Establishing a House of Learning

The Coffield Academy was established in August 2014 (read: we signed an affidavit saying we were going to homeschool and didn't register F for kindergarten that year).

I was completely uncomfortable with the idea of putting Freddy in kindergarten. He had spent a year in a kindergarten prep preschool having anxiety attacks and silently crying when he was asked to do anything other than play. That year he was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder and vision impairment. I looked into every other option. I didn't feel comfortable with anything. All of F's preschool friends were getting ready for kindergarten round up and I had no idea what we were going to do. One night I was praying for help to know what to do when I had one word come boldly into my thoughts: HOMESCHOOL. And just like that I had peace, clarity and comfort. I knew it was God speaking to me and it felt so good to know what to do but this was not the answer I wanted. 

I wasn't that kind of mom. I was a tired mom. A depressed mom. I had a child with special needs I didn't understand, two babies only 15 months apart and a surprise baby on the way. I was overwhelmed with the many big changes and decisions taking place and the idea of homeschooling was terrifying. But I had my confirmation of God's will and that gave me comfort. I just hoped and prayed that He would not let me fail.

I spent much of the first year (Kindergarten) just trying to make it through my third pregnancy in three years time, reading books on education and trying to decide the best way to go about home education. We bought the first couple sets of Bob Books and at one point I spent $50 on the Hooked on Phonics iPad app because I realized teaching someone to read wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. We spent a little time on that app everyday and spent nap times reading aloud books like Little Britches but that was about it. Our new baby came and that was a rough year (perinatal OCD and depression is torture). This was the year I read the Thomas Jefferson Education books and loved them. I needed them. I needed to hear that it was OK to focus on character training and building a strong family unit before rushing to teach reading, writing and arithmatic. I thank God for leading me to those books and the TJed Facebook group where I found support.

The next year (1st grade) we did a little more. We joined a local science club with other homeschool families, we organized and directed a homeschool family Christmas program, took classes at the Little Gym, had our first ever Martin Luther King Jr. field trip on the city bus, put Freddy in Intergrated Learning Strategies for a semester, cared for caterpillars until we let them fly away as butterflies, bought the Life of Fred elementary books series, played a lot and tried not to worry about F's very slow progess in reading.

After that I felt like I needed more support. So for 2nd grade we enrolled in a charter school program for homeschool kids. Here's how it is set up: You enroll in the government funded charter school, they pay for approved (secular) curriculum of your choice and you still teach your kids at home, but they come to school one day a week for a full day of school where they have a history class and a science class. You have access to the school library and an education specialist. You have to report to the education specialist each month and set new goals and take benchmark tests three times per year. There is also an option half day where kids can take elective classes such as piano, art, yoga..etc. And just about every other Friday there are field trips you can take with the school at discount prices.

F loved the charter school. I didn't love it, but I liked the support and I loved that he loved it so much. It was a fairly new program and it was a bit disorganized while they were working out the kinks. I stressed out each time I had to report our progress and there wasn't much progress. I kept reading about education and when I found Charlotte Mason, I loved everything I read about her. I wished I would have known about AmblesideOnline.org from the beginning and listened to a million podcasts about her writings, her methods and started following all the homeschoolers on instagram (and of course felt like we were not measuring up). My kid is still not reading, by the way. I hired a Charlotte Mason education specialist to consult with me and design a curriculum for F which we tried hard to follow. By the end of that year I was so exhausted and felt like I was just hurrying to get school done. I hated that it seemed like I was telling my littles to be quiet, stop interupting and to go somewhere else to play if they were going to be so loud. That's not what I wanted for our homeschool.

But we did have a great year.  We turned off the TV, put away the iPads and learned how to live with out screens. I discovered the bliss of early morning scripture study, prayer, mediation and long morning walks.  I prayed hard for help to overcome my habit of yelling and made some progress. The year was full of field trips, nature hikes, poetry tea time, sensory play, and reading lessons. F chose to be baptized and joined cub scouts. We adopted a cat, swam all summer long and braved the crazy traffic predictions to see the Total Solar Eclipse in the path of totality (WORTH IT).

And that brings us to our current school year. 

This year we are a bit more eclectic. We are seeking a better balance. I have a 3rd grader and a kindergartener, preschooler and toddler. It's hard. They are little and he is vision impaired and dyslexic. We are gearing up for the first of many evaluations starting this month to investigate wether or not F is on the autism spectrum.  It is so hard, but I'm constantly amazed at the blessings that have come from our little homeschool.

The greatest blessing of all is closeness. Having suffered through many years of severe perinatal depression, anxiety and OCD. For the first several years of mothering, I literally wasn't capable of bonding. I was sad, mad, lost, worried and exhausted all the time. I'm so grateful that I didn't have to say goodbye to my kid the year I was finally done being pregnant (read: living through hell). In a way, homeschooling kind of reminds me of breastfeeding.

Because of undiagnosed tongue ties and lip ties breastfeeding was excrutiatingly painful for me with all of my babies, but it was also the only thing that ever made me feel any kind of bond with them, so I never gave it up. It was the only thing that made me feel like a mother. It hurt terribly for years but it was such a blessing. That is kind of like our homeschool. It's so challenging. It's mentally and physically exhausting. It requires so much sacrifice on my part. In moments of weakness, I sometimes wonder if it's too much to take. But ultimately, the blessings outweigh the pain and discomfort just like it did when I breastfed all four of those tongue tied babies. Homeschooling has given me a second chance to get to know my kids, to be their world, to love them and cheer for them. On another level, it has brought me closer to God and more reliant on His Son for grace. Homeschooling has shown me more than anything else my weakness, my faults and my sins. Homeschooling has led me [pushed me?] into more paths of repentence than anything else. As surprising as that may sound, it's true. Homeschooling woke me up. It gave me a vision of the future and has motivated me to be better, to trust in Jesus, to seek His grace and to have the courage to be imperfect on the road to His perfection.

This blog is meant to be a personal journal of this beautiful opportunity to establish a house of learning. Feel free to follow along if you'd like. You won't find inspiring homeschool photos or anything really profound but you may find something here speaks to you.