Our Decision to Homeschool

Ever since I was little, all I wanted to be when "I grew up" was a mom. When this moment came for me, I found myself spending all of my golden nap time (you know the time when your child naps and you have some time just for you) looking up ways to teach my children. I found a website called, "The Measured Mom" and I was immediately mesmerized by all the hands on activities in her Letter of the Week Series. We jumped right in and I loved the time I was able to spend with my little ones learning and playing together. I blogged all of the ideas and our experience here: News with Naylors.

This photo is from 7 years ago in a basement apartment we were renting. The classic water beads.

In 2019, our family lived in Oregon and we were planning on moving back to Utah within the year. Homeschooling had always been in the back of my mind, and my husband agreed to let us homeschool for the year. I remember some days feeling on top of the world and others being really challenging. Perhaps some of the challenge was from the busy stage of life I was in with a kindergartener, preschooler and newborn. However, the main challenge was me. I was being humbled to become a better mom - to learn more patience, how to better handle my emotions and how to better rely on the Lord for strength.

At the end of our homeschool year is when Covid-19 hit. The good news was that we had just sold my husband's dental practice and could go forward moving to Utah. The bad news was that because of the pandemic, my husband was out of work for 12 weeks. Possibly longer. The future was uncertain and I was trying to think of any way I could help financially. I decided to start "Play Beyond the Box" and sell children's activity boxes. My first round of boxes was a Halloween Box and the day of the box sale ended up being the exact same day we moved from Oregon to Utah. What a day it was.

The boxes sold out, so I decided to do another round of boxes for Christmas. I was looking for people on instagram to help advertise the boxes for me, and one of the people I found was Cassie from @homecenteredlearning. I didn't know her at all and I'm not even sure how I even found her account. However, I offered to give her a box for advertising for me and she gladly said yes. Looking back, I don't think it's a coincidence that the person I found to advertise a box for me ended up being the exact same person that led me back to homeschooling.

Once we moved back to Utah in 2020, we sent our children to public school with the mask mandate. We continued to have scripture study a part of our daily lives (we did something very simple during breakfast at this time) and on some weekends we would do art or science projects to learn about different countries. However, in 2021 (this past year) my older boys started to become so busy. It was a rush to get them to school in the morning and I felt like between school and extracurricular activities, I rarely saw them. It didn't feel right to me. After Christmas break, our school district was cancelled for a short time due to Covid. The thought of how "I'd rather just homeschool" never left me.

Our decision to homeschool simply started as a desire. I started learning more about homeschooling from Cassie @homecenteredlearning and I was really inspired by the way she organizes and runs her homeschool. It gave me the confidence to try again. As I learned more and more, this small desire to homeschool grew into my greatest desire. I feel so strongly that homeschooling is the way The Lord is challenging and forming me into the mother and person He wants me to become. I know the time I will have with my children learning together is a time I will never regret. Being home and being able to homeschool is a beautiful gift to me.

Favorite Homeschool Planner - Amazon Affiliate Link