Show & Tell
Kate Kessler
Ilove getting to know the TOS Homeschool Crew families. In the March Show & Tell, we are fortunate to be able to bring you the Smith family from Florida. Kimberly Smith is a homeschool mama of two lively boys and is joyfully homeschooling with er husband, David, who works from home. She impressed me with her zeal and outright delight in her homeschooling life.
;ey are a big ;eld trip family—thirty-eight of them in 2011! Can you imagine what they must have experienced and learned? I
think I want to join their homeschool!
She loves the intricate weaving of subject matter that Tapestry of Grace o;ers her family and the fact that it “provides a
strong Christ-centered curriculum and an equally strong academic framework.” When I asked her why she liked being a part of
the TOS Homeschool Crew, she shared: “We’ve reviewed some awesome products. My boys loved the catapults and trebuchets
from Pitsco. My favorite product has been the amazing resource guide, Educating the Whole-Hearted Child, by Apologia.
I carry that thing around like it’s my Siamese twin.” She also shared that she has met some encouraging women through the
Crew and that she is really glad to be connected to them. ;e blessings that come from the Crew are manifold. Her family’s
journey to homeschooling in her story, “Getting ;ere,” below, is a beautiful example of God leading His people. I am grateful
that Kimberly is on the team!
Getting ;ere
By Kimberly H. Smith
It all started when I was pregnant with my old- est son, Denver, in 1999. We began talking about
this idea of homeschooling,
and it was then that I started
hoarding books and manipulatives. ;en
about a year later when Solomon was
born, I became a manager with
Discovery Toys and started selling educational
products to friends and local preschools.
I became immersed in my little part-time job, learning the capabilities of a
child’s brain and the bene;ts of good
quality educational toys. I was very con-
;dent that I could one day educate my
own children. So we decided to add on
a room to our house: ;e Schoolroom. I
could just imagine how it was all going to
play out. Antique school desks here. An
American ;ag there. A poster of frog life
cycles and parts of speech on the wall by
the door. I think I even had my
horn-rimmed glasses all picked
out to play the part of the “School
Marm.”
As the time neared for Denver
to begin kindergarten, I got cold
feet. I didn’t think I could pos-
sibly educate a child with a tod-
dler running around. (Oh, how I wish
my friends with nine and ten children
had been in my life back then!) I totally
caved, and Denver started kindergarten
at a private school where he had been
attending preschool a few days a week.
Immediately some learning di;erences
were spotted. We made use of every re-
source that was available to us there but
came up frustrated. To make a very long
story short, we accepted an invitation to
the local magnet school, which we con-
sidered back then to be ultra-prestigious.
We now refer to it as the Robot Factory.
;ings didn’t work there, to put it nicely.
My amazing, bright,
and creative children
were being forced
to sit in a desk for
hours, not speak, give
the textbook answer,
and read low-interest
stories from a bland
curriculum.
issues. He despised school. To him, it was
just about sitting still, being quiet, and
learning strategies to excel on the state
standardized tests in March. ;ere was
no life to the lessons, only worksheets
and lectures.
Solomon encountered a di;erent set
of challenges. He already knew most
of what was being taught in the classroom, so I was sending in workbooks
and magazines for him to read while he
waited for everyone else to ;nish. ;e
school didn’t have a gi;ed program for
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