This the story of how I became “The Happy Housewife.” You might want to start at the beginning.
When I look back on my life as a mom there is one person who probably influenced me more than anyone else. Her name is Amy. Shortly after we moved into the Mouse House, Amy and her family moved into the house behind us.
She had four kids, which was a lot in my opinion! Happy Baby was a newborn when I met her and to see someone who was able to get four kids dressed and out the door in the morning gave me hope that I could manage my three.
Our kids played together over the summer and when school began in the fall we started our morning routine of walking to school together. All our kids, strollers, backpacks, toys, snacks, and whatever else our little kids would bring along.
I remember one fall morning her toddler had a cold. He sneezed and had a big booger coming out of his nose. Amy took her hand and wiped the booger off his face, then bent down and cleaned her hand off in the wet grass.
I was shocked! I asked her why she didn’t just use his jacket to wipe his face. She replied that if she used his jacket she would have to wash it when she got home and it was a lot easier to wash her hand than a jacket.
I was sold.
Amy made pizza crust from scratch, decorated her house in Playmobil,
and even let her kids cut up Christmas cards and photos they received for crafts. She kept spare clothes for each of her kids in the car in case they stopped at the beach while running errands.
She let her kids get dirty, make mistakes, and solve problems. She was a very involved mom, but never overbearing or controlling.
Amy was the mom I wanted to be.
One day Amy asked if I knew anything about homeschooling. I told her I knew a few people at church who homeschooled but I really didn’t know much about it. She said her son was struggling in school and she wondered if homeschooling might be a better option for him that year.
I told her I could invite my friend over for lunch and she could talk to her about homeschooling. The day my friend showed up I decided to stay at Amy’s house and listen to her “homeschool speech.”
I had no interest in homeschooling, but I didn’t want to leave my friend alone at Amy’s in case she felt awkward. Our ten kids played while my friend gave Amy all sorts of details about homeschooling.
It was interesting but definitely not something I would ever consider. I liked our little neighborhood school and our daughter had just been accepted into the gifted program. We were excited about her opportunities (as much as you can be for a first grader).
My homeschool friend left and Amy and I discussed the pros and cons about homeschooling. Amy had such an opened mind about it, she wasn’t sure if she was going to homeschool her son but I knew that whatever she chose to do it wouldn’t be without a lot of thought, prayer, and research.
Over the next few months during our school walks we talked off and on about homeschooling. Her son was adjusting well to the new school but my daughter was bored. The gifted program wasn’t really designed for first graders at her school so she spent her gifted time reading to other kids.
Sailor and I didn’t mind her doing all the extra reading, but we thought a first grader reading to another first grader every single day and calling it “gifted class” was a stretch.
That Christmas we excitedly went to the school Christmas performance. I was a bit surprised when the children sangs songs about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, and Santa. Where was the Jesus song?
I came home and told Sailor I was upset that they kids were taught songs about several holidays, but not a song about the Christian holiday. He agreed. I didn’t expect the school to only sing Jesus songs or even make the kids sing a song, but to leave it out when they sang about other December holidays bothered me.
It bothered me all winter break. We looked into Christian schools but they were too expensive, we even went to a homeschool bookstore but I got overwhelmed and walked out empty handed.
In the back of my mind I knew public school was no longer my first choice, but I felt like I didn’t have any other options.
Two days before school resumed we dis-enrolled our daughter from school and filed homeschool paperwork with the state of Virginia. I had no homeschool experience, curriculum, or even a vague idea of what I was doing.
I just knew it was the right choice for our family.
danielle says
that is the thing about public school that bothers me…the lack of what this country was founded on Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My kids will most likely go to public school, my mom teaches kindergarten in the district and is BEGGING for my kids to be in her class so at least kindergarten will be like being home schooled by grammie (with 24 other kids present)
Lori says
I had a great public school education, but I fell into peer pressure all the time. I had 2 sister in laws that homeschooled their kids. One of my sister in laws I looked up to as a kid. She made all of her own baby food, she was very crafty and always doing art projects, she made my baby dolls clothes for fun to see if she could do it. Sadly she lived a couple hours away so I didn’t get to see her as much as I would have liked. She definately left an impression on me though, since my husband and I got married I told him I wanted to homeschool. I also made a lot of my babys food. I didn’t realize it until my mom mentioned that she used to do that. And I know the desire to homeschool has come from her example. I also work with kids at church and the stuff that I hear “church kids” not bus kids say amazes me. My best friends kids are very young and they know things that young children should not know because they hear it from kids at school. I want to protect my daughter and keep her innocent for as long as I can.
Sheila Gregoire says
We fell into homeschooling accidentally, too. It was never something I intended to do. We marched our oldest off to kindergarten, just like you’re supposed to do. And then she came home with these “readers” she had to read to us at night, except that they were so far below her reading level it wasn’t even funny. The teacher knew it, too, but all the kids had to have the same readers.
And then she started running into problems with things she was learning from the other kids. We took her out for grade 1, and have never looked back. She’s doing online university now at the age of 16. And her faith is so strong, and she and her sister are so close. I will never, ever regret our decision to homeschool. I think it was the best thing our family has ever done!
