There isn’t much I remember about my own education… a large, red grammar book; dissecting a shark; accidentally calling a teacher Daddy instead of Mr. Adkins. (Forever one of my most embarrassing moments.) My school days were a mixed bag of options: public school in elementary, homeschool and public school in middle, and a blend of homeschool and private Christian schools in high. My mom had a very, “What’s working for us right now” approach to our education, and each year we did what made sense for that season of our lives. Reflecting on that now, I think that probably gave me the confidence to make decisions for my own children without fear of doing things differently.
As I was growing up, there was a steady flow of younger children in our home. My mom often provided childcare for working parents and I played with and helped take care of them and my younger siblings. This led to babysitting jobs of my own, and by the time I was a teenager, I knew that I wanted to have a family and homeschool. A stint of volunteering in a local public school during college solidified the conviction that I wanted to be responsible for the education of my future children.
In the meantime, my husband was homeschooled beginning in first grade and continuing through graduation. His parents sacrificed his mother’s full-time nursing career in order to give him and his brother an education at home. When we got married, it was barely a conversation – of course we were going to homeschool.
I had the “what” – homeschooling, but I lacked the “how”. I suspect I was prepared to go the homeschool convention, find a Christian box curriculum, purchase it and bring it home to my children but I had no direction as to an educational philosophy. As our family was approaching the schooling years, I was exposed to the classical method through friends of my parents. The family had been homeschooling using Classical Conversations for a number of years and their children, whose ages ranged from 10ish to graduated, were delightfully intelligent and enjoyable to converse with. I knew after spending one afternoon with them that I wanted to use Classical Conversations to guide our homeschool.
That was in 2011. We joined a local Classical Conversations community and through every season of life, through moving to another state and then back to Florida, we have continued using CC as our main structure for our homeschool. The challenges have been real. The rewards have been immense. As we prepare to graduate our first in the spring, I am overwhelmed by God’s great provision in guiding us to CC at the very beginning of our journey. I’ve not only equipped my childrent to search out truth, to stand for goodness, and to admire and describe beauty, but I’ve enlarged my own understanding. I have been led to wisdom through studying and implementing classical learning, and I’ve seen the hand of God move, not only in my children’s hearts and minds, but also in my own soul.