Back to school… talk about a bad time to be an enneagram nine!! For those of you not familiar with the enneagram, nines (me) tend to be indecisive and easily swayed by others, and while I’ve felt a pull to keep the kids home and teach them myself during the pandemic, I can’t tell you how many times I went back and forth after talking to friends, family, my husband, teachers, etc. My head was kind of exploding in the beginning, but after thinking it through and realizing there were pros and cons to each situation, we made the decision to teach the kids at home and I feel very much at peace about it. I spent some time with my friend who homeschools her two oldest children and she was so encouraging and provided me with some great resources.
We plan to spend Monday through Friday covering language arts, math, science, and history, with arts and crafts sprinkled in. I bought curriculum books for language arts and math (these will be our main subjects for Peyton) and plan to cover different science and history topics every couple of weeks. It’s going to be a crazy ride and I know it will be challenging for the procrastinator in me, but I do believe we will have a lot of sweet moments together and I’m looking forward to having one-on-one time with the kids each morning and experiencing them growing firsthand.
We chose homeschooling for a few reasons:
- We feel our kids are great ages. If we had children who were far into elementary school and had experienced more advanced curriculum, I’m sure I’d opt for the e-learning option just because I wouldn’t want them to fall behind. To me, kindergarten and preschool curriculum will be able to be integrated in our daily schedule and I’ll be able to teach the two of them together at least half of the time which will be beneficial for both of them.
- Homeschooling will give me the flexibility of setting my own schedule and we like that it doesn’t involve screen time. I need to be able to do this at my own pace because life with three kids is different every day. I’m going to try to stick to a schedule to keep everything a little bit structured, but I’m going into it knowing that things will not always go as planned. I’m not really sure how much screen time Peyton would have had to do if we would have opted for e-learning, but she’s so much more engaged with hands-on learning. I like the fact that I’ll be teaching her through workbooks, books and crafts, but totally see e-learning as beneficial too. It’s just our preference.
- Putting our trust in other parents made us a little bit uneasy. I tend to get upset when our kids get sick from being around other children or after we visit some sort of public place, so I knew sending our kids to school would set my anxiety through the roof. There is no way for me to control what other families are doing and that kind of freaks me out.
- Our babies will be home with us for at least one more year. I love seeing our kids soar and it was the coolest thing seeing Peyton grow so much during her time in preschool, but I do enjoy knowing I’ll have them all home with us for an entire year because it will likely never happen again. It’s going to be crazy, but a year we will never forget.
- We’re grateful for circumstances during this uncertain time. I’m so thankful I’m able to be home with the kids and that Brett is able to work remotely. We have both of our parents close by if we ever need them and it just seems like it’s the right choice to make when we think about the time I have to devote to homeschooling and the help we have if we need it. It also helps that both kids are happy to be home with us. I thought Peyton would definitely have a hard time with our decision because she loves school and socialization, but she let us know she would prefer to be home. I think the uncertainty of the virus and all of the changes it has brought to our life has affected them.
Because everything looks so different this year and both kids were looking forward to starting school before the pandemic hit, I wanted to put together some special baskets for them. It’s a mix of things I bought specifically for the school year and some stuff I had lying around in our craft bins – ha! If you’re looking to put baskets together, but don’t want to break the bank, just throw a bunch of things that can serve as supplies in a bag or basket, and I can guarantee your kids will be overjoyed!
Peyton’s Basket
- Kindergarten toolkit flashcard set
- Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
- Ooly beeswax crayons (I bought a smaller pack from a local shop, but this includes a link to 24)
- Chalk and eraser
- Scissors
- Kindergarten math workbook
Emory’s Basket
- Kindergarten toolkit flashcard set
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
- Ooly beeswax crayons (I bought a smaller pack from a local shop, but this includes a link to 24)
- Chalk and eraser
- Scissors
- First animal coloring book
- Liquid droppers (for science experiments/play time)
Have you made a decision about sending your kids to school or keeping them home? I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below. I’m rooting for you and hope you’re able to experience some normalcy going into this year’s school year!
Marina Makes 