Pulling Kids Out of School with Katrina

Hi, this is Sheri from the blog OurLifeHomeschooling.com, where I share homeschooling encouragement for everyday moms. One of my favorite things to do on the blog is to share the stories of other homeschooling families. I enjoy interviewing homeschooling moms and asking them questions like, how did you end up homeschooling? Did you always plan to homeschool? What have you learned along the way? What do you love about homeschooling? What are some of your challenges? And I find that when I talk to other homeschool moms, I learn something different from each of them. In fact, all of their stories are so unique. I've never met two homeschooling moms that are identical. They all have their own flavor, their own way of doing things. And that's what I love about interviewing them is that I just learn something different from everyone. Today, I am interviewing a very special guest. This is my sister-in-law and close friend, Katrina. Katrina and her husband, Micah, sent their kids to school for many years. And last year, they decided to pull their kids out and homeschool them. And they're going to continue homeschooling them again this year. She's gonna share her story with us today. If you listen in on the video, you can hear her share it herself. You can also head on over to the blog and get a little bit more information, some pictures of their family. You can see all the links to the curriculum that she uses and some of her favorite resources. So you'll find more on the blog as well. Here is my sister-in-law and friend, Katrina. Hi, Katrina. Hey. Thanks so much for coming on here and sharing with us about your homeschool experience. I'm really excited to hear your story and I think it's going to be an encouragement to a lot of people. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm happy to be here. So go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell us about you and Micah, your family, and how you started homeschooling. Sure. Well, first, I'm a follower of Christ and married my husband, Micah, for almost 17 years this month, which is really exciting. He is a pastor here in town where we live and we have four kids. Our oldest is 13, then almost two years apart, each 11, nine, and seven. And yeah, I love to bake and I run, actually, a home bakery business out of our house. Which is amazing. And tasted the product of your baking business. Oh, thanks. So just tell us about how you started homeschooling because you started with your kids in school and that was going really well for you guys. So what brought you to decide that you wanted to change directions? Yeah, we had the kids in a Christian school, actually just a half mile from our house. It was super convenient and they really were doing great. They loved it. The teachers were great. Everything about it was really good. But then during the whole thing with COVID, when that happened, we just kind of made us do a double take of why they were there and the freedoms that were being questioned. And we were really hoping that the school would take more of a stand against what was happening, more of a Christian stand against... It felt like what our freedoms were being challenged at that time. So we made us think about that a little bit more and also we've been growing in just what the Bible says about raising up our children and we, the parents, are responsible for them in what they learn and how they grow. And so that was a big challenge as well. And you pulled them all out at the same time. Was it Leah? Was she in school at that time? Leah had just finished preschool. Okay. So yeah, they were all at the Christian school. Wow. So that is a big jump from zero to four, not only at home, but zero to four, and then you're homeschooling all of them in different grades. So if you can think back to just your first year, I'm sorry, your first week or your first day, how did that go? Because that is a complete lifestyle change. How did that go for you? Yeah, I was really, I was nervous. I was really nervous because I didn't think I would be one of those homeschool moms. I was really happy that you're doing it for your kids and it was, I don't know, we just had a really good situation, but then when things started to change, yeah, I just, I think my mindset changed with that too and just trying to get more focused. And one thing that actually really helped was I went to a homeschool convention and that was super encouraging and kind of, I went to that before I even started homeschooling. And so that kind of helped get me focused and super encouraged, like I can do this as a mom, it's okay to fail because we all do and we can do it. So the first week was just, yeah, I was really nervous. I think I read a lot more than what I normally read. I'm not a huge reader, but trying to read through the teacher's manual and just get more prepared about what do we actually need to do during that week. And yeah, it was difficult, it wasn't easy, but we somehow made it through one full year. Yeah, you made it. So last year was your first year homeschooling, right? And then this, you're starting your second year this fall. Okay, so was there anything about homeschooling after you kind of got into it for a couple of months or whatever, was there anything that surprised you, that you loved, that just maybe just took you by surprise? I really, I think I thought it would be way more structured and I think that's maybe what I was really nervous about too, because my mindset was what it was like in the school. And so I was thinking, am I gonna have to be sitting with them for how many, six, eight hours a day? So it was surprising how much freedom we have in what we do. And if there's days where we're just going crazy, we can go to the beach and enjoy time in God's creation, just do random things like that. And that helped a lot, but yeah, the freedom to just, okay, we can take a day off here and then we'll just do an extra day or two the next couple of days, so yeah. Were you nervous being home with your kids all day, especially since that was a big change for you guys and how did that go? Yeah, I was definitely nervous because I did like having, my free time when the kids were at school and I could bake a lot and do a lot of different things. And it was a lot. I think it took some adjusting, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. It was definitely a good time of getting to know the