Mustard Seed Schoolhouse!!

Over the years, our family has contemplated homeschooling time and time again. It's been on my heart and something I have yearned to do but lacked the confidence to actually do. I have said for years that I love the idea of homeschooling... for other families. I love the time I get to spend with my children during school breaks and miss them when they are at school, but school just became a norm for our family. I was planning on sending Graysen to school this year and even fooled myself for awhile that I was actually excited that we were 3 down/1 to go until all the kids were in school. In reality, my heart was hurting with the idea of sending Graysen to school. The more and more that I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep him home and start him with homeschooling. He was so excited to be a "big kid" and go to school like his big brother and sister that I pushed the idea away. I knew when the day came for school to start it would be a tough transition for him and probably harder for me. Over the years, I have researched and read blogs and articles about homeschooling and I have talked to other homeschool moms and families about their "whys". Almost every inch of me wanted that for my kids, but fear took over. Fear took over every year and I did what I thought at the time was the easier thing and sent them to public school.

Weeks before Corona Virus even became a talking point, I was doing a lot of thinking and praying about our future, specifically school. One morning before Ben went to work I shared with him that I had told God that if he wanted to lead me to homeschooling our kids that he would have to give me the biggest sign ever. About two weeks later, the kids were sent home for an early spring break which led to e-learning for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year. More praying happened and although I did indeed get the biggest sign ever, I was still doubting myself. Thankfully, I did a 3 week bible study that really had nothing to do about schooling options but more about my heart. Almost every journal entry led to letting go of my fear of not being enough for my kids. I also read 3 books that were extremely helpful in growing my confidence: The Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie, Educated by Tara Westover, and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. In both Educated and Where the Crawdads Sing, the idea of education was portrayed in such a way that didn't have anything to do with public school and had everything to do with the desire and love of learning. 

I know God has called me to homeschool my kids this year and I really feel like I needed this big push to jump into the homeschool world. Sometimes I wish I would have listened to my heart from the beginning with Alivia and Nolan, but I don't regret our journey. I have learned so much over the years, especially over these last few months. I have been researching and learning so much over the last few months and have our 2020-2021 school year mostly planned out. We actually started our school year already on July 6, 2020 and our days have been going pretty smooth. We are starting slow because I knew that it could be overwhelming going from 0-100, and I think it was a really smart plan to do that. I will be adding more next month and the kids are excited about what I am adding because it's the more interesting subjects. It has been a real joy to plan, teach, and learn alongside my kids and we are all looking forward to this year. Alivia is in 5th grade, Nolan is in 3rd grade, Graysen is pre-k/k age but I decided to lean towards pre-k and start him in official kindergarten when he is 6, Eliyanah is officially of preschool age (no more babies in the house)!!

We decided that we wanted to name our homeschool and also create a homeschool vision. We started a garden this year and we are really loving the process of watching it grow. I love the analogy of cultivating growth in a garden from seeds to a full harvest, so I wanted to name our homeschool with something that had to do with nature. My number one goal this year is to cultivate the love of learning, imagination, and adventure. I liked the idea of the mustard seed because it's small but grows mightily! We are new to homeschooling and small in experience, but I hope that through our time together at home we can grow a strong foundation of cultivating the love of learning, encouraging imagination, and seeking adventure.

Mustard Seed Schoolhouse

It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and

 planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.” Luke 13:19 

 

Planting seeds of truth, beauty, goodness, and grace
through home education to cultivate a love of learning, encourage imagination, and seek adventure...

5th grade 

3rd Grade

Pre-K

Preschool (3 Years Old)

Hello Again!!

I have had it on my heart to start blogging over and over again these last few years. I remember the joy I had with writing about our day-to-day adventures and the delightful journey we were on. It was one of my favorite things to do when I only had Alivia, but after each kid it became increasingly hard to write and keep up. I constantly felt behind if I didn't chronologically write about what was going on in our life. I felt like I would be disappointed if I missed blogging about something and then felt overwhelmed when I had several posts to write to "catch up". The whole reason I started a blog was to document our moments worth sharing. I am really writing this for my children so that they can see their childhood through my eyes when they get older, but it's also a neat way to keep family and friends up to date on what's going on in our lives too. In the end, a blog just has not been a priority these past few years to this tired and overstretched mama of 4 children. Instead I transitioned to Instagram for my quick version of blogging, so my 2 1/2 blog gap can be found on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rachspiers/. I have made blog promises in the past and I am here to say that I have no intention of promising anything to myself regarding how many posts I will make weekly or monthly. Although I am finding a few more free moments to start things up again, I still need to have realistic expectations. I hope to write on a regular basis because this year has been really interesting thus far (thanks Covid-19) and I imagine the rest of the year to follow suit. I am happy to be back in my little writing corner to share our delightful journey from my heart.