From Public School Teacher to Homeschool Mom
My priest likes to say that Dr. Pepper is the elixir of life. But as for me and my house, we will be drinking Chick-fil-A unsweet tea.
Today I’m sharing three unexpected benefits of homeschooling young children that happened in my life and in my kids’ lives when we decided to make the transition from public school to homeschool.
What is Homeschooling? (And My Regina Caeli Homeschool Academy Review)
If you don’t know, homeschooling is when you educate your children at home. It ensures that you are the primary educator of your children, as the Church commands parents to be. We’re currently part of Regina Caeli Homeschool Academy, and I want to share my honest thoughts—it has been amazing. Seriously, the Holy Spirit sent Regina Caeli Academy to our family as an answered prayer.
A year ago, I could not even have imagined where we’re at right now. I was like, “Please, Holy Spirit, I am in desolation.” It was my first year teaching in public school and I was drowning in disrespectful and disillusioned students.
They told me it was normal as a teacher in October/November to be feeling desperate and desolate, and they said, “Oh yeah, you’ll climb back out of it.” But I never climbed back out. Although I did do a really good job of praying through it and I didn’t just give up. I feel like I did a good job educating them.
If you want to know why I ended up leaving public school, I have a video about that that sort of went viral. But right now we’re talking about what gives me peace, joy, love, and calmness—and that is my Catholic homeschooling experience with my preschoolers.
A Little Background on Our Catholic Classical Homeschool Journey
I have two girls: one is PreK4 and one is PreK2. So I’m just going to be upfront and say that the homeschooling load for us currently is not super incredible. But I am currently the Catholic homeschool administrator at our Regina Caeli center, and my co-administrator has multiple kids who are a little bit older (third grade and below). I also tutor the 11th graders and older kids, so I see the workload as a whole. And it’s just designed to be manageable. One of the best things about homeschooling is that you just get to decide what is best for your child. You get to choose what you do first that day (poetry recitation coming up? Big exam tomorrow?)
As the primary educator, you also get to choose what to skip. I think this is easier for some parents than others, but for me I don’t mind skipping Abigail’s tracing exercise page once in a while. I know she’ll have extra time at school to do it! I would prefer to focus on the phonics lesson and the read-aloud time and the fun extra chalkboard games I incorporate into our homeschooling tine.
Why Classical Catholic Education? (Classical Homeschool vs Public School Comparison)
Regina Caeli’s tagline, which I adore, is “Training the mind to form the soul.” I think that just encapsulates everything we want in a Catholic education. And it’s not only Catholic—it’s a classical education in a homeschooling curriculum. So I don’t have to worry about them canceling Aristotle or virtue formation or “To Kill a Mockingbird” like my old school. We are classical, so we’re going to study the classics and learn Latin–which I am thrilled to learn alongside my kids! I mean, come on! I missed out the first time around in my education.
Regina Caeli includes edifying and beautiful pieces and literature (even modern ones) because they have an appreciation for what good books and good literature are. When I compare classical homeschooling vs public school this is huge. I didn’t know a single thing about any of this because I was just traditionally public schooled. I did AP courses and have an English major, so I took a lot of literature in college. But poetry wasn’t really part of my upbringing. My PreK4 girl, who started in August, has already memorized **three poems**, and she adores reciting them for me and her friends. We’re reading good books (there’s a good books list online!), and I’ve learned what kind of illustrations encourage wonder, joy, and curiosity in a child. Another thing to LOVE about classical education is the opportunity to enjoy and experience nature together. We go outside all the time, and since we’re homeschoolers, we can just go to the zoo on a Friday or the museum whenever we want.
So that’s my elevator pitch of the day for Catholic classical homeschooling. Let’s move on to the top 3 unexpected benefits I’ve seen for my family!
Unexpected Thing #1: We Have SO MUCH More Free Time (And Less Drama!)
The **free time** that has come out of homeschooling has been incredible. That is my first unexpected benefit of homeschooling young children: there is so much less time drama.As a Catholic homeschool admin at this center, I no longer have to be completely drained after a day of—well, “disciplining” isn’t even the right word. Classroom management is the real phrase. There were kids in public school who just didn’t want to be there. They didn’t want to learn. They didn’t have any respect for me. It was a mess. But at Regina Caeli, they have actual standards for morality that are followed through with (shock! Awe!)
