Homeschool Mom Spotlight #7
Meet Juliana
Every month here at Patterns for Life we highlight an individual homeschool mom through a written interview in order to encourage and inspire our readers. We know it can be helpful to meet — whether virtually or in real life — other mothers who are in the trenches with us here and now, and can relate to our daily struggles and joys.
Today we are very pleased to introduce Juliana, homeschooling mom of 5. We hope you enjoy getting to know her a bit!
1. Tell us about yourself and your family.
I come from a small Protestant family of 4 and grew up in a Christian school where I used most of my mental energy with my friends. In high school, I went on a missions trip to Russia to convert the “heathens” to Christianity and encountered Orthodoxy for the first time. When I returned to the States, I discovered that one of my teachers had converted to Orthodoxy and through him, a handful of us students converted.
Eleven years later I married my husband, and in the 12 years since then we’ve had 5 children. They are ages 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10. The only girl is smack dab in the middle and people, rightly, call her the princess. My husband is a priest and teaches our kids Greek and Byzantine chant two times a week, which gives me a little bit of a break. Our daughter is deaf and goes to a special preschool for kids with listening devices-such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. She will go to school for 2 more years, then come home for her schooling starting in second grade. But, lemme tell you, it’s so nice to have the trouble-maker out of the house while I’m doing school with the older kids. Makes me consider putting the 3 year old in preschool too.
My oldest son most likely has dyslexia and at 10 years old still doesn’t seem to be getting close to reading. This doesn’t really bother me from everything I’ve read about dyslexia (I’ve heard it said that a concerned parent does more research than the FBI), but my husband and my mother are ready for him to read, so we’re looking into some tutoring. My 8 year old son isn’t reading yet either, and sometimes I feel like this is a special school for dyslexics.
2. How long have you been homeschooling and what motivated you to start in the first place?
This is my 4th year of homeschooling in earnest. I’m still at the beginning. I had never thought about homeschooling until my husband, in the first year of our marriage, told me that that’s what we were going to do. That is what his two older siblings do with their families, so for him, it was a given. But I was not thrilled with this news. I like a clean house, time to myself, and quiet. But the more I learned about homeschooling and the more I read about Charlotte Mason, the more I fell in love with the idea of pouring beauty into the souls of my children and the more willing I was to give up my quiet, clean house. Though, this is still one of my biggest struggles.
3. Describe a typical homeschool day in your home.
In addition to my two oldest, I homeschool a teenager from our church. She was miserable at her school, hated learning (she is also dyslexic), and was starting to despise the Church. In a moment of inspiration, I invited her into my homeschool and have been hoping that something good is taking root ever since. She at least is starting to enjoy books. Anyway, having her with us and having my daughter’s school schedule doesn’t allow us as much flexibility as I would sometimes like. So, the mornings sometimes feel like a frenzy as we try to get my daughter out the door on time and be relatively ready to start school when Autumn arrives. But that happens less and less as we get later in the school year. Once we’re finally all gathered, we say a very shortened version of morning prayers, then do a little brain warm up, morning time, and sit down for math, language arts, and then audiobooks. I have to be pretty hands on with all 3 of them, so sometimes, fairly often, we have very short lessons. Sometimes I wonder if Charlotte Mason herself would shake her finger at their shortness. After lunch, we have group lessons, such as read-alouds (everyone’s favorite), history, art, Shakespeare, geography (with dyslexics, this is very slow going), composer study, and music. On a good day, the kids will voluntarily fold laundry so I can read more from our read-aloud. But most of the time, I have to ruin their day by making them do their chores after lessons are over. Maybe one day this will go smoother. One can dream.
4. What is your favorite part of homeschooling?
Even on a bad day of homeschooling, knowing that I really am pouring beauty into their souls is what keeps me going, even keeps me loving homeschooling, while they groan and complain about lessons. And at the same time, I’m reading all these wonderful books that I missed in my own education. It’s pouring beauty into my own soul.
5. Does homeschooling affect the way you parent? If so, how?
It certainly has. But I see this question more of, “how has homeschooling changed you as a person?”. That’s pretty much the same thing, right? I have had to deal with my own impatience and frustration so often that I think I really am getting a little smoothed out. And I’ve let go of a lot of that old coveted cleanliness and quiet. With 4 boys, I’m starting to feel like I’m made of iron and nothing can shock me anymore. I sometimes think about who I would have become if I didn’t homeschool. I know for certain I would have spent the majority of my time cleaning an already clean house, spending money decorating it, and participating in the perfect house race on pinterest. Now I spend the majority of my time fighting my impatience, investing in my children, trying to help them to grow into mature and responsible human beings with a love of beauty, goodness, and truth, and cleaning is in its rightful place on the sidelines. Things are in their right order.
6. What is your least favorite part of homeschooling?
The children. Ha! Just kidding. More specifically, all their whining. I mean, why does it still surprise them every day when I say “time to get out your math books”, when that is what we’ve done every day for the last several years? Open to suggestions here from all you beautiful, seasoned homeschool moms.
7. What have you found to be the most humbling aspect of parenting/homeschooling?
The vulnerability that I sometimes feel that what I’m doing isn’t good enough or isn’t the right thing. Especially if I’ve defended it. Or perhaps even more than that, is when I notice my own resistance that most likely prompts the whining in my children. If I actually stop and listen to myself talk, I don’t sound very inviting, or at worst, my tone of voice is really saying “let’s get this over with.” No wonder they complain.
8. Looking back to the beginning of your homeschool journey, what are some things you wish you had known? What would you tell your younger self as she was just starting out?
Well, I still have a long road ahead of me, but if I could tell my younger self of 4 years ago, or even tell myself now, is stop trying to be super mom and get everything done at once. Stop trying to multitask and just be with your children. Even right now, I’m writing this interview and cooking breakfast at the same time! But what I haven’t figured out yet, is how to keep up with the laundry and the household tasks if I DON’T multitask! So, I hope one day I’ll be able to just let go of needing it all to be done at the end of the day.
9. How does your faith affect your homeschooling?
My faith gives life to my homeschooling. It makes it meaningful and valuable. It makes it worth the hardships. My husband in a recent sermon said that “loving someone is like saying to them, ‘you will never die’”. And homeschooling, especially through the lens of our Faith, is most certainly loving our children.
10. What are some of your favorite homeschool resources?
My sister-in-law is my favorite homeschool resource! She got me started, showed me how to plan a year, a week, and a day. She pointed me to AmblesideOnline and told me about Charlotte Mason. I also enjoy listening to the Simply Charlotte Mason and Read Aloud Revival podcasts. But more than that, I like talking to the other moms in our co-op and hearing what all you have to say in our Patterns for Life chat.
11. What do you consider to be the most rewarding aspect of homeschooling?
It’s most rewarding seeing them light up with wonder. Such as when they fell in love with a Shakespeare play, or when they loved a book and wanted to keep listening to it. When they remember a fact about history or a character in a book that I don’t remember. Or seeing them speak intelligently to adult parishioners about the Crimean War.
12. Anything else you'd like to add?
I’m just so grateful to all of you beautiful, seasoned moms who have grown in beauty through your years of struggle, for your wisdom and encouragement and the light you shed to the rest of us.
Thank you, Juliana! What an encouragement to read about your journey!