When and Why I Became My Children’s Teacher, Part 1

I became my children’s teacher for various reasons. I opened the door long ago, before even having children. I was a public school elementary educator for thirteen years. The on the job training working day in and day out with young children, other professional teachers, as well as parents created many life lessons moving forward.

I was in the classroom until four days before Jackson was born. It was never part of my plan to leave the school I loved to become a stay at home mother. I struggled with the idea of leaving society’s professional world that had defined and created me for so many years. My predictable schedule of lesson plans and checked plan books was hard to part with. However, bigger than the sadness of leaving and not being a part of that world, was the bigger emotion of leaving my new colicky, needy baby boy for someone other than myself to care for.

Our little man began to grow. He started showing all that he was learning. A teacher I could see but teaching my own!

During these moments of his growing, I too was growing. When Jackson was eighteen months old, we welcomed a new baby sister, Abigail. I couldn’t imagine not being there for this new life day in and day out.

It was at this time, other than the income lost from leaving the classroom, I knew I was where I was meant to be. Being able to be at home with these growing loving two was an amazing way to spend the day. Growing and learning together.

Experiencing life from the perspective of these two makes our family seem like the perfect thing to focus our attention on daily. We learned the basics of letters and name writing, colors and numbers. Jackson was learning what we exposed him to, Abigail was there to watch it all.

Our two toddlers, especially Jackson, was filling his mind with the wonder of life and learning. Exposing him to the preschool world was a juggle with another loud toddler always by our side. However, he continued with the process. I did the traditional work and kept up with the socializing side of school by exposing them both to preschool group readings and library time. I had to allow Jackson time to mature and become less socially pressured to live up to everyone’s expectations.

I guess you could say we needed another. We became pregnant with the third when Jackson was thirty nine months old and Abigail was twenty two months old.

Excited and crazy nerves all at the same time. A pregnancy that was scary and high risk made me question my ability to continue educating my two at home. Never wanting to not offer the best for all of my children was the only moment I wondered if home school would be the best and only option moving forward.