I never planned on being a homeschool mom. After I graduated high school, I went into nursing school. I always loved science and it just seemed like such a great fit. I worked as a nurse for a few years after graduating college but then decided I needed a little bit of adventure in my life so I made the choice to become a travel nurse. I traveled all over the country, moving around every 3 to 6 months, working at different hospitals, in all different departments. I love learning and growing as a person, so being in different places all the time was super exciting to me and it gave me the opportunity to really see our beautiful country and meet some wonderful people along the way.
After 3 years I came back home to Orlando temporarily as I waited to go on my next assignment to New York. I met Eric during this break. We were living in the same town and subdivision in Florida. We had hit it off right from the beginning and had planned only to spend time together until I had to leave but things don’t always work out as planned. We quickly fell in love and I never left!
Eric is a chiropractor and we have a practice in the town where we live. I joined him in his practice after we’d been dating for 7 months and I found it to be very different than the hustle and bustle of a hospital that I had gotten used to – it was just such a positive experience. I ended up working at the practice for the next 11 years where I helped him grow the business to be one of the busiest practices in the country.
In 2009, our first baby Asher was born. Although I stayed home with him for a few months, I eventually made the decision to return to work in the office. However, I did reduce my hours, but I really enjoyed working with Eric and being around all the patients.
But in 2015, when Asher was six years old and I was pregnant with my second child, Journey, I decided at that time- it was time for me to quit working at the chiropractic office and become a stay at home mom.
Even with a busy schedule with my children, I never like to sit still for too long. As someone with a creative mind, I decided to channel my passion into creating a children's product. I’d never done anything like this before and it was totally out of my wheelhouse, but I do love a challenge. It was a child’s plate with storage container all-in-one called Chomp. As the parent of young kids, I always found there was leftover food and this was a great way to store it.
I was lucky enough to get on a game show on national TV hosted by Steve Harvey and I pitched my product. The audience ended up choosing me and I was the grand prize winner of $50,000. It was amazing!!
But at that time, even though I was excited for the potential for Chomp, I just couldn't focus on the business. My daughter was only a year old and I had my hands full at home. Just a few months later, I decided to close the business. It was my first time as an entrepreneur and I learned so much. I did everything from the designing, creating, marketing, manufacturing, selling, pitching the product – even the packaging and shipping!
The reality is, I really just wanted to relax and be home with my kids. By now my daughter Journey was a toddler, and Asher was in first grade. When Asher was in kindergarten, I had tried to homeschool him but I just wasn’t ready to do it yet – I hadn’t completely pulled myself out of the office yet and just didn’t have the focus that homeschooling required. So that year Asher went to a Christian School.
After kindergarten, we moved about 20 minutes away and we put him in public school. It was close to home and had an A+ rating. We believed it would be a good fit for him, and it turned out to be just that. Asher did very well in school, following directions, paying attention, and his first-grade year was uneventful.
But, I did not enjoy sending my son off to school every day after the hustle and bustle of the mornings. And then the same for the evening routine. It was always chaotic, hectic, and stressful. I felt like all our focus was just on getting to that next weekend. Homeschooling was in the back of my mind again.
In a book that my husband wrote, called The Synergy Health Solution, he taught me an invaluable lesson. It's called the 5/7 rule.
If you're only looking forward to the weekends and not enjoying 5 out of 7 days of the week, then that means the majority of your week is awful. I knew that I didn't want to live my life that way. I just couldn’t live like that and knew we needed to make a change.
Eric knew from a young age that he wanted to be a chiropractor. In high school, he worked for a chiropractor, and then went on to earn his undergraduate degree at UF and his chiropractic degree at Logan Chiropractic College.
At 27 years old, he took a bold step and opened his own chiropractic clinic.
He absolutely loves his work and is passionate about helping and serving people. His week is filled with purpose and satisfaction as he gets to do what he loves every day, making the weekends just an added bonus!
My happiness is very family focused. And once again, I noticed the stress that school was causing our family which then made me feel like our days were just routine after routine after routine. Just get through the day so that the weekend is one step closer. When Asher was in 2nd grade, I’d help him with his homework and it was miserable – just plain miserable. He never wanted to do it and after a 7 hour school day. Could I blame him?
Kids are meant to play and be active. It was awful. We both hated it. He didn’t want to do it and neither did I.
I remember one day, they sent a YouTube link to show me how to do his math problem. I was shocked that we had to do it THEIR way, even though it was math I knew how to do. It was clear to me that this was not a sustainable way for us, and I knew I had to find a better way for my son.
