Homeschool Moms in the Wild: Jessica Turner

Write a short introduction about yourself: 

Hi, I’m Jessica. I'm married to Charlie, an IT Manager for the county. I’m a stay at home mom to 3 girls, a sweet dog, a gecko, and 2 chickens! I grew up in metro Atlanta where I attended public school until 9th grade then became a homeschool student myself! Before becoming a mom I worked in billing for a transportation company, transferred down to Jacksonville Florida, enjoyed living near the beach for a bit, then came home and began college at Clayton State where I met my husband. 

When did you begin homeschooling?

I didn’t realize I would be a homeschool mom right away but as my firstborn got closer to school age I knew in my heart that I didn’t want to send her into the public school system. My own experience in school was full of distractions like the year my science teacher spent more time being bullied by a kid than teaching, or the time my classmate dropped the gun he brought to school in the hallway. I wanted my kids to enjoy learning uninterrupted by kids like these. I discussed my feelings with my husband who agreed and together we decided that we would homeschool all our daughters from the very start of their education journey. 

How did you begin homeschooling? 

I learned a good bit about homeschooling from friends I made in the local La Leche League group. If not for those people I might have let the opinions of some convince me I couldn’t properly educate my kids. I am very grateful for them. I started out by buying boxed curriculum sets for kindergarten from a company called Timberdoodle. I quickly realized it was more fluff and busy work than we needed but seeing the sets online helped me create my own curriculum based on what worked and what didn’t. 

What type of homeschooler are you? 

I’d say my style of homeschooling fluctuates between structured curriculum all the way to unschooling based on what season of life we are in. 

What is your favorite thing about homeschooling? 

My favorite thing has to be the fact that we can change our style of learning depending on what life throws our way. The flexibility of it all is beautiful. When our routine gets thrown for a loop with the birth of my youngest, the loss of a grandmother, selling our home after nearly a decade and moving into a house that needed lots of love… we turn to unschooled learning through life experiences. Thats what I love most about it. Instead of being stuck inside a room learning from textbooks, we are learning by living and doing it together as a family. However, ultimately we always end up back in a routine with curriculum and I’m always impressed by how much they’ve learned organically during those “unschooled” moments.

What are/were your homeschool wins?

I suppose my biggest win is the relationship I’ve built with my girls and what they’ve built with each other. They help each other when having difficulty with math or work together to build a story, filling in where the other gets stuck. If I get pulled away to work on something I sometimes come back to find the older sisters teaching the younger one her lessons. It’s a close relationship I don’t always see among siblings who spend their days apart in different classrooms or different schools. I’ve also experienced a few moments since reaching the season of raising preteens/teens where my daughters have come to me to share and discuss things I never would have felt comfortable sharing with my mother. Without the opportunity to homeschool and spend the time together that we have I don’t know if that would still happen so I am very grateful. 

What would you do differently?

If I could do anything differently I think I would have gotten more involved in groups like LOL from the very start. Making connections with other families going through the same experiences and having other moms to learn from is so valuable and it would have been nice to have that support in those early years of being a new mom.  

Who inspires you to continue homeschooling? 

I’m always inspired by the moms who have made it through graduation. Their wisdom on what it is like and what is required throughout all the stages, especially high school when it can get really intimidating. 

-Jessica Turner

Interview by Shelby Gwinn