09/03/2025
I can still tuck in my son at 10-years-old. I don’t know what age kids typically stop wanting to be tucked in. I imagine that it’s somewhere around this age. Double-digits. Inches away from the teen years. I can’t imagine him not wanting to be covered, sung to, read to, hugged, and kissed before bed. My little genius has had the most consistent bed time routine out of all the kids. I’ve been singing and/or reading to, and then praying with him almost every night of his life. I remember when he was 2 years old. He’d happily walk over to his book shelf, and grab the same book every night. “Pinetone!” (Penguin & Pinecone.) I’d read, and he’d repeat the same phrases every time. It was such a joy.
Bedtime is harder with 2, then 3, now 4. Each kid wants a different song, or a different story. Everyone wants to sit with mommy even though she’s only got one body. It’s one of those things that I love, but get annoyed with at the same time. Daddy wants some love too! Who’s going to sit with Daddy? Lol.
I am so grateful for this time of my life. I am grateful that my kids want to be with me. The boys used to want to get out of the house all the time. They always asked to go to Granny’s house. Now, they want to be home. Tater Tot says he misses me. Little Genius has to call or text me a few times while they are gone. The girls are all smiles and giggles when we get back to pick them up. These are precious years.
That is why I am so glad that I was able to choose to be home with my children, and bring them back home too. Tater Tot has been homeschooling for one and a half years now. Little Genius completed one full homeschool year. It has been quite the adjustment, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to do it, to be home with them, to watch their personalities take shape, and their relationships with each other grow. It is such a joy. My kids are going to be best friends forever. They take care of each other and will continue to do so. Little Genius nurtures and teaches (naturally because he loves sharing what he knows), Tater Tot brings the imagination and creativity, Little Mama spreads the love (living up to her name), and Baby Girl brings the silly. I love it! I wouldn’t change it for the world.
It’s kind of crazy that it’s been 3 years, no! Almost 4 years since I stopped classroom teaching. I took maternity leave, and never went back. That was a very difficult decision at the moment, but I will never look back. I wish I made that choice when having my first baby.
I am a teacher, trained, certified, and trained some more. But my philosophy of education has changed so much. Well, maybe it hasn’t really changed, but I see how much more educating I can do outside of the school system. It’s kind of funny (in an ironic kind of way) that we would have these summer training sessions every year, learn these new strategies for teaching, conjure up these new ideas, get super excited for the school year, and then plop! Here is your curriculum, here is the pacing guide. Follow these, and stay on the timeline. That was so frustrating to me. I mean, all this training wasn’t free, so now you’re wasting all your money training us on things we aren’t allowed to implement. You want us to use best practices, and differentiate for each student’s needs, and make sure we cover all these topics at these particular times.
Well, now I am able to use best practices, differentiate, cover all the topics, and implement all the wonderful things that I learned during all these awesome (some boring, but valuable lol) training sessions! I can’t tell you how much my children are learning. I have to get my little genius middle and high school level books because the books for younger children do not give him enough information. The boy likes to get deep into the topics he wants to learn about. This kid is memorizing the names of bones. He’s 10. Who does that? He used his own (well-earned) money to buy materials to make casts. Tater Tot has read like, 20-25 chapter books in the last 1.5-2 months. If he was in school, that wouldn’t have happened. In fact, that is more books than I read cover to cover in my elementary through high school life! And I was an A/B student! Of course, the girls just sop up everything their brothers are doing. The way these kids learn is mesmerizing. (I’ve been using that word a lot lately lol.) It really is.
Now, I think my kids are smart. (Look at who their parents are. Lol. Smh. Just kidding…kinda 😝.) I also believe most children (most because there are some with more severe learning challenges) have the capacity to learn and explore this way, but when do they get the opportunity to? My genius finishes his “academic” type workbook stuff in less than two hours a day. Tater Tot’s only takes about an hour. Could be less, but he’s wiggly lol. The rest of their hours are spent exploring all the topics they love through self-implemented projects, experiments, books, outdoor activity (when the sun isn’t scorching), indoor imaginative play. I mean, yesterday, hahaha we played The Floor is Lava, but then Mommy became lava and tagged everyone. The last person who didn’t get all their lives taken was the next to be lava. It was so much fun!
I’m just going to brag on my babies a little bit more (because I am proud of them, and because this is living proof that children don’t need to be coerced to learn). JJ wrote a book about jets last school year. We’re working on getting it published. Tater Tot can take you rock hounding, and can tell you sooo much about plants! Not because he was forced to learn the plant life cycle, but because he just loves growing things. Y’all, he wanted to do some research, and looked up how to make clay… and then he made clay with some dirt from the back yard. Little Mama knew all the capital letters and most of their sounds before she was 3. She is learning to read now, and Baby girl is following in her footsteps.
These kids (I’m talking about all kids now) can do anything if we just give them the space and opportunity to do so. Sitting in a classroom for 6-7 hours a day is not that space or opportunity. I’m not saying kids can’t learn in classrooms. Of course, they can. I’ve seen it first hand. But the learning is exponential when they can explore life and their interests on their own terms, and I will add, with the guidance and support of resourceful adults.
One of my favorite things about homeschooling in this way is that my kids will know themselves, and truly know what career paths they want to pursue early. I had my eyes on being a doctor from the age of 5 to 15. Why? Initially because I learned that girls could be doctors too. Then I just held on to that. Psychology piqued my interest, so I studied that for undergrad, but didn’t really like the career path that put me on. I didn’t really know who I was, or what I wanted to do, but spent too many thousands of dollars on higher education because that is what the next steps were supposed to be. I didn’t know any differently. My kids will know differently. They will have explored everything they can get their hands on, and not waste time or money on things they are not going to pursue. They will choose the paths that will get them to what they want, and they will have real life experience.
I’m excited for their futures. I am happy to be able to witness their extraordinary lives.
Homeschool. Who would have ever thought I was going to homeschool?
