Trusting the "system" and why we LOVE My Fathers World!

This year we are BACK to homeschooling!!!   We are thankful that we were able to participate and help out at the Christian school for their starting year, but our family deeply needs to be homeschooling.

I used to love the idea of traditional school, because that's how I grew up!  My husband also grew up in private and public schools and wanted his kids to be the same.  We started homeschooling for "fun" to keep me and my toddlers busy during our days at home.  However, we started to realize that we really love teaching our children.  Before long, our homeschool became a part of our home life and our family life.  It wasn't just teaching academics, but it was about a whole well rounded love of learning as a family.

We did a year of private school, and even with me as their teacher, we discovered a lot about our family that year. We realized just how fragile our health was, and that homeschooling was giving us the balance to keep it maintained.  We also realized that the traditional set up that we THOUGHT we loved, was actually vastly different than what we had done as a family.  We also were losing a lot of family time because with our health we had no time or energy for anything outside of school.  Our kids quit loving to learn because it was a "chore" now instead of a lifestyle.

So this year, due to health, family situations and a few other things we went back to homeschooling.

As I write this, we are already in week six because we do year round school.  I originally did not want to, but we've learned that after a week or two of not doing school the kids get bored!  They love the routine, and the learning!!  I also love to travel, so we do year round school to allow us to have plenty of time for vacations throughout the year.

Onto how and why we chose My Fathers World for school!

1) LESS is MORE.

I grew up with Abeka and although it is academically amazing, it is 100% the "traditional" structure that I have learned I don't like for our family.  I started using My Fathers World (MFW) because it had SO many hands on toys and manipulatives for the younger preschool and Kindergarten ages.  The first time we did it I panicked because it was not enough papers.  How on earth were my children going to learn without loads of workbooks and papers??!  I decided to supplement and add on, but in the end it gave me more headache.  By the halfway point of Kindergarten, I learned that less was more.  Our kids learned SO much that year because I wasn't realizing just HOW much the hands on and books and out loud reading was teaching them.

2) Books and reading.

MFW (now we are doing third grade and under) has so many great books and stories.  As a family we read out loud about missionaries, historical figures, allegories, and much more!  I learn daily with my children as we snuggle up as a family and bond and discover these people together.  Our kids ALL love to read on their own and are constantly learning.  It's no pressure for them and it has cultivated a love of reading and learning that I did not even plan for.

3) Nature and play!

With a house of boys, play and outdoors is a MUST for us!  I love that they bird watch, dig for bugs, and pick out variety of leaves and then tell me all about how they just learned this in science!  We do weekly nature digs, art outdoors, and much more.

In the preschool and Kindergarten ages, so much of the curriculum is hands on, making things, and play based learning!

4) Trust the system and quit comparing.

Every year I see just how "little" we have for papers, and I look at what everyone else is doing.  The mom in me panics!  How on earth will they learn handwriting without a handwriting curriculum?  How will they do grammar without drills?  etc, etc.  I always start off with way too much and within a couple week have fussy and overwhelmed kids.  Then I remind myself just how much LESS IS MORE.  This year we already have booted out the first several attempt of me adding too much and now we have a much happier school life!

5) Family time.

My husband and I both have very poor health.  Because of this we have to carefully balance and maintain everything we do as a family.  With homeschooling we are able to take things slower and enjoy so much time with our kids.  We never know how long we have, and losing our daughter this last year just reaffirmed how much we value our family time.


6)Simple and easy.

I could keep going on with how much MFW has simple teacher guides, little to no prep, and it's a very easy to follow curriculum, but I will say it fits our family needs perfectly, and I'm very thankful that we found it.  It's low stress on me, and it's low stress on our kids.  Every year I'm amazed at just how much they really do learn!!

7) More time for everything else!

Because our school days take 3 hours or less, we have much  more time for extra curricular activities, fun, and friends!

What I've learned the most is keep things simple, don't sweat the small stuff, and ENJOY life!  Forever thankful that we are able to homeschool and keep our family in a home of learning, love, and closeness.