We’re all Catholic, or at the very least Christian, and we’re all following Jesus. When I talk to students who are struggling, we have virtue formation visits where I talk to them about what Jesus would want them to do, how we can love our peers, respect our tutors, and grow in virtues like obedience or charity. It’s amazing—and I think it’s the only way to raise virtuous children.
When I was in public school, I’d come home so stressed from dealing with everybody else’s kids all day. Now I just get to enjoy the stresses of raising my own kids every day, which is not always easy, but I have more bandwidth. My window of tolerance has expanded.
The Importance of Time Blocking: My Homeschool Schedule for Working Moms
On the flip side, there is an importance of being intentional while at home and working/schooling from home because it’s easy to go a little stir-crazy, especially for me (I’m extroverted and like being out in the world).I have to have a schedule. Recently, I finally time-blocked my life and I want to share my homeschool schedule for working moms with you! It sounds a little crazy and excessive, but I have it linked here if you’d like it. It’s just a Google Sheet—nothing fancy, totally free. I printed it and stuck it on my fridge. It’s amazing because now I have a set list of things I’m doing each week. I no longer wonder, “What am I doing? Where’s all my time?” I was supposed to have all this time, and then I realized I was just wasting it because I didn’t tell myself what to do.
When I was working full-time, I was told what to do every single day, Monday through Friday. But now I have this free time, and I want to give my girls the best education and childhood possible—and I want time for my hobbies and friends. Highly recommend time blocking. It saves so much drama in my mind because I’m like, “Oh, here’s my time to record a YouTube video. Am I going to do it? Yeah, because it’s on the time block.”
Rewarding Yourself for Following Your Homeschool Schedule
The best part? At Regina Caeli, we use punch cards for rewards with the kids. My friend told me the other day, “I have a punch card for myself, and if I go swing dancing this many times, I’m going to buy myself a new blouse.” I thought, “Oh my gosh, it’s a positive individual reinforcement strategy—like in school—but I’m doing it for myself!” I’m going to buy myself a very lovely little watch that can set many alarms once I’ve committed to my time-block schedule for two weeks in a row. (Or maybe I’ll ask for it for Christmas hah). And it’s already going very well. For me, doing something for even just two days in a row is kind of a big deal, so I’m very grateful and can’t wait to get my little watch. If you want that homeschool schedule for working moms Google Sheet, it’s here. It has prayer first, of course. If you don’t schedule it, it will be quite sporadic.
I realized I wasn’t praying as much as I wanted to be. Fortunately, at the center, we do morning prayers, Angelus, and afternoon prayers. So at least three times a day I’m praying with all my students before and after class—that’s my favorite thing right now. But still, at home on those home days, we need that structure. So I added that onto my time-block schedule. It’s so simple, and I’m sure some of you have already figured this out. Here I am at 26 figuring it out!
Unexpected Thing #2: Homeschool Socialization Myths Debunked
The second most unexpected thing from homeschooling is that socialization for myself and for my kids is actually not that hard. Allow me to debunk the myth of homeschool socialization. Abigail, my oldest, really enjoyed being full-time in school, but I always noticed when she came home, she was wiped. I knew she had a good day—she told me all the things they did, I got all the arts and crafts and cute pictures—but she was always, always, always exhausted. Then I was thinking, “Gosh, is she going to be disappointed that Regina Caeli only meets on Mondays and Thursdays at the center?” But now that we’ve transitioned to this schedule, I’m like, “How did we ever get out of the house five days in a row?” And frankly, I had a lot of help from my parents because getting up in the mornings—me and mornings are working it out. If you see in my time-block schedule sample, currently I’ve been getting up at 6 in the morning (I’m more of a 9 in the morning riser). That’s been a process, but it’s because I want to pray before my kids wake me up.
