In the Rain

Q and I were standing in the rain, on the playground outside the church where K was taking his annual achievement test. The rain was like an upside down sprinkler, dripping from the white fluffy clouds through the sun’s rays to land drop by drop on our hot skin. From the merry-go-round, G and A’s delighted squeals spun through the air. They were joined by those of a fellow homeschooler and her older brother, new friends made only 15 minutes before. An older man, easily 80, with bright white hair and a strong, but slower, step, made his way up the sidewalk to a door being fixed by a slightly younger man in his 50s. At this moment, I felt beautifully at ease with the choices that had brought me and my children to this place, on this day.

Just the day before, I hadn’t been so sure. We’ve been through a long period of transition. Beginning 2 years ago we put our house in Indiana on the market, moved to a rental house in NC, started a new job, had a baby, bought a new house, came back to IN for a funeral of a beloved relative only to have major van trouble delay our return to NC by 2.5weeks, moved my mom and brother to NC, and then discovered that my mom has lung cancer. The past weeks have been a blur of chemo and radiation. Any one of these life changing events would be enough to stress a family, but two years worth of nearly constant change and adjustment of expectation have taken their toll. Many days I have wondered about our choice to homeschool, fantasizing about less responsibility, and worrying about things I’ve never worried about before: are we doing the right thing?

I started learning about homeschooling long before it was considered an educational option by mainstream folks, and long before I had children to educate. I was 18 and had just graduated in the top 5% of my class from a small but competitive high school when I first read The Teenage Liberation Handbook. To say it rocked my world would be an understatement. The more I learned, the more convinced I became that it was an option I wanted to explore with my future children. I was open- minded in the way that people who haven’t traveled a particular path can be, and wholly unaware of just how passionate about the subject I would eventually become. Once I read John Holt’s books and had my first son, I knew that he would not be going to school unless it became important to him to go.

As we moved forward down this exciting path, I began to realize that I wasn’t homeschooling because of the potential negative aspects of traditional education, but because of the immense benefits to my family derived from going a different way. We weren’t shutting ourselves off from the negative influences of the world (never my worry nor my reason for homeschooling, but a concern often voiced by those within the school structure). Instead, we were broadening our world, and experiencing it as it really is, at all hours of the day, with all ages of people, carrying out the many and varied aspects of their lives. People running errands, going to appointments, fighting for their lives, buying their groceries, looking for work, seeking a place of prayer, putting gas in their cars.

When we moved to NC, the first of many major changes in our lives, we had to rebuild our support base. It has taken time, but we have a strong network of thoughtful, caring people guiding their families through this wild, tumultuous world. Somehow, the last few weeks had nonetheless managed to make me lose sight of all that we have gained and how much we have grown. Until this day when my oldest son hugs me tight, and then walks joyfully and easily down the hall to take his 3rd grade test with a perfect stranger, with no anxiety, no concern about succeeding or failing, making my heart swell. Until this day, when the freedom of my children to play unhindered in the rain with children much older than themselves in the middle of the day, with people young and old and in between all around, reminds me that we homeschool to see more of the world, and BE more of the world.

Time Passes

Catching up is hard to do, especially after 5 months of chaos. So this will be short on words, and full of pictures, and hopefully we're now back into the swing of things.

A list of good things:

1. G passed his blue belt test in Aikido.
2. K passed his orange belt test in Aikido.
3. Our garden is happy and growing, and our CSA is filling in the gaps nicely.
4. Q is walking full speed now, almost fluently running.
5. We went on our first camping trip of the season, and are looking forward to many more.
6. Q turned 1! Our final baby is officially a toddler.
7. K and G participated in the Home School Science Fair this past weekend, and had an awesome time. K's project was called "Investigating Robot Design" and G's project was called "Skulls". He used a deer skull that we found with our friends as part of his project. K won a cool door prize: a model spaceship.

There are many things I've missed, but these are the highlights. Some things haven't changed: G still enjoys gymnastics, K still loves going to ice skating, A wants to start gymnastics in the fall, we still love going to the cabin, and we plan to have a busy, fun summer.