Goooo Falcons!

Homeschooling has brought with it several new opportunities for us this year. Since we are just beginning this journey, I wanted to be very intentional about what groups we join and how busy we keep our schedule. However, when we heard about a homeschool running group, Brianna and Brenson were both immediately excited to try it out. I felt like being part of a running team would help them with the transition to homeschooling, so I agreed that we should give it a try! 

I know I've written about the running team several times on here before, but now that the season has concluded, I thought it would be nice to have photos and stats from the season all in one place. 

The kids began the season on August 17th with practices three times a week (M, W, F). Their team, Owasso Falcons, met at 8:30am and would practice for one hour. We were very impressed with how well organized Coach Renee was with everything. She had the team meet in different locations each day of the week in order to work on different skills. The season lasted for just over ten weeks, concluding with a national meet in Springfield, MO this past weekend. 

Throughout the season, the team competed in five meets. Chris and I both emphasized to the kids that we care more about seeing them improve their personal times than seeing them win, especially since this was their first year. It was wonderful to watch the kids develop and grow as runners as the weeks passed, and it's amazing how much they improved their times in just 10 weeks! 

The first meet was on August 29th in Sequoyah. It was a hot morning, and the kids' very first experience at a meet like this. 

Brianna ran 10:32 mile pace and placed 61/96 among the elementary girls (1st - 6th grades). 

Brenson ran a 9:43 mile, and placed 51/78 among elementary boys.

Meet number two was on September 10th in Foyil. This time, the weather was chilly and drizzly. Brianna ran a 10:26 mile, placing 51/69. She ran six seconds faster than a few weeks before, so we were happy about that!

Brenson ran a 9:11 mile, improving his time by 32 seconds. He placed 35/65 among elementary boys. This was also the meet that the kids had a special visitor to cheer them on!

On September 26th, the Falcons competed in their 3rd meet in Sand Springs. After some communication confusion, many of the elementary boys and girls ran with the junior high group. This proved to be a positive thing for both Brianna and Brenson. 

Brianna finished her mile in 9:28, improving her race time by 58 seconds!

Brenson completed his mile in 8:45, shaving 26 more seconds off his time. 

He was a great encourager to his teammates during this race and cheered them on after he finished running. 

On October 6th, the Falcons ran in their 4th meet at Claremore Christian School. I don't have any photos from this meet, but Brianna finished her mile in 9:56, and Brenson ran his mile in 8:28 (another 17 seconds down from his previous time). Bri and Addy pushed each other through this whole race and finished just seconds apart. 

The final meet was Nationals in Springfield on October 24th. It was a cold morning, but they both ran well! 

Brianna finished this one mile course in 9:37, placing 10th in her age group (10 and under). 

For the first time, she earned a medal!

Brenson also finished in the top ten of his age group (8 and under) and earned a medal.

He completed the one mile course in 8:10 (another 18 seconds faster than his last race) and placed fifth in his age group!

They were both quite pleased with these hard earned medals!

The Springfield course was just gorgeous.

It was fun to be at the national competition with the team. These kids became friends, teammates, and encouragers throughout the season. I loved watching them cheer each other to the finish and really boost one another as they ran. 

Owasso Falcons Cross Country Team 2020

Cross Country 2020 Stats

Brianna

• 8/29 - 10:32
• 9/10 - 10:26
• 9/26 - 9:28
• 10/6 - 9:56
• 10/24 - 9:37

Brenson

• 8/29 - 9:43
• 9/10 - 9:11
• 9/26 - 8:45
• 10/6 - 8:28
• 10/24 - 8:10

Before we all trekked to Springfield for nationals, Coach Renee and her husband Randall hosted a hot dog roast and little awards assembly for the team. During the awards ceremony, Coach Renee took a few minutes to talk about each member of the team, share photos, videos, and funny stories from the season. Then, she gave them each a scrapbook that her high school aged daughter, Britt, had put together.

I love that she said Brenson is most likely to own his own business . . . I think she's right!

And Brianna is most likely to get attacked by a squirrel, haha. I guess she was always distracted and chasing animals they would see during practices!

