Our Story

My name is Sasha and I am married to my wonderful hubby Joe!  We met in 1997 at our local community college during a Bible Study.  We quickly became friends and began hanging out in a group.  By 1998 we were toying with the idea of dating, ha ha!  After dating for about 9 months we decided to get married, so we got engaged in October of 1999 and married in May of 2000!

After getting married I continued my college education and got my Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education.  That landed me working for a day care.  During my time at that day care I was quickly put into a leadership role, which I was not prepared for, or trained for!  So after a little over a year there I quit and took another job for another day care.  While there I had my first child, Elijah in 2004.  I knew that I would eventually want to stay home with my children, but financially at that time in our lives it was not possible.  So I plugged away working everyday while my husband worked retail and was gone most evenings.  Since I was working at the day care I was able to receive a discount on child care for Elijah but we were still paying quite a bit for what I was making.  Then about 3 years later in 2008, I had my second child Noah, after him I KNEW I needed to be staying home.  Getting to work each day was more difficult (and they came with me!), and feeling like I wasn't spending time with them in the evenings was really getting to me.  Still financially we knew it was going to be REALLY tight to live on my husbands income.  He had gotten out of retail and landed a decent job, but was still not making very much.

Then when Noah was about 3 months old he was hospitalized for dehydration.  Spending those 3 days in the hospital with him I knew it was time to do something!!  So my husband and I began to crunch numbers and talk about how this could work.  On paper we did not see how!!  Once again since I worked for the day care I was receiving a huge discount, so that was not really a factor.  It all came to a head one day at work I found out that pretty much all of my benefits were going to get cut (I was coming up on my 7 year anniversary there).  The company decided that they needed to make some changes in their policies which meant less vacation and sick time, that was when I decided it was time for me to make a change and stay home!!  After calling my husband at work crying from the stress of my work, we decided that some sacrifices needed to be made!

In May of 2009 I came home, where I belonged, to raise my children!!  We still did not see how this was going to work financially, but God has always provided for us!  At this time Elijah was 3 and getting ready to go to preschool and loving every minute of it!  I was enjoying getting to spend time with my baby (Noah) and doing things that I missed getting to do with Elijah when he was a baby.  I was also just counting down the days until both of my children would be in school full time and I could be "free"!

  When Elijah began Kindergarten in Public School I was so excited (it was actually in the same elementary school I attended!).  I was able to be involved in his class room, I got to know his friends and their moms.  I was loving it!!  Then that year I became pregnant with our third child.  The following year (2011-2012)  he entered the First Grade, Noah began preschool, and I had a newborn.  That was a busy year for us, we also began Cub Scouts!

In March of 2012, I began to get hit with feelings that I should be homeschooling my children!  I am still not too sure where it came from (a voice from God!), but it was everywhere!!  Here is a conversation that took place between myself and my dear hubby one evening:

Me:  Honey I think I have lost my mind!!
DH:  Why?  What have they done?? (yeah that was a common question at our house!)
Me:  I think we need to be homeschooling our children!
DH:  (grinning from ear to ear), Oh really, OK!

See if you know me, you already know that homeschooling is something that I never wanted to do!  I was the person that didn't cry on the first day of school, I sent my kids off on the bus and never looked back!  So for me to say this was very un like me!  On the other hand my hubby has always said that if we could afford private christian school that is where our boys would be.  My response was always "Well we can't, so I am so thankful we live in a great school district!"

Anyway, we began doing our research, and more research and more research!  We found out that our local homeschooling convention was in April (perfect timing!).  We signed up, went and got a wealth of information thrown at us.  We decided since it was so late in the year that we would let Elijah finish out the year in Public school.  There was no urgent reason we needed to pull him right away.  This gave us time to gather materials, get our curriculum, and for me to prepare mentally!

That summer was spent organizing and preparing to make our home a learning environment.  We officially began homeschooling on August 13, 2012 and so far so good!!  Its been a great experience for our family and I really don't see us going back to Public School any time soon!!