"I would never homeschool my kids." ~ Me, 1998
Confession time. Once upon a time, I never imagined myself homeschooling. That was something the fringe of society did, and I was so …
mainstream. And then I met a few families whose homeschooled teenagers babysat
for us. Lauren, Bethany, the sister team of Hannah & Lindsay, Lindsey S. … and it turns out, those girls were pretty normal
and pretty amazing. Smart, polite,
capable, creative, dependable. They challenged my stereotypes and forced me to
rethink homeschooling. And now, 14 years later, here we are: seasoned homeschoolers. Plodding along in our big white van, with more than the socially-acceptable number of kids. And to think: early on, I also predicted we'd have 3 kids. Ha!
It
hasn’t always been wonderful or easy – especially with babies and toddlers in
the mix -- but I am forever thankful for the extra
time. All parents hear “it goes by so fast,” but for me, it didn’t
really register until after Rachel graduated. And now I look at the others and realize,
the school years will probably go by just as fast with each of them (hopefully
not faster!). So this is one of the ways we redeem the time.
Here’s one more confession. Even though I love taking
pictures, I have to admit I don’t always take beginning of the schoolyear
pictures. In fact, I’ve hardly ever done it. Because that would require, you
know, planning ahead. ;-) This year, the
stars aligned, and since I made an announcement that I wanted to do pictures (right before we started this morning, of course),
the kids made sure it happened.
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| We worked hard on the schoolroom yesterday. |
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| It won't look this good again until August, 2017. |
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| Impromptu braiding session |
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| Braiding hair does not happen on a typical school day, just the first. :-) |
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| Wonder how long he'll fit under the countertop this easily? |
We decided to take the pictures in the schoolroom in front of the whiteboard, and somebody had the idea of personalizing each student (there wasn't room for Erica and Courtney!).
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| Sarah, pondering the Quadratic Equation |
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| Angel Brooke |
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| Queen Claire (plus the artist) |
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| Grant, the scuba diver (this is how he swims. :-) |
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| Trent, the puppy (what else?) |
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| So cute! |
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| and Rachel! Now a serene college sophomore. |
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| Me and my last kindergartner! |
