The Jensen Family: Our New Adventure

Wow...where do I begin? It's been a long time since I have blogged about all the things going on in the Jensen family, but I figured now was as good of a time as any. We've been busy that's for sure. Keeping up with 4 little girls, being in ministry, attempting to keep a clean house and spending time with family and friends can definitely keep our days pretty busy. I guess the most exciting thing coming up is our decision to homeschool the girls.

Here's a little back story, Joleigh started 1st grade last year and it was her first year of going to school all day. The night before her first day, I went into panic mode. I just couldn't believe that time had flown by so fast and my baby was going to be away from me for 6.5 hours a day and to add to that on Joe's one and only day off she would be gone for 6.5 hours of it. I was having a hard time with this new phase that seemed to be our imminent future. I began wondering when we were going to have consistent family time. Joe works on weekends and that is when the girls and I are most available. Well, we weren't in a position the night before school started to really do much about it, plus we were in the process of moving and life was a little chaotic to say the least. When I brought up homeschooling to Joe then, he didn't want us to make an emotional decision, but rather for me to take some time and really pray about it. He asked me if we could wait to discuss it again until January, once we had some time to adjust to this new way of life and see how things went. I agreed and first semester flew by. We all did fine. Joleigh liked her school, her teacher, her new friends and she was thriving academically. The time passed and I had kind of put homeschooling out of my mind. We were maybe not having the quantity of family time that I would've liked, but we were definitely having the quality family time we needed, making the most of any opportunity to be together.

Once Christmas break came, I was LOVING having my family all together! And when it came time for Joleigh to return to school again, all the thoughts and emotions from the beginning of the year came flooding back. It was now January and I was ready to once again discuss homeschooling as an option. This time Joe agreed to think about it and pray about it. God was so good, within a few days of him saying this to me, he had a random lunch with an old friend and they discussed his friend's family's decision to homeschool. This friend has a similar family situation as ours: 4 children and he is also in ministry. By the end of their conversation and then also hearing a sermon, at a church he was visiting, on being a more intentional father and husband, Joe was completely on board. It was wonderful to be on the same page and both of us equally excited and confident in our decision. I thought the timing couldn't have worked out better, as far as the girls' ages, because I have taught preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade. Joleigh will be entering the 2nd grade, Noelle will be starting kindergarten and Jaelyn is preschool age. We decided to wait until the fall, so Joleigh could finish up the year and I had time to prepare myself. I have been so blessed with resources, both my own and from friends. I have done so much research and planning. I have become more organized than I have been in years. I truly cannot wait to start this journey with my girls and my husband. That to me is what this decision is all about, my family and the freedom we will have with our time. Time to take trips, enjoy days off, just to be able to do the things we want to do without the confines of a particular schedule or worrying about missing days of school. Every family has their own dynamics and for us personally this is what we are choosing. We plan to take it a year at a time and then evaluate.

I have been busy getting our curriculum and classroom ready and am having the time of my life doing it. Every fall for the past 7 years I get a little sad when its time to go back to school. I always loved setting up my class, buying supplies and eagerly anticipating what my class was going to be like. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get to combine my two passions, being a mom and being a teacher. I'm giddy right now.

Here is a glimpse of our classroom. I still a few things left to do.