Asher was an inquisitive child but the teacher found that to be distracting to the class. The teacher would email me saying that he would ask too many questions. That’s when I decided that I was ready to pull him out and give homeschooling another try.
By February of 2nd grade the time had come to make the move into homeschooling. The school was confused because Asher was a good student and they couldn’t understand why we’d want to pull him out. But I went into that meeting knowing that I was going to homeschool him 100% and that there was no changing my mind. I left that meeting feeling so relieved.
My goal had been to be able to be home with my children and finally that was coming to true. It all happened rather quickly so I was a little nervous about what curriculums to use so in the end we decided to just do the Florida virtual online program. It’s a state run program and Asherā€Æhad to be online twice a week with a live teacher in the class. I remember thinking what a waste of time it was. It was so much waiting around for other kids to open their books to certain pages and it was just so slow. This wasn’t working for us either and we were waiting until the school year was over so we could move on to the next thing. I could absolutely get why kids didn’t like school if it was like this!
When the third grade came around, I bought a curriculum where he and I would sit at the table and we would do it together. We did a few years where we worked hands on without a computer and it was such a great bonding time for us. Then after a few years, I saw all the online curriculums and it just eased the workload for the both of us. It was now convenient which made it easier as he grew and developed and by now I had his sister to tend to as well.
When I think back to those long 7 hour school days plus homework, I cringe. When you’re homeschooling and your sitting down at 10 AM doing schoolwork with your child and their brain is ready and they are in a learning mode it’s just a very different experience, even on those days where their heads aren’t totally in the game.
So fast forward to today. I’ve been homeschooling for over 7 years now and I’ve come across so many moms, who say ‘I could never homeschool, I don’t have the patience, we cant even get through homework. But you have to realize that after a child is at school for 7 hours it’s a completely different ball game. But what they fail to realize is that homeschooling is completely different from doing homework with your child after a long school day.
It's a different lifestyle and a mindset altogether.
You create goals, you do field trips, you interact with other parents, you go out and do things and create a homeschool lifestyle that you hope doesn’t even look like traditional schooling.ā€Æ
Asher is now in 8th grade and doing great. He gets to take time during the day to work on things that he really enjoys doing. He loves to build things, take things apart, and he’s even picked up jobs cleaning peoples pools in our neighborhood. So he also has that entrepreneur spirit that homeschooling enables us to embrace.
My daughter Journey is in first grade. She has such an artistic spirit and just loves to draw and paint. She could really do it all day. I’ve been able to focus on her in a better way than I did with Asher because I have learned so much over the years.
My little Jesse is 4. He is a happy little boy and loves being around his siblings.
As I had my own kids on the homeschooling path that worked best for our family, I realized that there are many families out there who may be interested in homeschooling but may feel intimidated or uncertain about where to begin. I felt compelled to help others navigate the world of homeschooling and discover how incredible and rewarding it can truly be.
I thought about it long and hard, praying on it. And eventually told Eric that I wanted to find a way to help others. I said ‘I really want to help parents understand that homeschooling is probably not what they think it is’. That they can do it, that they can take the leap and be home with their children and create an amazing homeschool experience too. He actually looked at me and said ‘that is a great idea’. But how are you going to do that?" At the time, I was just thinking about creating a podcast.
He then said ‘out of all the possibilities of things to do in life RIGHT now, are you sure this is it? And I thought for a moment…like wow, I never thought of that, but then I said yes.
I felt that there was nothing more important than helping moms transition their children out of the public school system. So I decided to start a podcast and embark on this new journey.
I knew nothing about how to start a podcast. But I knew how to research. So that’s what I did. I did my research and created a podcast. Just like that!
It was the perfect platform for me to share my thoughts and provide valuable information.
Initially, I was filled with doubts and even put it off a few times.
However, the voice inside me kept calling me back, reminding me that this is what GOD had planned for me - to use my voice and experiences to help other families transition to homeschooling.
Then I realized there is so many things people need or want to know, so I went all in and decided to create an online course too! Deep diving into all things homeschool! And that’s where we (and you) are today!
Asher is 13 now and I know in just five short years he will be out of the house and starting a new life of his own. Right now he is a typical teenager and loves to be around his friends. I’m so fortunate for the time we spent together and those memories cannot be replaced with anything. Journey is enjoying focusing on her art, playing with her friends and being creative most of the day. I love getting to be a part of those things with her and letting her find the path that works for her.
Our homeschooling journey has been amazing. I couldn’t even imagine it any other way. We feel blessed to have chosen this path, and I am excited to see the many blessings that homeschooling can bring to your life as well.
Welcome to Hooked On Homeschool!
