Will's first week

After a week of waiting outside in the van to drive Will home, helping him a tiny bit with his homework, buying yet more school supplies, and reminding him about 10 times every evening that just because he started private school doesn't mean he can stop playing the piano, I have to say that we are doing/have done a more than adequate job homeschooling our children. The rest of the year in pre-algebra should be easy since it all seems to be a review of what we have covered so far this year, the teachers have been very impressed by his work ethic, and he proudly boasted at having the largest necktie collection in the 7th grade (his new tie featuring the planets was a big hit with the science teacher). 

 Will's first ever "first day of school" picture

Will's "away" school attendance has been a major change for everyone in the family and there is a touch of jealousy for his being around other kids, getting special foods for lunch, and the attention he receives at dinner (after all, I know what everyone else did all day). Tim has to leave earlier for work to drop him off and I have to take an hour out of every afternoon to pick him up. But the main purpose of this endeavor, keeping Mommy sane, is being accomplished. My mornings are spent more pleasantly than they have in years and some days the other 4 children are finished with their work by 11am. 

I have to say that our homeschooling curriculum is much, much more rigorous and authentically Catholic than the top-notch school he is now attending, which is why we are still supplementing his courses at home and of course still homeschooling all the younger children. Do I feel guilty for putting him in school? Maybe a little, but every family has to reevaluate the academic choices that best work for each year and each child. Parents constantly have to say no to opportunities due to lack of time, interest, or energy. Every kid can't be simultaneously involved in the arts, music, academics, sports, Scouts, volunteering in the community, field trips, home economics, trades, and the hundreds of other options available to school age children. 

Homeschooling Will has been a wonderful experience, a heady challenge, and a daily search for the truth. Whatever his future academic career might include, I do not regret for one moment the 8 and 1/2 years of homeschooling my boy.