HOME TOWN star Erin Napier isn’t so sad about her second daughter’s entry to kindergarten.
“Mae is about to start kindergarten. The night before Helen went to kindergarten, I drove to the store after she was in bed to get bacon for her special breakfast the next day. I turned on the song we listened to coming home from the hospital when she was born and cried so hard I couldn’t catch my breath, feeling her babyhood ending with such finality,” she recalled of her oldest daughter.
When she called her mom, her mother laughed because she couldn’t even remember Napier’s first day of kindergarten.
Now, Napier doesn’t feel so sad about Mae starting kindergarten.
Erin noted that a “great upside to homeschooling is I don’t have that feeling at all this time,” she said. “…I’ll be there when she reads a sentence for the first time and she’s so excited to read a book on her own soon. We’ve figured out how to slow down the clock and savor these little years.”
Earlier this year she explained that her film crew makes time for a few hours on filming days so that she and husband Ben can be home to teach her girls. On the days they can’t make it work, they have a retired teacher friend who subs in.
Related: 5 Fun Facts About HOME TOWN’S Ben and Erin Napier
“Ben has a degree in history, minor in English and is a former youth pastor, so he does a daily deep dive on teaching history, Bible and math,” Napier explained. “While he does his subjects, I work with Mae on phonics and simple arithmetic.”
On the children’s “off day,” they learn French, the piano, horseback riding and other activities.
“We found the hack to slow down childhood. It’s not for everyone, but it was medicine for our whole family this year,” Napier said.
In December, Napier explained that her children have never had their own tech. Their goal is to give them a happy, device-free childhood, and homeschooling helps to accomplish that.
“When Helen was first born, my husband, Ben, and I, along with three other families, made an informal agreement to support each other in keeping our kids off social media and smartphones at large,” she said.
She also affirms that since the girls started homeschooling, they are happy with their relaxed school schedule and are good at communicating with people of all ages, not just other children.
Read Next: Homeschooling Numbers Continue to Rise — But Why?
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
