Accidental Homeschooling
I was recently interviewed for a podcast and we got talking about homeschooling and how it all started for me— I had to admit —I am an accidental homeschooler. I wish, I had thought more about school and life with kids before I had any. I didn’t even reflect much about schooling when Mathilde was pre-school aged and back then I just assumed, she would go to school — homeschooling wasn’t even on my radar and didn’t know anything about it. I don’t know exactly what happened, there wasn’t a big event, or a book, or moment that changed us or made us want to homeschool. So how did we end up homeschooling?
We never did pre-school time just flew. Pre-school isn’t really a thing in Denmark, where my husband and I am from, so I never gave it much thought and Mathilde and I was having a blast being creative at home and meeting up with mom-and-kid-friends daily at the playground. It just seemed weird to me to be paying thousands of dollars for pre-school, when I loved being creative and playing with Mathilde — and there were plenty of socialization going on every day. In Denmark there are only daycares and since I didn’t work it just seemed unnecessary to be looking for anything in the younger years.
I never got back to having a full time job after we had Mathilde. I had been looking into becoming a licensed physical therapist here in California, but it would take years to get there and I didn’t really love all that comes with the job— so I looked into writing instead and took a writing certificate at Berkeley and are working on my writing projects at home while Mathilde works on her school projects.
Then Mathilde and I traveled to Denmark (where both my husband and I am from) several times doing her baby and toddler years and the idea that we couldn’t just travel when she entered elementary school dawned upon me as that time came closer. So, I started researching first flexible private schools which was super expensive and that lead to thinking about homeschooling. The thought of homeschooling sounded a bit scary but also very exciting. Martin and I then began implementing some Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, and Montessori ideas in our everyday life and we slowly just slipped into it, and I loved it! Mathilde was thriving and everything was awesome!
Then in 2020 Covid hit the World, and we saw how much other parents in our friends group struggled with the online education and following curriculum set by the school — while we got more and more into unit studies and lazy mornings and suddenly, I couldn’t imagine sending my kid to school —homeschooling just worked so great for us. Lunch boxes, fast-paced mornings, homework, and an education system my husband and I didn’t really know (as our school years were all spent in Denmark) were some of the things that convinced us to keep giving homeschooling a chance. I honestly feared, I would hate homeschooling (or worse that Mathilde would!)— but I really really love it! I love hanging out with both my kids, who it turns out are really awesome little people and I love being creative with them and enjoying everyday life. Our family thrives with homeschooling, and I love it so much.
Homeschooling is not for all, and I definitely have days where I wish, I could “just” go to a job and have more me-time and breathe alone in restroom. I also want to add that I have awesome mom-friends with kids in both great public- and private schools — and I think whatever works for your family is awesome. For my family that was homeschool — we are blessed that we have the opportunity for me to stay home, and we are so lucky to be living in a community with other awesome homeschooler so we have plenty of kids (and parent friends) to socialize with. The fear of being enough for me is non existing anymore, especially after Covid there are tons and tons of online communities, new curriculums for the home, and meetup-groups so it is not at all a daring as 5-10 years ago. I am not sure, I could have managed to do it before the internet and without all my amazing friends and mentors. But here we are, and we love the life we are living right now— and that is how we kind of stumbled into homeschooling.
