Where did June (and the last two decades) go?!

June 2018 was jam packed for this homeschooling family. The many daily decisions and tasks accumulated into major milestones for us to acknowledge and celebrate. Acknowledging a college graduation was one of the big events.

Our oldest, graduated from college. Home schooled through high school, our "experimental child" graduated summa cum laude, with a B.S. in accounting, top 25 in his class, and with a start date to a real job in September. It is not really our accomplishment to claim as a family, but his as an individual student. And though it may not be our accomplishment to claim, it is a testament to family, dedication and to homeschooling. What we (our family & homeschooling families generally) can claim is that homeschooling works.

When I watched as our oldest son, our first homeschooling student, walked in the graduation procession, taking a sit among those young adults, all with the shared academic accomplishment of completing a college degree, my heart swelled with pride. Seeing him cross that stage, I finally and completely left my doubts about our choice to home school behind.

I have always loved homeschooling and have never regretted the decision for our family. The personal and family benefits have been so amazing, many and ongoing. However, I did often question my own ability to teach academic subjects and fell woefully short in some. I like other homeschooling parents, sometimes wondered if we were doing the right thing, or how prepared our kids would be for participation in the mainstream. Those doubts were frequently fed when they intersected with the unsolicited doubts and questions that came from others outside of our immediate family.

Graduating from a university, previously home schooled or not, is major life event for each and every one of those students crossing the stage, what they don't (nor should they, necessarily) realize, is the major life event it can be for their parents. For myself and my husband, after the years of early attachment parenting that led us into homeschooling; the wonderful days of extensive time together, learning, growing and exploring are changing dramatically. While each year has brought changes, I had no idea how wonderfully exciting it would be to see each of my children launch into the world, their own unique lives to develop, their own challenges to overcome and their own contributions to make.
I am beyond proud of who they have become, how competent they are and I am excited to see where they each go.

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