LEFT: Kayleigh cutting her
vocabulary cards for Raising Rock
Stars Preschool.
RIGHT: Kayleigh likes to mimic
Mackenzie when she’s working on
her schoolwork.
LOWER LEFT: Mackenzie making an origami crane after reading
Sadako and the Thousand Paper
Cranes.
LOWER RIGHT: Mackenzie
doing her map work for Sonlight’s
Eastern Hemisphere Explorer.
God called my husband
and me to train our
children in the way
that they should go. He
didn’t require a crowd of
strangers to lend a hand.
literature is so much more memorable
than reading a textbook.
I’d like to say that I’m one of those
crafty, hands-on moms, but I’m not. I’d
like to be, but that just isn’t my nature. I
know that my children need and crave
more of that stuff, so I’ve been making a conscious effort to try to add in
more hands-on and crafty projects. I’ll
fully admit to looking for the easiest
ones I can find, but the girls never seem
to mind.
While my husband, Kevin, is very supportive of our homeschooling, I handle
every aspect of it, from the curriculum
choices down to the teaching. Kevin is
a blessing in so many other ways. He is
a great provider and always makes sure
that we have everything we need and a
few things that we don’t. If something
isn’t working for us, he’s the first one to
say to ditch it and try something else.
He always has my back when it comes to
discipline and is willing to lend a hand
with the housework on the days that I
can’t get to it. He keeps me sane.
I am homeschooling two little girls,
aged 11 and 4. When I ask Mackenzie
what she likes best about homeschool-
ing, she says, “Everything.” That is not the
complete truth. She gripes about math
and anything that involves writing except,
ironically, handwriting. What I think she
loves best about homeschooling is the
time it frees up. She’s free to read as much
as she wants. She reads for hours a day on
top of her reading assignments for school.
She’s able to spend hours practicing the pi-
ano, which she has a real talent for. She has
The blessings always
seem to outweigh the
rougher moments, and
I am grateful that I get
to spend them all with
my children.
time to dress and style her American Girl
dolls in a million different outfits, as well
as time to lie around with her little sister
and watch “baby shows” and not be worried about what other fifth-graders would
think about it.
As for the little one, I think that Kay-
leigh likes it when I’m distracted with
Mackenzie’s schooling and she can
dump out buckets of toys before I’m
on to her. My little tornado just likes to
have fun—on her terms.
Stefanie and Kevin Smith are the proud
parents of two giggly girls, Mackenzie
( 11) and Kayleigh ( 4). Stefanie is a former
public school teacher turned homeschooler. You can read all about their homeschooling adventures on Stefanie’s blog,
Life With My Giggly Girls. prncsstefy
. blogspot.com