Sheila from To Love, Honor and Vacuum!
dgsandbjsmom says
I was taught at home starting in 1985, when homeschooling was barely legal. My husband went to public school but had dyslexia which was not even diagnosed until high school. we both have no wish to send our children to public school. In fact I have never been inside our local elementary school despite living in the community for over 30 years. The school had over 1,000 children. Jut thinking of sending my kids away for 10 hours a day is enough to give me a panic attack. Private schools are over 50 miles away and just tuition before books, uniforms, transportation, sports, food is over $7,000 a child. If I went to work that is all I would be paying for.
Cinnamon says
Funny enough, your story is about the same as mine. The only difference is that my kids were in a Christian school but their Christmas program had a rap session in the middle of it…which fly’s against my grain BIG TIME! Coupled along with the fact that the tuition payment per month was more than my mortgage payment, we decided that things had to change. I refuse to place God’s gifts to me in a humanist public school setting where they teach what I am directly opposed to. My only option was to homeschool….which I was clueless about. However, here we are 5 years later and still going strong and wouldn’t change it for the world!
Bella Michelle says
We have been blessed to be able to send our children to great Christian schools but know if that situation ever changes we will be looking heavily into homeschooling. I have a daughter who is now in a large, public, university and her foundation in top notch and her sense of discernment is so much stronger than it seems to be with many of her peers. Christian education (whether received in a tradition school setting or at home) is GREAT!
Beth Anne says
I’m soo glad your blog is back up and the story is back! I don’t have any kids but as a daughter of teachers I’ve gone back and forth in my mind should I homeschool should I send them to public school or should I marry rich and send them to catholic school/private school?
On one hand homeschooling seems fun bc there are sooo many things I could do with my kids that they will never get to experience at school (especially hands-on wise).
On the other hand I HAVE NO IDEA if I have the patience to spend 24 hours a day with my kids and never get a break. But I guess we’ll never know until I actually get married and have kids and with the way the job market is right now it doesn’t look like I’ll be marrying rich or working when I have kids.
Can’t wait to see what happens next!
Michele says
Out little one is 14 months old almost and we (me) am considering home school already. I don’t know about you all but we have to PAY for PUBLIC school. $600 for kindergarten alone and then it goes up every year after that. I can’t cough up $600+ a year for school!
Anne-Marie says
God started working on me for kids future education when I was 8. Our “Christmas ” play was called “The Witches First Christmas “. I requested to sit out for it & begged my mom to send me to the “church” school. That was 1981…and one of reasons I despise public school.
Lorie B. says
I too have had that same issue with our school’s program. I went so far as to e-mail the music teacher and give him a list of songs that he could choose from that would be easy for the children and the audience would enjoy. It went in one ear and out the other (or shoudl I say straight into his delete box). I have been thinking about home-schooling my kids, and for the youngest three it is a no brainer, but my oldest is Aspergers Autistic. He struggles with social issues, so going to school is good for him. He also has a hard time with accepting instruction or correction from other people than me. I have thought about just sending him, but I think he would resent that and feel singles out (which he gets too much of that). I am just praying alot about it. He goes to high school next year, and I may decide this is the time to switch….thanks for sharing your story! It is a real blessing it read of your ups and downs and see so many similarities in some of my life’s ups and downs.
Amy says
Las Posadas is Christian in origin but, while a wonderful tradition, it’s of Spanish origin and largely tradition in Central & South American countries if I’m not mistaken. I think it’s great that they incorporated it during the school performance but recognizing something that is traditional for so many Christians in this country is always appreciated as well. If you’re just the “average American Christian” (quotes because that is hard to define any more..so maybe “Christian not of Spanish/Mexican/Latin origin” is better?), then Las Posadas probably isn’t the way you typically celebrate Christmas. On the one hand the school probably thought they had the Christian angle covered. On the other..they did but not really for a lot of people.
And yet there are so many holidays and backgrounds to include the kids probably could have spent all evening trying to cover all of them. lol
Back to the rest of the story… I’m amazed at your bravery in just jumping into homeschooling like that! I’ve considered it off and on for at least two years now but I’m so intimidated!
Angela B says
I totally agree with you…to have songs about all the other holidays in December except Christmas is just wrong. And, songs about Santa are not truly about Christmas! Sounds like Amy was a wonderful blessing in your life. It’s inspiring to me to read your story and realize that you weren’t always as amazing as you are now (making things from scratch, homeschooling, etc) but that you had to learn these traits as well. It makes me feel a little bit better about myself – LOL! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Christie says
I’m confused. How is Las Posadas not about Jesus?
TheHappyHousewife says
To my knowledge people who are not of Spanish decent do not celebrate Los Posadas. The children sang a song in Spanish wearing big hats and ponchos. That to me did not seem to relevant to any child who grew up not knowing Spanish (probably about 99% of the school’s children). Our daughter had no idea what Los Posadas was and it was not presented in a way to have any connection with Jesus.