Meet Susan From Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Thank you, Lori, for the opportunity to meet your readers on Meeting Monday!
Hi, I’m Susan.  I’m a homeschooling mama, a loving wife to an amazing man, a writer, a philosopher, a seamstress, a maker of things, and an imaginer of worlds.  My home on the web is Homeschooling Hearts & Minds.
My husband, Chris, and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary and we’ve known each other for more than 20 years.  I think we’ve finally known each other longer than we haven’t known each other. 

We have 4 crazy kids:
David (age 12), our engineer, speed-reader (and goofball)


Mary (age 9), our fancy dancer and resident trend-setter


Peter (age 7), our artistic mini-linebacker


Emma (age 3), our mischievous explorer who knows no fear

This is a our 6th year homeschooling and we’re somewhat eclectic in our approach.  We don’t use one set curriculum, but pick and choose what fits our children’s needs.  Our number one goal is to raise life-long lovers of learning who revel in the glory of God’s creation. 
We chose to homeschool because we found that our oldest was not having his academic needs met in a traditional school setting.  We continue to teach our kids at home, because we have found it the best way to help them to reach their full potential spiritually, academically, and personally.  Each and every day I’m struck by how very individual each of them is and we do our best to honor their individuality, help them to overcome their weaknesses, and to embrace their strengths. 
At Homeschooling Hearts & Minds, I do like to brag on my kids (they are brilliant), but I mainly talk about what it’s really like to be a homeschooling mama, including some of the day-to-day challenges of managing a household while educating my kids. 
My goals are:

• to be real so you know that we all have bad days (and good ones)
• to encourage
• to be helpful, by providing good stuff, including free printables, unit studies, and resources

This month is also the 2nd annual Virtual Curriculum Fair, which is a month-long blog carnival where participants give other homeschoolers a peek into what they are really doing with their kiddos that works for them and why.  If you’ve had an attack of the mid-year blahs, I encourage you to come and check it out.  These ladies are truly inspiring.

In addition to talking about homeschooling, I also talk about being me.  I recently started the Less Planning, More DO-ing challenge, which is all about encouraging moms to seize the day and to DO the things they always mean to do, but can never find the time for.  Is that you, too?  This was my before the New Year resolution, to start dreaming again and to make some of those dreams a reality.  God created me to be me.  Part of being me is being a wife, a mother, and a homeschooler, but there’s more.  I’m learning to embrace the more.