Intro to Me

How do you start the first entry of a blog? I have no idea. Maybe I should pretend I have been doing this for years, and you all are just now coming on board, late to the game? I guess not. My name is Kevan. I live in Northern Nevada with my three children, two dogs, a cat, and a duck. How's that for a start?

I married when I was 21 and my wife was 18. My wife-to-be had a 15 month old daughter when we met, and within a year of our marriage, I had adopted my eldest daughter and had another on the way. Six years after the birth of our second daughter, we had a little surprise: a bouncing baby boy.

After eleven years of marital bliss, I now find myself a single father of three beautiful kids. We have always homeschooled our children, and during the divorce process, we both expressed our commitment to continuing their lives as normally has possible. The big plan was to split custody equally and continue to work off shifts, thus maintaining a sense of normalcy for our children. We were going to live very near each other and continue to work together. I know it will come as a huge surprise to hear that things have not turned out quite as I had imagined.

To start, my now ex-wife moved over an hour away into California. It turns out that is a lot of driving when done four or five days a week. And that is actually one of least of the problematic decisions she has made that has caused continuing problems with our plan. In any case, the short of it is this: I have full custody of our oldest daughter, and primary custody of the younger two.

Needless to say, this changes things for me. I now have a 13 year old girl living in my home all the time, and I have no help with her rearing or schooling right now. I can not exactly leave her home five days a week and go off to work or school. Since I am nearly done with my technology degree, my grandparents have generously decided to help me financially so I can finish it. It is not nearly enough to live on, however, and school is incredibly time consuming at the rate I have been attending (22 credits last semester).

So, what to do? You're looking at it! Well, not exactly. I transferred my credits to an online school, and began looking for ways to support myself and my children from home. Now, believe me, I have no delusions of financial grandeur about this blog. SPH is born primarily of my desire to communicate with others in a similar situation as the one I now find myself in. I searched the internet for a community of like-minded people. While there are some wonderful articles and blogs out there, most or all of them are outdated and abandoned. Did they all get remarried? Who knows. But the point is, I want one and I couldn't find one. Also, I am working to find ways to make a career of the things I am passionate about, my kids, technology, etc, and in the mean time, I want to fill a little online nitch along the way. Who knows where it will lead?

So, let's roll. I will do my part by keeping up on news and opinion regarding the things single homeschooling parents have to face, and I really hope to learn from, and get to know many of you. Please let me know you are here by emailing and commenting often. You know how it is: It can get to feel pretty lonely out here sometimes.

Kevan Thoman