“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself”

-John Dewey

I have been homeschooling for 9 years now. I started when my two oldest children were 2 and 4. I did not intentionally teach my 2 year old. I included her in our 30 minute school time. We would do songs, circle time, books, age appropriate work, and a craft. That was the birth of what I call family style school. Even though I have 4 children now and they are all different ages, I still try to continue family style school as much as possible… doing as much together as a family yet differentiated to meet everyone’s needs and abilities.

When I first started homeschooling, I tried to duplicate public school at home. I am a former public school teacher and struggled between with I thought education should look like. My teacher brain said one thing while my mama heart said something completely different. This was the beginning of me exploring how education can look.

I decided to focus on different concepts than what I would have in a public school classroom. We still did the same school routine that we had done prior, but I incorporated more experiences, social time, and just day to day things such as cooking, cleaning, and playing. We did less worksheets.

The longer I homeschooled, the more I struggled to differentiate between life and school. I could find learning in almost anything we did. When I started blogging, a friend of mine said that I was a “Lifeschooler”. I still to this day claim that name because I am indeed a lifeschooler.

“Lifeschooling is a beautiful way to educate. It treats lessons from books as equally as important as lessons that come from living life. To me, it means that learning isn’t limited to the school table. Learning can happen anywhere.”

-Heather Khodadadi

Currently, I’m homeschooling 2 middle school children and 2 elementary school children. I feel like we are in a new season and we need to find a new rhythm. That’s is one of the most beautiful things about homeschooling- the flexibility. I have children that all have different needs and abilities. Trying to support everyone can be challenging, but I am trying my best. There are days we are all on top of it and it goes well and other times that we just hit pause and try again the next day. (That’s the flexibility coming back into play).

It’s amazing to me that at one time I was anti-homeschooling. I feel like I’ve done a complete 180! I’m now a homeschool advocate and believe that homeschooling can be a great option for most kids.

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