I thought, “Oh, I don’t know if Abigail’s gonna love it.” And my littlest, my two-year-old Elizabeth, I knew she’d be happy to have more time with me because she really missed me. She loved her school too, but she was really missing me. But I have not heard a single complaint. My fear was she would say, “I miss going to school five days a week. Why can’t I have more?” And to be fair, both of them say, “Are we going to Regina Caeli today? Is today Regina Caeli day?”—which is like the sweetest thing to hear coming from your babies.
And I’m like, “No, actually, we’re just staying home because it’s a homeschool day!” And it’s been amazing because they’ve realized, “Hey, when we stay home, we get to hang out with mom. We get to play games, and sometimes we get to watch Juicebox on YouTube while mom does her administrator things.” It’s been really nice. It’s been a non-issue. They love their classmates. I love their classmates because their classmates aren’t telling them about random things—there’s actually a media policy at Regina Caeli. So you can’t talk about Spider-Man and Paw Patrol and all the things I don’t want them to watch because they’re too busy watching Bluey and Juicebox (the things I have vetted).
So yes, homeschool socialization myth get out! Socialization has been easy. And what’s the point of “more” socialization if it’s with a bunch of kids who may or may not be excellent, humble, and virtuous examples for my kids?
At Regina Caeli, they love their classmates, and I love my co-workers and my co-workers’ kids. We have playdates, rosary nights, park days, and all the things. We have a whole homeschooling community.
Unexpected Thing #3: The Catholic Homeschool Community Benefits Are Life-Changing
That is the third and final unexpected thing I wanted to share with you: the Catholic homeschool community benefits are plenteous and an absolute Godsend. I could feel it from the minute I learned about Regina Caeli Academy. I had heard before about homeschooling and park days where you actually have a community of moms with kids who play with your kids and you like the moms. But I had never found it. In public school, it was kind of a mixed bag of people I got along with and didn’t get along with. The majority were just kind of Christian, you know, whatever.And I need more than that for my support network.
Side note: Being so Catholic makes me really fun at parties. I just went to two Halloween parties a couple weeks ago (which is crazy because I love socializing, but also I have two young kids). But at both parties, I had very in-depth theological conversations because I guess that’s just a spiritual gift of mine—finding people at a party who want to discuss converting to Catholicism. I’m fun at parties! Having this Catholic homeschool community helps me feel even more confident about getting into the older grades of homeschooling because I have good friends who are already doing it with their students, and we’re all using the same classical homeschool curriculum. So I can just ask them how they’re doing it. Heck, I’m also the administrator, so I’m friends with and know the tutors who are going to be educating my kids at the center. I can talk to them about it.
The support I feel is tremendous. I had no idea what they were doing in preschool last year. And now I feel like I have a real, tangible idea of what they’re doing because they literally give me the lesson plans. As the mother and primary educator, I can see how they’re progressing and how well they’re doing. And I happen to know that Abigail is just so smart and so sweet. I’m just so proud that I can see that and that she’s doing so well.
Prayer and Community: The Heart of Catholic Homeschooling
Another wonderful benefit of our Catholic homeschool community is that we love to pray together. Like I mentioned, we’re Catholic moms, so we have a lot of the same struggles and social ideologies. Conversation is always pleasant and robust, and there’s no walking on eggshells. But it’s also so centered around Jesus and prayer. My co-admin and I, if we’re struggling, we’ll close the door in our office and we’ll just pray a Salve Regina. We’ll ask St. Thérèse to help us find our little way. Through my own personal struggles, it’s been amazing to know that people are truly praying for me. It’s not just, “Oh, you know, I’ll be praying for you.” It’s like, no, no—I feel the Holy Spirit in this community through their prayers.
Final Thoughts: How to Transition from Public School to Homeschool
So those are three unexpected benefits of homeschooling young children that happened when I switched to homeschooling:
- So much more free time** (and less drama with a good homeschool schedule for working moms)
- Socialization with our homeschooling community is actually easy and wonderful
- Catholic homeschool community benefits are plenteous and have been life-changing.
- If you’re discerning if / how to transition from public school to homeschool I hope this my Catholic homeschool experience beginnings helps and encourages you. Please feel free to let me know if you’re interested in homeschooling, if you have any questions about what I’ve been learning, or please just follow along and subscribe if you’re interested in classical education, homeschooling, or my Catholic saint songs. Godspeed!
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