"But my kid loves school!"

This is one of the comments I hear most when I talk with someone about homeschooling.

They proceed to tell me that their precious child loves all the activities/socialization/ learning that happens at school.  And I nod and smile while they go on and on about how great their school is.

I truly do not know how to respond when this happens.  In my head I'm thinking, "this is not good, a child who loves to be controlled and told what to do on a hourly basis!?"
I end up with my go to response, " Well, homeschooling isn't for everyone."  And that usually ends the conversation and we move on to something else.

But really, your kid loves school?!  Who loves school?  I know I didn't.  There were times when I loved it.  Like talking with my friends, recess, and lunchtime.  Actually sitting down and doing work?  Horrible.  The only time I loved school, was in college.  When I got to the point where I was able to choose my classes and learn about exactly what I was interested in.

I really have to wonder, is there really a small percentage of people who genuinely love school and need that control and order in their lives to be truly happy?  I personally need freedom to be happy, and I think that the majority of the population would agree with me.

Maybe it's because they don't know any different, if they were able to live the free life of a unschooler for a bit, would they change their mind?
Or would it cause chaos in their life, because there was no one controlling them or scheduling out the day with hour by hour instruction to follow.  I'm not sure.  This is a topic that I continuously struggle with.  Everyone is so different, what works for one may not work with the other.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Introductions

Hello! I wanted to tell you all a little about myself and my family, with a few pretty pictures thrown in :)
My name is Kat and I'm a stay at home mom to 3 kiddos. My oldest girl is 8 1/2, my middle child is
6 1/2 and my son is 4.

We live in the suburbs outside Atlanta, it's very crowded, very busy and too much traffic.  But for this stage in our lives it works.  My husband and I are authentic Georgia peaches, we love the outdoors, and traveling as much as we can.  Which isn't' much right now, but we do what we can!

We try our best to eat organic, and teach our children how to eat healthy and take care of their bodies. I strive to use holistic medicine and rarely visit the doctor.  We take pleasure in the simple things, spending time together as a family is very important to us.  Even though my Mr. works full time, we make it happen with family dinners and time on the weekends.

We have been home schooling for about 3 years now, and although there are difficult days here and there, I don't regret my decision one bit.  There are too many benefits to this way of living,  as you will see as my blog story unfolds. 
Well, that's a little about us for now, follow along for more details about our life without school!

Choosing Life without school

I've been gone from this blog world for many years now.  I previously had a blog about decorating my home and refinishing furniture.  Over the years, I had more children and my interests changed.  

My priorities shifted drastically and I lost the inspiration for the blog I had so lovingly created. However, recently I've been inspired to start a new journey and share with you the life we live now.

So, let's start at the beginning.  Back in 2014, I was a mom of 2 beautiful girls with a boy on the way.  My 5 year old was on track to start kindergarden, but my instincts were screaming at me to home school.  At that point, I stupidly ignored my gut telling me to keep her at home, and sent her on her way.

I was unaware of the variety of ways to home school and so I thought it would be "too hard" or I would need to buy a lot of curriculum in order to "teach" my child.  Oh, how wrong I was.

Flash forward a few months later in 2015 and my now 6 year old daughter is not the sweet, helpful, angel that I had sent away from me.  She was now a moody, defensive, argumentative, unhelpful child.  I couldn't help but think there must be a better way!

So I dove head first into researching different ways to home school.  I knew that I didn't want to just have "School at home", that sounded miserable to me.  During my research, I stumbled upon the most beautiful and inspiring blog I had ever seen.  Happinessishereblog.com, Sarah had a way of explaining a wonderful world without school, called "Unschooling."  

I had never heard of such a thing!  Life without school!?  How will they learn?!  I slowly made my way through her blog and read every. single. post.  My eyes were opened to a way of life I had never thought possible.  Children learning on their own, with me as their guide, not their "teacher".  I was thrilled with this new way of thinking, and excited about the future of every day life.

 So the reason I started this blog is because I want to be a part of this revolutionary group of people who are trying to change the way children are viewed in our society.  And the belief that they don't need compulsory schooling.  Children can be free to learn on their own time and in their own way.

Welcome to my world!

I hope you follow along and we can enjoy this journey together.