All the kids had a blast playing with their teammates while the adults got a chance to visit. Of course, they took frequent food breaks . . . all that running makes these kids HUNGRY!

When we first decided to give the Falcons team a try, I was a little reluctant because I just didn't know what to expect. However, I can say with all confidence that it's been a great experience, and I'm so thankful we did it! The kids are already talking about running track with Coach Renee in the spring and hoping many of the same teammates will also be back for track season. They truly learned valuable lessons in perseverance, hard work, being a positive teammate, rejoicing with others, and diligence this season, and we are grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Owasso Falcons!

Our *NEW* First Day of School

Today was our official FIRST day of school! I had originally planned to begin school next Monday, on August 24th, but changed my mind for several reasons. 

One reason I changed my mind was that the kids were READY to start today. They were eager and anxious to get going on our studies, so I thought I should take advantage of their excitement before it fizzled out. Once we shared with them our decision to homeschool this year, they have been completely on-board with it. This has certainly helped me have more peace about what we're doing!

A second reason I chose to start school today rather than wait another week is that the kids' elementary school was scheduled to begin classes this coming Thursday. I wanted us to be in our routine and already going with our schooling before our local public school resumed classes. I just felt like it would be easier (and less sad) for all of us if we were already cruising with our studies. However, our local schools ended up postponing their start date another 10 days due to COVID concerns, reinforcing one of the big reasons I wanted to homeschool this year (unexpected schedule changes).

Finally, just last week we joined a homeschool cross-country running team that meets for practices three times a week and participates in five meets throughout the semester. It's only for the big kids, but we are all excited about this opportunity. They really enjoy running, and I'm hopeful that being on a running team will help ease this transition to homeschool for them. Practices began today (we will meet with the team for practices three times a week for ten weeks), so that helped me decide to go ahead and jump in with school today, too. 

Even though things are different for us this year, I wanted to continue our tradition of taking first day of school pics in our first day of school shirts!

Brianna

My FIFTH grader!

Bren, my THIRD grader!

Brooke

HOW is she in Kindergarten this year?!?

Brecklyn

Also a KINDERGARTENER!

TWO in Kindergarten?!? I can't believe it!

Daddy (our school superintendent) and the crew :-)

Momma (teacher and principal) and the crew

We are so thrilled to have this opportunity to explore something new together this year!

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but we named our school LIGHT Academy. LIGHT is an acronym that stands for Learning, Investigating, and Growing in His Time. 

The students of LIGHT Academy are ready for this new adventure! We are overjoyed to see where this journey takes us!

And What About School?

When school let out for spring break back in March, it never crossed my mind that my kids wouldn't return to the building in one week as scheduled. When it was announced that spring break was being extended an additional two weeks, I still didn't think that there was a possibility they wouldn't return at all that school year. Then, it was announced that all public schools in the state were, in fact, closed for the remainder of the school year, and I found myself being hopeful that things would be back to normal by the time school started again in August. 

I didn't consider that things wouldn't be back to normal or even close to it. 

I didn't consider that my kids wouldn't go back to our beloved elementary school.

I didn't consider that we would begin homeschooling a whole year earlier than we had planned. 

But that is exactly what we are doing. We have withdrawn our kids' enrollment from public school, and we are now officially a "homeschool" family.

To say I have mixed emotions about this major change is an understatement. Homeschooling has always been on my radar, and I had a plan. I wanted our children to go to our local elementary school (that we support, like, and have had a great experience with) through fifth grade. After fifth grade, we would pull them out of public school and begin homeschooling. Then, sometime around maybe 10th or 11th grade, we would put them back in public school. I have always said that our plan is flexible . . . if something were to happen that would cause us to need to pull our kids out of public schools sooner, we would do that. I always said our plan was flexible, but I never thought it would have to be. 

This coming school year was going to be my year to do all the things. All four of our kids were to be in school all day long. I was going to increase my volunteer time. I had projects planned that I wanted to complete. I was going to pour myself into homeschool research and be totally prepared to bring Brianna home next year. I was going to keep myself very busy to try and ward off the sadness that I knew I would feel when all my kids were gone all day long. 

