Disclaimer:


Oh dear.  This is one of those posts.  The kind where I cringe a bit as I type because some days I feel a tad timid about opening up my life so much.  Please be nice.  This is our journey.  Likely your journey will not look like mine, but will be completely different. That’s okay.  I share my journey in hopes that others will be encouraged to stay the course.  Even though there have been many twists, turns, bumps, flops, kerplunks, times of soaring high and occasional thuds, no matter what, I really do thoroughly love my life. 

Okay, so here we go….

You guys did make me giggle.

So you wanna’ know what makes them 
“woot-woot”?

Please allow me to first explain a few things…

In 1983, when I began homeschooling Abigail, I did it 
for one reason:  I just loved being with my precious girl.   
My love language is “Quality Time” and I cannot ever 
get enough time with the people I love. 

{Now don’t think for a second that I am saying that people who don’t homeschool don’t love spending time with their kids – not at all!!  I’m merely stating what was at the root of my original 
motivation.  And since my love language hasn’t changed, 
it is still a main motivating factor for me.}

Back in 1983 very, very, very few homeschooled.  
In fact when people asked where Abi went to school 
and we told them she was homeschooling, 
they would usually scrunch up their face and say, 
“Is that even legal?”  {Being a smart bee-hind, I wanted to
say, “NO!  I’m hoping to go to jail.”  Of course it was legal!} 
But because it was so rare in those days 
{although centuries ago it was so common}…
in 1983 there were few support groups, curriculum options
nor were there the myriad of resources that exist today.  

Back in the day I thought, initially, that I would probably homeschool until Abi was about eight years old or so.  
At that time I never would have guessed that 26 years 
and 12 kids later I would still be homeschooling.  

Over the years my thoughts about homeschooling 
have become more focused.  Although my love language 
hasn’t changed, I homeschool now for many more 
reasons than just because I love spending the days with my treasures.  

On a humorous note here’s a little story for those who think 
that I couldn’t possibly relate to their weary days……We were pastoring in Virginia and I was tuckered.   Liberty was a toddler and an extremely busy one at that!  The Multiple Sclerosis was wreaking havoc and plain ol’ everyday functioning was a chore….
I remember standing at my island and thinking to myself, 
“I’ve been doing this [homeschooling] for a long time, 
I am probably almost done.  [Which makes no sense since Liberty was a toddler, but bear with me.] How many years do I actually have left? I must be at least more than 1/2 way.” 

At that point, I did some quick math and suddenly realized that not only did I have 16 years left, but I wasn’t even half way at that point {if Liberty had been our youngest}.

I gently banged my head on the island over and over.  Thankfully, life went on and this mama survived.   

And somewhere in there we successfully launched our oldest…
and now, almost 12 years later we have successfully 
launched the five oldest.   Whew.  

Over the years I have also homeschooled four foster children {some for only weeks, another for a year}.  

In the last 26 years we have used many types of curriculum but my all-time favorite to use have been Unit studies.  
We’ve done both Konos and Weaver.  Loved them both.

However, two years ago things changed drastically.  We had the enormous privilege of bringing Miss Ruby Grace home – and we couldn’t be more grateful, overjoyed and blessed. 

But the reality is that our sweet Ruby girl requires 24 hour care.   It’s probably hard to imagine unless one has a medically fragile little treasure.   I am on high alert, at all times, in case she were to have a seizure.  Her seizures are life-threatening.  She even sleeps pressed against me and yes, upon occasion she has woke me because her sweet little body was seizing.

Sweet Ruby cannot ever be left unattended, not even for a nanosecond without making sure someone is right next to her, paying attention, in case she were to start seizing.   Which means, I don’t take a shower and leave her “laying in the bed” or sitting in her wheelchair…nor do I go to stick a load of laundry in, without making sure someone is seriously watching her. 

None of that is a problem, in any way, shape or form, just that her care is always forefront in my mind.  Always.  It is just a way of life for me and I am eternally grateful for this privilege.


Add to the mix another sweet lifer with significant delays, a little guy who is still learning the language, doctors appointments, therapies, surgeries, meetings with caregivers, a ministry to the orphan, and the joy of ministering here at our Place Called Simplicity.

Soooo…a few months ago I began to realize that this mama was more than weary and I wasn’t doing a good job of keeping up with anything.   I felt like my brain was going to pop.  We needed a drastic change.  I began to pray that the Lord would show me what to do.

Before I tell you what we did, I do want to mention that who knows how long this will be for.  It could be a short change or it could be for the rest of our lives.  I don’t know.  I’m okay with that. I’m taking one day at a time and enjoying the change.

And one day He whispered an idea and after more prayer and research we changed everything about our schooling.  

So here’s what we did:

We bought everyone a small laptop {without any 
fancy bells and whistles} and every one is now 
doing most of their schooling online.  Each child 
has a pair of earbuds their own color {no one can say, 
“he/she took mine”} except for Jubilee who has a pair of headphones.
  

And of course, we do Bible together just as we always did – 
which happens to be all of our favorite time of the day.

So there you have it.  

The kids love their new curriculum online.  They sign in and away they go.  I watch their progress and can easily tell what needs more work from my master plan online and, of course, I help them as needed.  The curriculum tells them exactly what to do next.  It is very user friendly and reasonably priced and has been a tremendous blessing.

We have a old antique secretariat from Dw’s parents with a bottom shelf that works perfectly for charging and storing the computers each night.  

PS…If anyone is seriously looking to change their children’s curriculum to an online provider, they are welcome to write me and ask me for the name of the companies we use {we use two}.  I will not publicly endorse a specific company. Should you research, try it out and actually sign up and use them, the company will give our family a credit toward our monthly bill, provided you tell them we referred you to them.   If you are seriously interested, for real, you may write me at: APlaceCalledSimplicity@yahoo.com  
Subject:  Online Curriculum