Today I would like to share a little bit about us. My name is Ashlee, I was born and raised in Orange County, California. I am a SoCal girl through and through who lives in flip-flops year round! I spent most of my younger years living with my grandparents who I learned many valuable life lessons from. We traveled a lot when I was young and I attribute my love of exploring new places to them. Things I love include a good glass of wine, coffee, gardening, books, watching old cowboy pictures with my great grandma, traveling, walking on the beach barefoot, the ocean, the mountains, nature, photography, music, art, Harry Potter (no shame) and Disneyland. Family is the most important thing in the world to me and I would do anything for mine. I am a part time event coordinator and a full time mom and wife.

My husband is Thomas but most people call him Tj. He is also a SoCal native who loves fishing, BBQing, football, music, the mountains, camping, being with his family and is an American and world history enthusiast. He is an RV sales consultant and works tirelessly to provide and care for his family. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for us and is always putting our needs and wants before his own. We have been together over 14 years and have been married for 10.

Together we have two children Cash James, age 6, and Everlee Jaymes, age 3. Cash is our sweet gentle soul who loves drawing, baseball, bike riding, music, working in the garden, the ocean, dinosaurs, animals and dressing up and putting on performances for us. Everlee is our free spirit, our little wildflower who loves to dress up, sing, dance, paint, be barefoot and is the perfect mix of girly girl and tom boy. Their favorite place to be is together and even though they are 4 years apart in age they are best friends.

Every day is a new adventure and we wouldn’t have it any other way, this is why we homeschool.

We all know that children go to school to “learn” but how exactly are they being taught? I am a firm believer that NOTHING is one size fits all, especially when it comes to learning. To be honest, I never in my life thought that I would be a home educator. Never did I think to myself when I had my first child, “Hey, I am going to homeschool him because that is how I feel he will learn best.” Instead I was the parent that couldn’t wait until my first born was school age so I could send him off to school to start his education, and honestly, give me a break a few hours a day. Somewhere along the road that all changed. I realized that I wanted education for my children to be drastically different than what I experienced growing up. One thing I do know is that I want to foster a love of learning in my children that will last them a lifetime.

What does an education look like to me? I am still not fully sure, and each new school year it changes a bit. I can’t say that my reason for choosing to homeschool is the same as when I began this journey either. So what is my reason? Well, simply put, I believe that life is better when we are together. We learn together, play together, discover together and adventure together! I get to experience all those beautiful moments with my children while learning and growing alongside them. It brought our home unit closer together and made our bonds stronger. For our family, homeschool is not just teaching our kids in the home, it is a lifestyle, one that we have embraced whole heartedly. It has made our living more intentional and our days and time spent together more purposeful (most of the time).

One of the best and probably most unexpected parts of all of this was the friendships that we have made, not just for my children but also for myself. I walked into this not knowing a single person that homeschooled. I had no idea that I would gain so many inspiring, supportive and accepting women that I can now call some of my closest friends. My children have created friendships that I have been able to watch grow into what I can only hope to be lifelong friendships.

This September marks our third official year of homeschooling and I am far from having my shit fully together. There have been many days where I think to myself “what the hell was I thinking” or “you must be outta your damn mind if you think you can actually pull this off.” Some days my anxiety gets the best of me and I have to reset and start again. I know there will be many more days where I feel like this too, but don’t worry, I will be sharing all about those days with you in future.

I am excited to start sharing our homeschool journey with all of you, I hope you will enjoy the ride!

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