The Events That Led Us to Homeschool (Part 2)

Pregnancy

The bumps in the road.

With Cherie and I both being women, there was no shock or accident once I became pregnant. We had been floating the idea of expanding our family for quite some time, but it was never the “right time”. It’s such a funny saying that many couples will eventually think before trying to get pregnant. When is it ever the right time?

The idea first became a reality towards the end of my university schooling. We even started all the prep a woman has to go through for insemination. Soon after, COVID-19 hit the United States. Therefore, it made sense to put our family’s growth on hold. Once the world opened up and life began operating as usual, we decided to give it another go.

The fertility clinic allowed 6 months from the start of testing to the perceived hope of pregnancy, this time allowed a woman to undergo all the testing and have a few attempts at insemination. If the woman does not become pregnant within 6 months, she would have to endure the same tests before returning to the rounds of insemination. Since it had been far longer than 6 months, we had to start over. After many months, appointments, testing, and a great deal of money spent, it was finally time. Luckily for us, it only took 1 attempt. And a couple of months later, we learned we would be having twins!

We were over the moon with excitement and nerves. Many questions scratched my brain and kept me up at night. How will we manage twins? How will we afford twins? Will I still be able to homeschool? Are we in over our heads? HOW WILL WE AFFORD TWINS?!

As much as I appreciate a good plan, I am more of a go-with-the-flow kind of individual. I attempted to stop worrying and dove into books, podcasts, and Facebook posts on twins and homeschooling. I felt ill-prepared for either event. I needed to escape my thoughts and Cherie and I devised a plan to have a baby moon.

Our idea of a vacation may be quite different than your own. I wanted to spend my time getting lost in the mountains. We planned two backpacking trips. The first was a long weekend drive to the Smoky Mountains. Everything went as planned and we had an amazing time letting go of our thoughts and being one with nature. The second trip was a week-long trek through The Beaten Path in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana. *This has been my favorite backpacking trip thus far*

The mountains were incredible, the scenery was breathtaking (or maybe I was just out of shape and pregnant), and the path was easy to follow. I hope to share the many great and funny stories that emerged throughout this trip, but for now, I’ll just share the story of altitude sickness. We had just finished day 2’s hike and set up camp. As we were cooking dinner, I suddenly became very aware of my stomach.

I was not hungry. I am normally ALWAYS hungry and I just finished hiking an excruciating 12 miles and another 3.5k feet of elevation. Yet, I didn’t want to eat and I was feeling nauseous. I ate anyway and prepared to sleep the feeling off. However, when I woke the next morning I felt the same. Day three was the last leg of the hike, but it was another 12 miles. I barely ate snacks during the hike and was still feeling sick. I chalked it up to altitude sickness and figured I’d feel better once I got down the mountain.

Once we made it back home, I had to cancel my volunteer work for the week because I was still feeling ill. I never went back to volunteer and I was bedridden for the next 5 months. I’m ashamed to admit that it took me about 2 weeks to realize what I had was not altitude sickness but instead, a severe case of morning sickness. Thankfully, I had Cherie, Mana, and Blue (a self-trained service dog) to help take care of me during these tough months.

My days consisted of sleeping in, migrating to the couch to watch TV (some days even this was too challenging and I watched on my Laptop), and moving back into bed early in the evening to retire. Mana was pretty self-sufficient, he was able to wake up in time to catch his bus, fix himself breakfast and lunch for the day, and come home to work on at least 1 homework assignment. He even attempted to be on his best behavior and regularly asked me if I needed anything or if he could make me food before eventually asking to play with his friends.

Cherie cared for and nurtured me to the best of her abilities. She spent many hours researching home remedies and fetching tinctures and ginger candies in an attempt to alleviate my nausea. She took on all the daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for the dogs and Mana while still working full-time. She would encourage me to eat by placing new foods on my nightstand, knowing I would wake in the night feeling hungry. She did all this without ever complaining.

Blue was my savior. He would slowly and carefully climb onto the couch and lay right up against my belly. I could use him to hold my baby bump up and his body heat alleviated some of the cramps and pain. He was always so sweet and tender. He would look up at me with his caring eyes and it felt as if he would take away all my suffering. Then he’d wrap his head around my belly and I felt secure and calm. It also helped that he was trained to bring me certain items and would gladly fetch whatever I needed when I was home alone.

Due to all the above, Cherie and I had to make the tough, but obvious, decision to not homeschool during the pregnancy.

Nature School Co-op

I wasn’t sure where I should add this section, but I felt it was an important part of our homeschool journey and an insight as to why I started this blog.

Like most great ideas, my almost business was first inspired during a conversation with a friend (Steph) about how deficient the public school system is in educating today’s youth. Since you are reading this, I feel it is safe to assume you agree in some capacity. Now, this wasn’t us hating on teachers, quite the opposite. My friend was a special education teacher at the time and had been teaching for 5 years.

Let me set the scene. We were in an indoor bouldering gym as we were about twice a week. The route setter was huffing and grunting while testing out his new route. We sat along the edge of the thick landing mat pretending to only be taking a quick break. In reality, these conversations always lasted longer than we initially intended. Steph was in the middle of explaining how she fights against the guidelines set by the school district. Instead, she taught in a way that brought the lessons alive and did her best to surround her students with nature and outdoor activities. I couldn’t help my wandering thoughts and I missed half of what she said because I was envisioning Mana thriving in her class.

We had these chats often. It was either her telling me about how the school system was failing her and her students or my complaints about how much work is required of Mana and how much he complains about hating reading and writing. We often concluded that we could do a better job or at least provide ideas for changes in the system. Slowly, the conversations merged towards homeschooling Mana. From the first moment I mentioned the idea of homeschooling she had always encouraged me to do it.

As the conversations carried on, we fell on the topic of how much we loved opening the minds of children and learning through nature. I told her stories of local trips I’d taken a group of students. Most of these trips gravitated around a body of water. My love of coastal ecosystems shines brightly through my animations during lectures on these ecosystems. My students became captivated by my excitement and discovered their enthusiasm in the same ecosystems I hold dear. This was when our business endeavor came to light.

Steph mentioned that we could do more of these trips and lectures. We could combine my knowledge of coastal ecosystems and wilderness survival with her background in teaching and her extensive knowledge of gardening and forest ecosystems. We devised a plan to set up a weekly co-op class. We worked out our business plan and created 3 example classes to teach over summer break, to see if there was any interest in what we had to offer. As the first round of example classes approached, we were in the middle of an exasperating heatwave. Since the weather wouldn’t let up, we decided to postpone for the safety of the children and ourselves.

That summer was one of the hottest and longest I had experienced. While we waited for cooler weather, Cherie and I started getting serious about a change in our lives. We knew we didn’t want to stay in Florida much longer, and she felt if I started the co-op, we would never leave. Finally, we decided to live out our dream and travel in an RV. Once we bought the RV, I informed Steph that we would have to come up with a new plan or cancel entirely.

I am hopeful that through this blog, I will be able to carry out my dream of inspiring my readers and their children to fall in love with learning. And one day, I will figure out a way to create a traveling co-op community.

The Birth