Our homeschool adventure. Part I

Posted on February 15, 2021February 15, 2021 by Matt Todd

This post about homeschool contains affiliate links. That means I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on the appropriate links. You can learn more in my Disclosure Policy. As always, thank you for your support

Gather ’round, y’all, and hear the story of how our family threw caution to the wind and set sail on our own homeschooling adventure with our youngest, navigating the daily challenges of working two full-time jobs while taking on the responsibility of providing a quality education in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.

Are you ready?

I’m not.

But here we are. And when I say “throw caution to the wind,” I really mean we’re being extremely cautious. Maybe overly cautious. I’ve mentioned it before, but this COVID-19 stuff would probably be very harmful to Mihret. So we kept her home during the fall semester and attempted to navigate virtual school with our school system. Here’s our assessment of last semester’s efforts: it wasn’t great for her. It was pretty bumpy. I mean, it wasn’t a failure. But it certainly wasn’t a success.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying on anyone’s part. It just didn’t meet Mihret’s needs.

Mihret's first day of virtual school. Now we're doing homeschool.

So, because I’ve had the privilege* of working from home for the foreseeable future and a supervisor who is incredibly understanding and supportive, I have accepted a promotion, of sorts. I’m not longer a “Virtual School Instructional Assistant.” I’m a full-blown Homeschool Teacher.

I’m not doing this alone, though. And that’s great. Because there’s no way I could do this on my own. If I’m honest, Christy’s really doing the heavy lifting with the planning and organizing. I just follow the lesson plan.

It also didn’t hurt when Aiden ^o and Aly were home for an extended time. They’re back to their respective colleges now, but during their winter break, they helped teach lessons and lead hands-on projects. It was great.

Aiden and Mihret conducting a homeschool science experiment.

Our favorite has been the Little School Bus Chemistry Lab. But we’ll talk more about that in a later post.

Homeschool is a stopgap for us

I hope you understand my heart as I share our homeschool adventure. I’m not expert. I’m not pretending to be an expert. I have none of this figured out. In fact, I hesitated to even share this part of our story because the last thing I want to do is somehow lift up our family as the bastion of homeschool knowledge. Because we’re not. A few other blogging friends^ strongly encouraged me to share my perspective.

So here we are.

So as I share what we’ve done or what insights I might wind up having along the way, it’s because I’m just like many of you who have decided to give this homeschooling thing a try as a stopgap. And that’s what this is. It’s a stopgap for our family. We’re not planning on homeschooling long-term. We aren’t in this for the long-haul. Mihret will eventually go back to school in person. In the meantime, this is the best we can do.

I know you’re doing the best you can do, too.

Endnotes

*I do not use this word lightly. I know working from home has its challenges. But I still have a job when many in the museum sector do not. Technology has made it possible for me to work entirely from home. And I have some freedom in my schedule to make this work. It’s a privilege. I’m grateful for this privilege.

^Thank you, Eghe, Creed, and Shelly!

^o Speaking of Aiden and Mihret, have you seen their latest video – The Beanboozled Challenge? You should. It’s gold.

Bio
Latest Posts

Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"