Homeschool Mom Collective Welcomes Christian-Emilee

I’m Christian-Emilee and I’m so thrilled to be sharing about my family’s homeschooling journey! I have a degree in elementary education from Covenant College and have worked as a kindergarten and first grade teacher in the public school, tutored, taught English online, directed the children’s department at our church, and worked in a homeschool co-op. That almost covers the bases for all the ways you can use an education degree. But this year I began my favorite way to teach, homeschooling my own kids! I also run a photography business, love to bake, and have a budding love of needlepoint!

Homeschool

If you told 2020 Christian-Emilee that she would be homeschooling in a few years, I  wouldn’t have believed you! My own school career was a mix of public and private school, so this was not on my radar. My limited knowledge of homeschooling consisted mostly of vague thoughts about owning chickens or baking bread and I didn’t have much interest in either. But as our oldest child was nearing school age we started to wrestle more seriously with the idea of where she would go to school. The more we wrestled with this idea, the more we realized that we cared less about the where she went to school and more about the what and how of her education. We felt strongly that we wanted an explicitly gospel-centered education for our kids, which ruled out public school. We also knew that we wanted to prioritize our family relationships and build a strong family culture (more on what that means to me in a blog to come). The more we talked, the more homeschooling started to fit our goals for our family.

But we had one big problem with homeschooling. I didn’t want to.

(cue the dun-dun-dun-dunnnnn). I thought a lot about this and I kept coming back to one idea. I wouldn’t want my kids to have a teacher in a traditional school setting that didn’t want to be there. And I definitely didn’t want to be their teacher that didn’t want to be there. But try as I might, I couldn’t avoid the reality that God was pointing us toward homeschooling. So I began to pray. I prayed a lot of prayers. Many sounded like this, “Lord, if you want me to homeschool, make me want me to homeschool.” And as always, our God was faithful to answer my prayers. He answered my prayers by sending me lots of homeschool moms who seemed cool and relatable, Instagram day-in-the-life videos that looked fun, and with slowly moving my heart from begrudging acceptance of this call to genuine passion. Praise the Lord for that! Still no chickens but I actually did learn to bake bread, haha!

Mom

My mom life probably looks a lot like yours. My husband, Josiah, and I have 3 kids who we think hung the moon. Our house always has dishes waiting in the sink and our bedtime routine resembles a game of whack-a-mole. While I’ve been writing this my kids have asked me to read a book, turn on the TV, and get them a snack. Suffice it to say, I am firmly in the trenches with you.

Collective

If you’re considering homeschooling or already in the thick of it, you probably experienced some feeling of stepping out into the void. I frequently joked to friends that finding out about co-ops, curriculums, or local homeschool events felt like trying to join a secret society. You knew the information had to be out there. However, it seemed like you needed to know somebody or know a secret handshake to find it. That’s where I think Homeschool Mom Collective can step in. This site gives a type of online warehouse to ideas and resources that can make homeschooling feel a little less mysterious and lonely. And I am so excited to be a part of it! Follow me on Insta for ideas on how to build memories in your regular homeschool life at @CE_Homeschools.

I’ll leave you with this cute pic of our youngest, the star of our homeschool!