the process of deciding homeschooling

    Hi, my name is Emma McMahan and I am a homeschooled 8th grader. What was the process of how I got homeschooled you may ask? Well, here's the story. 

    My mom, Mandy McMahan, has wanted us to be homeschooled for about 6 years, but my dad, James McMahan, just thought it would be too hard on my mom for her to not only parent 3 kids, but to also do the job of a teacher. After Covid, and the entire school year was online, my mom wanted to homeschool more then ever. My mom kept perusing harder then ever. She made google slides, did homeschool for us over the summer (sorta), talked to my dad about it everyday, and had her homeschool friends talk to my dad about it and help figure it out like we were 100% going to be homeschooled. 

    While we were on our trip in Maui, Hawaii my mom got an email from something called PEARL (Partnership in Excellence for Alternative Remote Learning) that we were accepted to do some school through it.  PEARL is a program through the Quilcene school district. 

    "What is PEARL?" Well, great question. We get assigned a teacher that we check in with once a week and my mom writes a report to the teacher we get assigned to. My favorite part is that since we are not using any of the schools supplies anymore, PEARL buys some of the stuff for us. They also give us a membership to YMCA, dance studios, verified music teachers, gymnastics, and more. They do have to approve what my mom would like to buy in order for them to pay for it. For example, my mom is getting the books we are doing through PEARL, and she doesn't have to pay for them. I am getting a Chromebook for school and, you guessed it, PEARL is paying. If I want to get any other laptop, we would have to pay some still but I'm just getting it for homeschool. 

    My dad liked that we had an actual teacher to check in with every week to make sure that we are not falling behind and said yes. My mom signed us up for co-op, and put us in the classes we would like and started ordering the books for homeschool. 

    I am doing history, guitar, and wildcrafting for co-op. (Wild crafting is figuring out which plants are okay and not okay to eat in the wilderness, what flowers are what, etc.) I am doing math, language arts, P.E.  through PEARL. Just the classes my mom doesn't care if they're Bible based or not. I am doing Bible, graphic design, and science with my mom, and biology and musical theater through a church with a verified teacher. 

    I really like being homeschooled so far, thank you for letting us be homeschooled mom and dad! <3