How Did ZIL Come to Be?

Long before I had kids, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. Being the youngest of three girls, (my sister’s are both a decade older than I am) I didn’t have any playmates. After my sisters went to school, I’d sit my baby dolls around the table, place paper and pencils in front of them and play school for hours. Once I started school, I loved it. I was always an honor student and was known as a “teacher’s pet” by all of my classmates because I was the one answering questions or volunteering to help. The teacher’s pet moniker didn’t bother me. I wore it like a Badge of Honor.

After high school, I started to pursue my dream of becoming a teacher, but life had other plans. My husband and I got married two years after we graduated and had our first child almost six months later. Over the course of the next few years, we had four more kids and my dream of becoming a teacher had to be put on hold, but not for long.

In the fall of 2011, our oldest son started Kindergarten. Instead of putting him in a normal public school setting, we decided to go with a Charter School. Basically, we would be assigned a supervising teacher who we’d meet with once or twice a month, but I would be responsible for the actual teaching. This option worked great for a while but I started getting bored with only teaching the lessons. I wanted to do it all: lesson planning, teaching, keeping track of grades and attendance, setting the schedule. So in the Fall of 2014, my husband and I started our own homeschool.

ZIL came about in the Fall of 2021 after a brief shutdown so I could obtain my Bachelor’s Degree in ECE, which I successfully did. During the brief shutdown, I had two part time jobs in the educational field. My kids were also in a normal public school setting during this time. Once COVID hit and life as we knew it got flipped on it’s head, I decided I wanted to start homeschooling again. It took a couple of weeks of planning but after all was said and done, my kids were back into the homeschooling groove. It felt like we never stopped.

A new school year is starting in a few days and we’re ready to go but this is just the beginning for ZIL. My vision for this school, alongside my husband and partner, is to expand it into the community. We’re currently brainstorming starting a pilot program next school year with some of our family and close friends. If that goes well, we’ll look into expanding to the community.