Once upon a time, I was a single woman with an engineering career (Bachelor of Computer Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, University Honors Scholar, National Merit Scholar) and a lot of time to myself. I volunteered as an adult Bible study teacher and periodically visited the gym so that I didn’t feel guilty about paying for a membership. I traveled, hung out with friends, and spent Saturday mornings reading in bed. I occasionally washed dishes and did laundry when I started running out of underwear. I did my weekly grocery shopping on Wednesday nights, whether I needed to or not, and gazed longingly at the items in the baby aisle before throwing oatmeal bars in my cart. Then I would go home and change the kitty litter.
Over a decade later, life couldn’t be more different! I’m now wife to one funny and talented guy (seriously, the man sings like an angel), and mom to three ACTIVE little boys. I’ve learned that managing the chaos requires home routines for dishes, meal planning, and laundry so that nobody runs out of underwear!
After leaving a 13-year career in the computer industry, I found myself looking for outlets to satisfy my inner geek. I’ve found geek outlets in learning a new programming language, reading books, studying Scripture, and, most recently, homeschooling.
I started homeschooling with no background in education and no previous expectation to homeschool. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. What I lacked in knowledge about education, I made up for in love of research. I researched the general topic of homeschooling and specific questions as I thought of them.
I found myself drinking out of a water hose of homeschool information. I found too much information in some areas and too little in others. And, oh my, the OPINIONS – opinions that only distracted me and wasted my time. But no clear path for me to follow.
Ultimately, my efforts were rewarded. I learned how to homeschool through both research and trial & error. I learned how to make choices for our homeschool that were data-driven and based on my own family’s needs and culture. I embraced my family’s uniqueness and learned to ignore information and opinions that were not helpful to us.
My struggle as a new homeschool mom birthed a new desire in me: to help rookie homeschool moms that are feeling overwhelmed.