A little over a month ago, I was talking with our soon-to-be neighbor who is building next door to us. She asked me if I was going to send my kids to public school in the fall, and I quickly answered, "Yes" without any hesitation. I truly thought that's what we'd be doing.

But, things changed.

It started with the "Return to Learn" plan released by our school district around the middle of July. There were several things in the plan that didn't settle well with me, but it was too vague to really tell what was actually going on. Then, more information was released, and Chris and I both struggled with some of the new policies. There would be increased time on electronic devices, with a minimum of one distance learning day built into each week. The kids would be in "pods" at school and not permitted to socialize with anyone outside their pod. Masks would be required at all times while indoors. All extra-curricular activities would be canceled for the year, including running club, chorus, and all field trips. Weeks or even months of quarantine were not only possible, but likely. Social distancing would be practiced whenever possible. There would be no more Rise and Shine morning program, and *the real kicker for me* NO visitors would be permitted in the building. That meant no volunteering in classrooms, no eating lunch with my kiddos, and no spontaneously popping in to observe things with my own eyes (like at Rise and Shine). 

As I absorbed more and more information regarding what the school year would likely look like, I felt stronger and stronger that I didn't want to send my kids into that environment. I hated the thought of distance learning. I didn't understand why all extra-curriculars had to be taken away. Knowing that my kids could yo-yo between being in school and being quarantined made my head spin. And not being allowed in the building where all my kids are? That was NOT okay with me at all. It all made my stomach hurt when I thought about it.

From early on, Chris was pretty adamant that we weren't going to send our kids back to our elementary school, but it took me a lot longer to come around. I love our school community and the thought of walking away from that broke my heart. There was also the whole issue of homeschooling. Can I do it? Do I have time to get prepared? I was planning to bring them home one at a time, not all at once. I don't know anything about homeschooling. How am I going to do this? THIS WAS NOT MY PLAN!!!

So, in addition to spending a lot of time in prayer about everything, I started reading and researching. I talked to several trusted friends who homeschool - some of them for hours - trying to gather all the information I could. I looked at curriculum, I watched videos, and I made lists. I realized that maybe this was doable after all, and I even started to get excited about it. 

As days passed, I became more settled with the prospect of homeschooling starting *almost* immediately. I even spoke with several other families from our elementary school who felt the same way we did about all the new policies . . . who had decided they weren't sending their kids back either . . . and realized that the community I felt devastated to walk away from was already broken into many pieces. Brianna and Brenson's closest friends from school weren't returning either, and in a strange way that brought me a lot of comfort.

Chris and I made the final decision to homeschool at the end of the last week in July. We included the children in many of our discussions, and even asked them what they wanted to do (also making it clear that it wasn't their decision). They are all very excited about the prospect of homeschooling, and their enthusiasm has brought much comfort to my heart. After much agonizing, many sleepless nights, long discussions, constant prayer, and even tears, we are finally starting to feel some peace about our decision. A week ago today, I submitted the enrollment withdraw paperwork to the district and opened up a whole new chapter in our lives. 

This is what I posted on social media later that day:

Today, we officially plunged into new water as I submitted paperwork to withdraw my kids' enrollment from our beloved elementary school. Today, we embark on a new journey into the world of homeschool. This decision has been difficult and unexpected, not unlike so many parts of 2020. Our hearts simultaneously ache for what was and are eager for the beauty that is to come. We are sad. We are excited. We are grieving. We are hopeful. And through it all we know that sometimes the hardest things and the right things are the same.

That truly sums up the crazy, mixed bag of emotions I am feeling. There was a pretty big response to our announcement, including many comments from our school community. The sentiments were heartfelt and touching as many people expressed how much we'd be missed. Even though we're choosing to walk away from that community for now, it's nice to know that we've had a small impact in that place. 

We're not sure how permanent our decision to homeschool is, but we are looking toward the future with hope and excitement. Even though this isn't what I had planned for my year, I can't think of a better way to spend my days than learning and growing with my babies. This decision has been deeply difficult, but homeschooling is a good option for us. And for that, I am grateful.