"You Can Do Hard Things!"

Hey guys! Remember how I used to have that fun little blog where I showed you all those sweet treats I made? It feels like ages ago, but some really cool things have happened in life since those days of drooling over chocolate, caramel and buttercream. But lets be honest. I still drool over them, I just don't write about it anymore.

While I don't have quite as much time anymore to bake the day away, our family is about to embark on one of the coolest things we've done yet.

Homeschooling.

We haven't always known that we would homeschool our kids. I mean it took us 10 years to even decide we wanted to have kids, so their schooling options weren't really something we thought about. But we do have really good and fun and important reasons for choosing it now. And let me tell you something friends...I am so stoked to learn alongside my kids! This last year our homeschool co op did an entire month study on butterflies and we got to observe caterpillars from tiny little things, all the way through their metamorphosis into butterflies and it was so fascinating! As a kid I was an average student. I cared enough to make sure I got decent grades. But I did not love learning. So this is like a do over in the funnest way possible!

I have had so much fun absorbing all of the information I can find on the different styles, curriculums, and activities, so as I started preparing for this coming Fall, I thought it might be fun to document our journey. I'll share things that work for us, things that haven't, book and curriculum reviews, our days, our projects, and hopefully so much more!

If you don't know us already, meet our family! Hi, I'm Annie! I'm a 36 year old mother of three. I like tacos, reading a good book, and a generous amount of whipped cream on my coffee. My husband of 15 years is Aaron. He is a public high school teacher, and an insanely talented woodworker. Our oldest is Ivy, who is 5 and starting kindergarten this Fall. Hattie is our crazy 3 year old that makes life so much fun. Our youngest is Tripp who just turned 1. He is like cuddling a brand new little puppy. So. Darn. Cute.

This is new to us. ALL of us! And with the most sincere transparency, it's a little scary. One thing we repeat in our home usually on a daily basis is, "You can do hard things." When the girls get frustrated or want to give up, if they are scared or feel uncertain, or if they want to cry from being unsuccessful, I speak those words, knowing that what goes in their ears will take root, whether it's good or bad. And I really, truly, deep down in my heart believe it. My kids are brave and strong and capable of doing great things, as are yours. So we repeat it as often as we need to.

I'm a newbie guys! I don't totally know what I'm doing, but I'm pretty excited to figure it out. And on those inevitable days where I feel like a failure, I'm going to remind myself of all the good and fun and important reasons we've made this choice for our family. And then I'll wake up the next morning and start again, because I can do hard things.

#homeschool #teach #kindergarten #preschool