College Update

My second child and oldest daughter homeschooled to and through high school, supplementing with classes at Logan High. We dropped her off at college in Aug to begin that leg of her education and I wanted to report on that.

The two of us, with her dorm room unpacked, and just before I left.

For a bit of background, she did not get a diploma from a public High School. She got a homeschool diploma, took multiple CE classes at a local high school, and submitted a homeschool transcript. She was awarded a scholarship to her college based on her GPA. She elected to ATTEND this particular college because of this scholarship AND because they offered her chosen program, Commercial Music (and it's one of the few 4-year programs there), and because they offered her an additional music scholarship based on an in-person audition she attended.

I mention the above because that is what I think parents are curious about - how the process of college admissions works, the kinds of classes one takes to prepare, etc.

I wanted to add a few observations that were surprising and were NOT on my radar. These may be of curiosity to families just beginning the homeschool journey. (They certainly would have been to me!)

So when we dropped this daughter off, one thing that struck me was how much more MATURE she seemed than the other incoming freshman.

That's a sweeping statement with multiple caveats: 1. I hardly had a broad sampling in the few hours I was on campus, nor have I had the experience at other schools to contrast incoming freshman classes. 2. I SPOKE to even fewer people than I saw, so this was a snap judgement on my part. 3. Her college is a very small and rural school that generally only offers associates degrees, so that may be related to the maturity level of those who choose to attend.

But on the first two points, when I shared with my daughter this observation after she'd been there a week and spoken and spent time with many more students, she agreed that she also felt more mature.

Though I'd heard many homeschool moms claim that homeschooling better prepared kids for college, a) I was skeptical that was true, and b) I was MORE skeptical it would be true for MY kids, mostly owing to our very casual approach.

So, IF she really IS more mature than many incoming freshmen, I'm the first to be SHOCKED! (Though I didn't explicitly tell her, I was happy with her choice to go to Snow specifically because she is such a YOUNG 18-year-old - her b-day was exactly 1 month before we dropped her off - and I thought she had a lot of maturing to do!)

So we began together to try and understand where that added maturity came from (IF it is real), and we have a few theories - the stuff that was NOT on my radar that I thought was worthy of sharing.

1. 1. She has been managing her time and life for years. I was too busy to keep track of her varying high school schedule, so she would remind me when I needed to take her, pick her up, etc. Simultaneously to academics, she was in serious pursuit of her passions, so she managed her time on her own to move those forward too. And none of this has been "on the beaten path." There's not a single program we've 'plugged into' that's met all the needs and had all the boxes checked off alongside peers in the same program.
2. 2. Her passion has been music. Music is exacting and demanding - not something that can be mastered quickly or faked. It requires ongoing discipline, but the same could be said for sports, dance, etc.
3. 3. Our family travel. Yes, she did some time away from our home for girls camp, for FSY, to do a brief nanny stint for my brother's kids, and she attended a Shakespeare camp. But lots of kids do this. And I never thought our family travel would have an impact on the kids' maturity because they had their PARENTS managing all the logistics. BUT she was able to watch capable adults navigate in unfamiliar surroundings, make new connections, and pursue unique and cool experiences in new locations.
4. 4. Finally, because homeschooling meant she was HOME more often, she was able to participate in a broad swath of adult life: shopping, meal planning and prep, cleaning, etc. I think this has led her to a deeper confidence that she's got this "life thing" and has nothing to fear.

Another caveat: this may just be HER. Her personality - a fiercely independent spirit pretty much from birth?

AND OF COURSE, the year has just begun. What will her grades be? What will her challenges be? Will she be able to suck up all the learning from ALL the aspects of life and emerge a more capable human being that has more power to be a benefit to the world? Time has yet to tell!

But if you are wondering if it's OK that as a homeschooler, you spend less time on academics in favor of your kids diving deep into something they love, or making them help around the house, or having an amazing family adventure, or that you have so much on your plate that you neglect to manage their time all the time, the answer MAY be something like this:

Not only will your kids be fine, these may just be the features of your homeschooling experience (NOT the bugs!) that make a big difference in the confidence your kids gain to face the world as adults!

He Made It!

My oldest is now a man! Whoa! And as of this spring, he has achieved his dream of joining a professional ballet company.

Photo Credit: Beau Pearson
Kai as the Prince in Ballet West's Family Series, "Beauty and the Beast"

Did homeschooling play a role? YES! And I find myself telling aspiring dancers more and more often that most who land careers exit the traditional system at some point prior to graduation. (Though many go on to earn college degrees or pursue other careers while holding down their professional dance job.)

I'm glad we homeschooled Kai (now over 18 so he can assume his public identity!) because we had so much time together before he left our home in pursuit of this dream. But homeschooling also meant he could put dance in the premier position of his education. And it meant he wasn't bullied in public schools about being a male dancer.

