Welcome back to the exploration of my big five, or my top five focuses and priorities. If you’re new to the series, I recommend starting at the beginning to grasp how we got here. This post will explore my second focus: Adventuring with My Family. This was another easy choice for me as I narrowed down what’s important and where to give my attention. One of the selling points to me about homeschooling was the flexibility to travel. I love a road trip. But I got particularly excited about the notion of being able to pick up and travel to places related to things we’re learning. While I don’t feel pulled to truly roadschool, and my husband’s line of work is unlikely to allow us that freedom, I do feel pulled to road-tripschool. I love the idea of studying a place in history and then just deciding, planned or on a whim, to go visit. Or to bring some aspect of nature study with us when we journey on a family vacation. To me, this is part of how we might achieve for our son a true example of lifelong learning. This has always been one of the opportunities homeschooling presents which led me to be interested in it in the first place.

But a different aspect of adventuring with my family has grown in me over the last two years. You may know I had a surgery in 2023 and some serious complications followed. I was laid up at home for over six months. But even before I was fully healed (which took 11 months and I hesitate to even say this because I do still deal daily with maintenance to sustain healing) I began going on some smaller adventures with my family. I know those adventures actually began to improve my healing. I came alive again through those closer-to-home adventures. Through smaller goals, like a shorter hike or a drive somewhere close by to just sit and be somewhere new, I was brought back into my calling.

As we began our gentle preschool homeschool year in the fall of 2024 I made a goal to adventure one-on-one with my son. It was a goal I fostered for many reasons.

First, I wanted to prove to myself I am capable of solo parenting outside of our home and community because of my future goals to take trips related to our learning. I know my husband won’t always be able to come on overnight adventures, so I needed to start building my muscle. Next, I wanted to build a culture between my son and myself in which we are enough for each other. I spent years frantically building community for us because I didn’t want my only child to be without; ultimately, I didn’t really believe I, alone, was enough for him. And let me be clear, I know he needs community and friends and interactions with other kids. I’m also an only child and I will always do what it takes to ensure he has these things. But in my quest to provide that for him – my friendly son, born at the beginning of the pandemic who didn’t get to make baby friends – I’d swung the pendulum too far the other way. I’d allowed a culture to begin to take root that said our family wasn’t enough. Not to mention the time spent apart during my healing. And my own lack of confidence often meant we didn’t adventure at all because I couldn’t find someone to go with us or I was stuck waiting for schedules to align. All of it compounded in an unhealthy way. I had to undo it for both of us. I needed to be reminded I am enough for my son but I also need to re-plant my son’s roots in his belonging first as a child of God, and next as a part of our family, before all the other places and people with which he’ll interact beautifully. 

I know all too well as an only child how not having roots in one’s own family can cause a person to grow askance. We need community and we were designed for it, but the fact of the matter is, friends, especially in childhood years, will come and go and we must have a sense of belonging rooted in relationships with deep security.

I’m happy to say my goal was accomplished and it solidified for me how vital this focus is to our family culture. My son and I adventured to the zoo, state parks, nature centers, the city and more, totally solo. And our relationship grew in new ways from these adventures. As a family we went to two national parks, nature centers, and a working 1800’s farm. My husband was inspired to shift his work schedule to a four-day work week, with 10 hour days so he can be a part of more adventures. This is a sacrifice he made to wake earlier, work longer hours, and get home later, and he made the decision on his own, because he too saw how in our family the relationships deepen through adventure together. We three are all designed to love this way of relating and therefore, our family culture is strengthened by our ability to take on these short, and long, excursions.

I took my first overnight trip solo with my son last summer to the beach to meet up with my sister-in-law and nephews. I did it! We experienced an amazing state park in another state and even shared our adventure culture with our extended family. It was a great expansion of this focus for me: adventuring with my family also means extended family! How wonderful for my son that by establishing this focus for myself I can continue to root his belonging in adventures with his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. This is especially useful as we live nowhere near extended family, which means visits often include excursions and adventures. In fact, my dad and stepmom visited us earlier this year for my son’s birthday and we went to the zoo and on a train ride. 

In August of this year I took my son on my first truly solo overnight adventure. We went somewhere familiar, the north Georgia mountains. Places we’d already done day trips to together, overnight trips with my husband, and I’d been to this area on mom’s trips too. I felt more confident traveling to where I know the places familiarly. It was absolutely fantastic. My confidence grew. My son’s trust in me grew as he recognized my capabilities. We made memories together and built a tradition. We plan to take a trip, a little retreat, as we shift gears from summer into homeschool mode; during our trip we made plans about our homeschool and talked about what to study. It was significant to see how following through on my values created space for the homeschool vision I’ve been praying over to come to life. 

And isn’t that the truth I keep learning. When I lean into the values placed on my heart through knowing the Lord, trusting His purpose for me, and embracing all of who He made me to be, the results are consistently better than when I force that square peg into a round hole. They’re better than when I do it her way. The results are authentic and blessed. 

Adventuring together truly runs through the DNA of our family culture and by acknowledging it as a true priority, the gift is an allowance to say yes to the adventures, big and small, that present themselves. It helps remind me, even if I’m tired or feeling over-it, adventuring together actually helps us be more like ourselves. We will likely feel better by going on the adventure. It helps me say yes when people around me are telling me it sounds crazy. Crazy for them, maybe. But for us? Our roots are stretchy and we’re ready to grow. 

Come back next month for the next installment in this series where I’ll talk about encouraging homeschool families.

Thanks for being here!