Home + School, They're Better Together

Three years ago my husband and I decided we wanted to homeschool our children. Yep, we are one of those families. I think just about everything about my family doesn’t quite fit a cookie cutter. For example, my family eats like everyone else, but we only eat gluten-free (my husband is celiac). I own The Bridal Garden, a floral design business, and write a lot about it here on MML. But rather than a full range of flower services, I just cater to weddings. Rather than follow mainstream schooling, we homeschool our delightfully inquisitive two girls.

Before we embarked on this journey, we were in the mainstream public school life. It served us well until it didn’t. Our oldest daughter Rachel was our main concern. By the time she hit 6th grade, she wasn’t happy at school. She would regale us with story after story of what she had to endure everyday at school and these stories were rarely positive. My husband Donovan and I decided there had to be another way.

After some soul searching and prayers, we settled on the path of homeschool. But then came the realization that we got to decide what their curriculum was going to be. That was a scary thought. Before as her mom, all I had to consider was what game I was going to facilitate during the Valentine’s Day Party or what to pack my children in their lunch boxes. Now I had to decide their whole curriculum? That was an intimidating thought. After interviewing other acquaintances already in the homeschool mix, researching many different curriculums, we chose Classical Conversations. We are glad we did.

Now, three years into our decision we haven’t looked back. In fact, we love homeschooling so much, we started a homeschool t-shirt company named Retro Outfitters. This business shows how we literally jumped into this lifestyle with both feet.