (5), and Christian (2). If you’d like to read more about their grand (and not-so-grand) adventures, check out Marshie’s blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/drewsfamilytx.