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We are about ready for #StephensAcademy 2020-2021. Even though we’ve done this for over a decade now, every year is a bit different with different ages and challenges and opportunities. This year, we will gather around our “morning time” table with a high schooler, middle schooler, elementary schooler, and preschooler. How do we do that?, people ask. At the center of this room stands a table that NP and I bought used to furnish our first apartment. A lot of meals have been eaten around that table. It’s been a gathering place for years and years. It seems fitting to have our old kitchen table in the schoolroom now, because education is a lot less like an assembly line and a lot more like spreading a feast. No one asks me how we possibly provide food for a family of six. The bigger the family, the more prep might be involved, it might take more time, some might need things cut up smaller or dietary needs taken into consideration. Not everyone likes the same foods to the same extent. But ...

I picked flowers with my 3 year old today. We practiced calling them daisies. She tromped around the top of a ski mountain in Wisconsin with her cute little self and gathered a bouquet to take to Great-Grandma at the other end of the path. I picked more and wove them into a daisy-chain crown and put them on her head and it was adorable. For one minute. But then her bouquet was forgotten and trampled on the ground and her brothers and big cousin pulled off petals and she took off her crown and threw a fit when I tried to put it back on her. As I gathered those sad, rejected, trampled daisies off the ground, it reminded me of homeschooling. Now this isn’t all gloom and doom so hang with me, here. It’s a new school year and my social media feeds are full of smiling first-day pictures, and for some families, this is the first year for homeschool pictures instead of meet-the-teacher or big-backpack-getting-on-a-bus pictures. The faces are excited but also uncertain. And I know, firsthand, h...

It’s time for a homeschool peptalk. I see you, feeling all the stress of 2020 somehow piling up and making planning for the new school year feel extra daunting. I see you, fielding questions from friends considering crisis homeschooling for the coming year, feeling excited for them, or fearful of legal ramifications, or conflicted about whether it’s even a good idea for them to homeschool in the first place. Maybe you haven’t been inside your church for four months. Maybe yo u haven’t left your house in two. Maybe your schedule is somehow returning to pre-COVID levels but with extra stress heaped up and a face mask strapped on top. God has not changed. The mission has not changed. We have been given the privilege of raising our kids with a wider view of the world and a deeper appreciation for what is true and good and beautiful. It is a worthwhile calling. We cannot control tomorrow. We cannot control how this next school year will go. What we CAN do is be faithful. Right now. Today. W...

Planning has begun for Stephens Academy 2020-2021. With the next year looking so uncertain in classrooms around the country, I know many are considering homeschool for the first time. May I offer a word of advice? Fear isn’t a good reason to do, or not do, anything. Are you considering homeschooling out of fear? Or are you considering homeschooling because you believe God is leading your family  in that direction? He is big enough to be with your kids and guide your family and their teachers through the possibly tumultuous year ahead. Are you ignoring a prompting to homeschool out of fear? Or are you choosing traditional schooling because you believe God is leading your family in that direction? He is big enough to give you everything you need to do what He has called you to do. I’m a firm believer that there is no one way to educate our kids. Homeschool, private school, public school... this truth is still the same: The righteous will live (and school) by faith. Not by fear. Whate...

Many times when people comment to me that they could never do homeschooling, the comment is being made on the heels of an unexpected break from school (extreme cold snap, multiple snow days... a pandemic) when the students are sent home with packets of work to complete at home. I don't know how to fully explain how much  not  like homeschooling that is. I think there is a general misunderstanding of our homeschool life that I would love to clarify. And when I say "homeschool," I'm going to limit my comments to our  experience of homeschooling here at Stephens Academy. Every single family is different, kids are different, there are about a million different curriculum options and methods and variables. But here are some things I wish people knew about us. Homeschooling is not doing "school at home." We don't do worksheets. Ever. Math is the closest you will get to finding my kids working out of a textbook. If you had a live feed into our home, on ...

Planning for the fall homeschool term. Feeling the same feelings I do every year and maybe I’m not the only one who needs a peptalk. You’re looking at this list and feeling overwhelmed. You’re thinking about how your plans never seem as pretty or picturesque or complete as those other moms. You’re wondering if you can do it. And you know what? You can’t. You cannot do this on your own. And the good news is that you don’t have to. God has given you everything you need to do what He has called you to do. You aren’t called to be that family on Instagram. You are called to be you- you, just obeying, empowered by the Holy Spirit, getting up every day and drinking all the coffee and doing the next thing and finding Him faithful. There is no perfect mom. No perfect education. But we have such a good and perfect God and He has not changed. So stop listening to the lies. He has entrusted you to mother and teach these kids in this season in this way. Trust Him. And do it. ...

We’ve been in DC this weekend. In relentless rain. Oh and a hurricane is heading toward part two of our vacation.  This has been the kids’ dream trip ( #homeschoolers , right?! ). Yesterday I walked in the rain with my crying 10 year old between Smithsonian buildings. “I’m finally in WASHINGTON DC! And it’s raining! I’ve looked forward to this for SO LONG!” (Have I mentioned before that he’s a tad int ense?!) This weekend has actually been a gift to our family. It’s been a time to rehearse that all of God’s gifts to us are good. And when He gives us rain instead of sunshine, it is an opportunity to give thanks. Give thanks for rain ponchos. Give thanks for $1 bus rides. Give thanks that we are together. Give thanks for amazing museums and opportunities to learn. Give thanks for a dry, safe place to sleep. God has lavished His grace on us. When I am not gracious with myself, with others, with circumstances, doesn’t it all stem from misplaced hope? Misplaced expectations? A sens...

As leaves fill the trees, graduation parties fill the squares on our May calendar, and thoughts of summer vacation fill our minds... questions about homeschooling tend to fill my conversations this time of year. Homeschooling is a fantastic fit for our family. We love it, our kids thrive with it, and I am so grateful for the privilege of teaching them. I love the intensive time of discipleship and relationship building it gives us and the intentional way we can engage life together as a family. Will we homeschool all the way through? I don't know. We are confident God will guide us step by step. Would we do this again? Absolutely. Could you homeschool, if that's what God is calling your family to do? No doubt. But should you homeschool? I don't know. I can't answer that for you. What I can tell you is that fear isn't a good reason to do [or not do] anything. Are you considering homeschooling out of fear? Or are you considering homeschooling b...