kids. And you still obviously have time for your bakery business. It's doing very well. And it seems like you're able to keep putting out as much as you ever have and it's still growing. So, and honestly, I think that's something that took me a couple years myself to learn. We started homeschooling from the very beginning and I threw myself into it, almost to the point where I didn't have hobbies. And I think that is really important to have something that you do, that you enjoy, that's completely separate, not only for yourself, but even I think your kids respect you more when they see that you have interests other than school, other than home, other than something else. I think that is really important that maybe you didn't realize at the time, but it was an advantage for you starting out that you had that. Yeah, I think because I wasn't sure how the day would go, how long it would be doing school with them, it was nice to see, okay, this is only a couple hours. Yes, they can do more school on their own, but then I do have time to do my baking in the afternoons sometimes when they go to bed, it's just quiet, have that time, so that's really nice. What were your biggest challenges for you and for the kids when you pulled them out? What was the biggest challenge for you? I think the biggest thing was a little bit of the social aspect for some of our kids. Our second oldest daughter, she loves being with her friends, she loves her teachers. She's just one of those kids that, I don't know, she likes these older, she loves structure, she loves the schedule. And so everything about school, like she just loved everything about school. And so I think that was probably the hardest thing is there'd be days where it's just like, I wanna be at school, I wanna be with my teacher. And so we've actually, we had to transition because this is school now. And so we would call that building school. We don't do building school anymore, but we do homeschool. Yeah, oh, you are. So how's that going for her now after you've had a year under your belt? Yeah, I think she's been adjusting really well. She also sees how great it is to have these freedoms to just take a day off when we need to or be able to go outside way more than what they were doing before. So I think it's going really well. Oh, good. So when you first stayed home or when you first started homeschooling, what curriculum did you decide to go with? Did you pick like an all-in-one or a couple of different things? And what made you decide to go with that specifically? Well, before we started homeschooling, I asked some ladies that I knew what they were using and just looking at their curriculums to kind of get an idea of what it was because I really had no idea what to even expect. So I had a friend who was doing My Father's World and she let me come over and look through her book. And that was super helpful, just having someone there to talk through what the curriculum is even like. And that's what we ended up going with is My Father's World. And so we do that for the majority of it. And that is mostly everything. And then with math, we started with Math UC and it's really good. It's really foundational, but the kids just didn't like it as much. So we transitioned over to teaching textbooks and that's all online and that grades them. And they really like it a lot. So we're gonna continue doing that this year too. I've heard a lot of good things about teaching textbooks. Yeah. From a lot of people. Yeah. How do you teach all of your kids, four different kids, different grades, different ages, all at the same time? How does that work in your home? Yeah. It's still a learning process for sure. It is for me still. I bet. What we have done is just start the morning together. And one good thing about My Father's World, there's lots of good things about it. One good thing is that the curriculum you buy is for a few different ages and grades. And so all my older ones, my three older ones can actually do one of the same curriculum at the same time. And for the older ones, if there's something more involved, they will do that by themselves or afterwards. And so you can still just stick with one curriculum and have everybody together. The math they do on the computers by themselves at a different time. And my younger one, so she did kindergarten last year and I did buy a separate, the separate My Father's World kindergarten curriculum for her just because she's learning how to read. And I knew that wouldn't necessarily be in the one I bought for the older ones. So that was kind of challenging at times with the three older ones. When they were usually working, then I would sit and we would go through her letters or read, you know, and just do different things like that. But we would just try, whatever we could do together, we would. And then, you know, play time, they would go play and then I would work with someone else or if they were working and then whenever they needed questions asked and I would try to help them. Yeah, I find that's still the hardest thing is the child that's learning to read that age because they need you for everything. They're learning to read, they're learning to write and so they really can't do much of anything on their own and you have to really work with them one-on-one. And then the older kids, once they learn to read and write, there's just so much they can do on their own. So it really does give you some freedom and give them some freedom when they can do some work independently. Yeah, and they liked that. The older ones really liked being able to, what do we need to do today? And if they could do it on their own and get it done way ahead of time and they were done by like 10 o'clock sometimes. You know, that's great, that's great. Yeah, my kids are the same way. They're motivated by seeing what they have to do and some of them work extra hard to get it done and I think that does motivate them when they can kind of take ownership of their work. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks so much for sharing your story with me and with everyone. And I just love watching your family and our kids are so close. So it's just fun that, you know, now that you guys are homeschooling, our girls call your girls in the middle of the day, often like a couple of times a week. It's really fun for them. And yeah, so thanks for sharing with us. Really appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.