Hello! My name's Samantha and I'm the homeschooling swim mom X 3!
My Wonderful Husband
I've been married to my high school sweetheart for the past 18 years. I consider myself incredibly blessed to be married to such a hard-working, incredibly supportive, and funny man. Kevin is kind to me and he makes me laugh. He's a great father and a wonderful husband. I am definitely blessed!
Our Wonderful Children
Together, we have three lovely children, all of whom we homeschool. My oldest child, our beautiful daughter, went to a private Christian kindergarten. We began homeschooling when my daughter started 1st grade. Our two younger boys have never attended a brick-and-mortar school. For the 2011-2012 school year, we will be homeschooling our 9th grade daughter, our 7th grade son, and our 5th grade son. Homeschooling has become a way of life for us, it's just how we roll here.
Homeschooling
We homeschool for many different reasons. Some of the biggest advantages of homeschooling for our family are:
- the flexibility of homeschooling
- the ability to give each child an individualized education through homeschooling
- increased time spent together as a family
- reduction in negative peer influences.
We are definitely eclectic homeschoolers! We use textbooks, computer-based curriculum, literature-based curriculum, teaching videos, hands-on activities, lapbooks, and workbooks. Basically, we use whatever works for our family!
Swimming
All three of my children are on the same USA swim team. Swimming, for all of my children, has been a wonderful fit with homeschooling. Swimming is a big part of our lives as my oldest practices up to 9 times a week, my middle son practices 6 times a week, and my youngest practices 3 times a week. Add in swim meets a few times a month and we can often be found at a pool! We love it, though. The children have wonderful coaches, they've made some great friends through swimming, and they're all very fit! My daughter is particularly passionate about swimming and is working towards a Junior National time cut in the 50 Free. She's getting close!
Life Before Becoming the Homeschooling Swim Mom X 3
Before becoming the homeschooling swim mom X 3, I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication with minors in Management and French. I loved college so much that I decided to stay there! Next, through a teacher's assistant position, I earned my Master of Arts degree in Communication. I liked that experience so much, I decided to just continue on! I had completed all of my coursework and my comprehensive exams for my Doctorate in Communication when we decided to start our family.
After the birth of our daughter, I simply never finished my dissertation. I don't view it as a failure, I view it as a change in plans. I worked part-time teaching at two local colleges for years. Finally, working part-time was just too difficult with all of the other demands on my time and I quit working completely several years ago.
Just a Little More About Me
When I'm not busy homeschooling or at a pool, I enjoy:
- reading
- blogging
- organizing my home
- spending time with my family
- watching movies
- scrapbooking.
I am not perfect, my husband is not perfect, my homeschool is not perfect, my children are not perfect. But, with a faith in God, I get up each morning and try to be a good homeschooling swim mom X 3. Sometimes I'm fabulous, more often I'm not, but we are always loving and learning together as a family.
