Why We Chose Homeschool Kindergarten: Raising Curious Kids Through Nature, Freedom & Alternative Education

We blinked and somehow our oldest baby girl is a kindergartener.

There are certain milestones that make you feel the passing of time differently, and this one has hit me hard. It feels like just yesterday Poppy was this tiny little person we were getting to know, and now we're stepping into an entirely new chapter of her childhood.

And we're doing it a little differently.

We're homeschooling.

As kindergarten got closer, Blake and I kept coming back to the same question:

What kind of education will help Poppy become more of who she already is?

Because she is curious. Imaginative. Wild. Creative. Passionate. She asks a million questions, wants to understand how everything works and has this incredible little world constantly unfolding inside her imagination.

I didn't want education to slowly quiet those parts of her.

I wanted it to feed them.

I wanted her to have time to wonder. Time to play. Time to be outside. Time to become completely fascinated by something and stay there for a while.

I wanted us to learn about bugs and then go dig in the dirt looking for them. Learn about a place and go experience it. Read a book that sparks a question and have the freedom to follow that question wherever it takes us.

I wanted learning to feel less like something separate from life and more like something woven right into the middle of it.

And honestly, I wanted that freedom for our whole family too.

Freedom to travel. Freedom to have slower mornings. Freedom to spend an entire afternoon outside. Freedom to change the plan when life changes. Freedom to create a rhythm that actually works for the people living inside of it.

So we decided to homeschool.

But our version of homeschool doesn't exactly mean staying home.

For the past seven months, Poppy (5) and Wilder (3) have been attending Rooted Grove Collective, a nature-based homeschool co-op three days a week. They have community, friendships, teachers and independence, but also gets mud, trees, bugs, weather, movement and endless opportunities to explore.

Watching them thrive there has given us so much confidence moving into kindergarten.

At home, we'll be using How Wee Learn for our kindergarten curriculum for Poppy. After months of researching what felt like approximately every homeschool curriculum in existence, I kept coming back to wanting something hands-on, playful, creative, beautiful and intentional.

Something that would give us a foundation without taking away the freedom that made us choose homeschooling in the first place.

And now the books and supplies are sitting in our home and this whole thing suddenly feels very real.

My baby is a kindergartener.

Choosing Differently Doesn't Mean Anyone Else Is Choosing Wrong

Something interesting has happened whenever I tell people we're homeschooling.

People tend to be either incredibly excited, curious and supportive...

Or confused, questioning and sometimes even a little defensive.

And I've thought about that a lot.

Because choosing homeschool for our family isn't a statement about anyone else's family.

There are incredible public schools. Incredible private schools. Incredible homeschool families. Incredible alternative education communities.

Different children need different things.

Different families need different things.

Our choosing differently doesn't mean someone else is choosing wrong.

But I think there's something about stepping outside of what we've collectively decided is "normal" that naturally makes people curious, and sometimes uncomfortable.

And when I really thought about it, I had to laugh.

Because this has kind of been the theme of my entire life.

Maybe it's my Western Aquarius Moon.

Always questioning.

Always searching.

Always wondering, Does it actually have to be done that way?

Always somehow finding myself building community a little outside the norm.

Not because I think the norm is inherently wrong, but because I've never been very good at doing something simply because that's how it's usually done.

I want to understand why.

I want to explore what else is possible.

I want to take what works, leave what doesn't and create something that feels true to the life we're actually living.

And maybe homeschooling is simply another expression of that.

Maybe We Are Allowed to Create the Life That Fits Us

The more I think about this decision, the more I realize that homeschooling is only part of the story.

This is really about trusting ourselves enough to create a life that fits our family.

We don't have to know what homeschooling will look like when Poppy is eight or twelve or sixteen.

We don't have to have every answer before we're willing to begin.

We can try.

We can learn.

We can change things.

We can admit when something isn't working and choose again.

We can follow the rabbit holes.

We can build something as we go.

And I actually think there's something incredibly beautiful about letting our girls witness that.

I want them to know that there isn't only one way to build a meaningful life.

You can ask questions.

You can be curious.

You can choose differently.

You can change your mind.

You can create community.

You can listen to what feels right for you, even when it looks different from what everyone around you is doing.

That might be one of the greatest things I hope to teach them, and it has very little to do with kindergarten curriculum.

So Here We Go

Seven months into our journey with Rooted Grove Collective and officially beginning homeschool kindergarten with How Wee Learn spread across our kitchen table.

I know there will be days when everything clicks and days when I wonder what on earth we've gotten ourselves into.

We're going to learn what works for Poppy.

We're going to learn what works for us.

We'll adjust. We'll experiment. We'll follow interests. We'll probably abandon plans and make new ones.

But I'm not trying to create the perfect homeschool.

I'm trying to create a childhood where learning feels connected to living.

Where curiosity is worth following.

Where nature is a classroom.

Where books open doors into experiences.

Where there is time to dig in the dirt, ask another question, make something, take something apart, travel somewhere new and wonder about the world.

Most of all, I want our girls to have room to become more and more of themselves.

Maybe that's what this whole decision comes down to.

Giving ourselves permission to choose the life that fits us, even when it looks a little different.

So here we go.

Kindergarten.

A new rhythm for our family.

A whole lot of learning for all of us.

Dirt under fingernails. Books piled around the house. Questions we don't know the answers to yet. Places we'll decide we simply have to go see for ourselves. And plenty of room to wander outside the lines.

Which, come to think of it, might be exactly where her mama has always felt most at home too.

My baby is a kindergartener.

I can't believe we're here.

And I am so excited to see where this path takes all of us.