He remains an avid reader, is still studying Chinese on Duo Lingo, he learns everything quickly (so helpful when it comes to choreography), and he is curious and kind. 

Is he perfect? NO! Not by a long shot. Is he WISE. I'm hoping after some hard lessons he's been through that he is STILL gaining wisdom (like the rest of us!). I would probably change things if I could go back. But would I still choose to homeschool him? Absolutely!

Read the new about his promotion here: DANCER HIGHLIGHT: Kai Casperson | Ballet West

College Acceptance!

My two daughters have been enrolled part time in High School. They love the electives that I wouldn't be able to come close to duplicating: swim team, theater productions, debate. I love that through Concurrent Enrollment classes, they can be earning college credit AND experiencing something like that academic standard.

As I've mentioned earlier, enrolling them part-time has NOT been challenging. The schools (they are in two different ones in different districts) are very open to that, and the counselors have been great. There has been no issue participating in all the classes and extra curriculars they want and NOT taking the ones they don't. The biggest challenge is the schedule: finding classes that are back-to-back - so I don't need to make multiple trips to the school each day - takes some effort. And it can feel like our lives revolve around school: I've missed the freedom to go and do what we want when we want and not have to worry academic commitments.

Anyway, my older daughter is now done with that experience. She did NOT graduate from her public high school because she did not take the required classes for graduation. (She took theater for all 4 years, debate for 3, stage craft for 1, sewing for 1, and she has taken something like 4 or 5 concurrent enrollment classes.) Additionally, she has taken piano and voice lessons in our home, participated in after-school performing programs, and done classes with one homeschool co-ops and groups

This coming fall she will be attending one of the state colleges on a half academic scholarship, with an additional scholarship for her field of study: Commercial Music, with an emphasis on voice. It is one of the handful of state schools that will accept ALL applicants. It also is one of the few who has the particular program, and we have heard great things about it.

The transcript we submitted was only a list of all the classes she did take for her 4 years of high school. We included her lessons and her classes with the co-ops. We included her classes at the high school, indicated that those were offered there, and sent in their record of her grades. For her co-op classes, because no grades were given, I assigned her grades based on what I observed of her diligence and reference to what she'd learned. (Because she learned a lot she was excited and passionate about mastering, there were a lot of A's. But sometimes I didn't think she put in a lot of effort or blew things off, and those classes got lower grades - though I don't think I gave her LESS than a B.) She was not a perfect student in high school either. AND I should note that because she took almost ZERO science and very little math, her "transcript" did not include those subjects beyond what she DID take. However, whatever that combined GPA was (we did the math and assigned it a number), unbeknownst to us, it was high enough for an academic scholarship, and she was awarded that BEFORE she was accepted into the music program.

For that acceptance, she attended an in-person audition where she sang a piece of her own composition and another she'd worked on with her voice teacher. She also submitted what they called a portfolio (but they only required 2 pieces - not much of a portfolio IMO). These were her own works we had her record in a recording studio - one just piano, and one with piano and her singing. (She submitted these to another school with this same program that ALSO happens to accept all applicants, and she was accepted into their program as well, but NOT given a scholarship. She is considering transferring there after 2 years in her first school.)

I share all of this detail for two reasons. The first is that I do not know how much of our experience having a homeschooler accepted into college is based on the circumstances unique to us (though I expect, given the timing of everything that the acceptance and scholarship had nothing to do with the rest). And second, to demonstrate that there ARE advantages to NOT putting all of one's eggs in the traditional academics-in-high-school basket. If she had done school full time, I suspect her music would not have advanced to its current level, nor would she have had the other classes and experiences which have shaped her current direction.

How will she do IN college? How on earth will she survive the math class required for her major? Is she prepared for greater academic demands? These are open questions. She discovered taking an online concurrent enrollment class, which she failed, that she did not like online classes. She'll avoid those. The other concurrent enrollment classes DID seem sufficiently academically rigorous to prepare her for college classes, and she loved those. We also THINK/hope she has some level of mastery over managing her own time and projects - she's juggled speech writing with line memorizing, with voice, piano, and other homework, without her butt in a specific seat, without someone telling her what to do and when to do it. As for math, hopefully she can find some skilled tutors!

And I don't know if anyone these days is fretting about it anymore, but yes, she does seem sufficiently socialized - I wouldn't credit her time in school with this skill set. Through all of life - plays, church, school, homeschool, clubs, etc., she has had the opportunity to interact with others, and she has been fine to do so.

So is this a homeschool success story? NO CLUE. I don't know yet because life has yet to reveal what this daughter does NOT know and has not yet sufficiently mastered. (I ASSUME when those insufficiencies are revealed, she'll work on them and do fine...?) Beyond that, will she make good, moral choices in her life ahead? Will she be kind and serve others? Will the skill set she is pursuing in college be a financial asset to herself and her family? Will she be sufficiently wise to make a good decision on one of the most impactful choices in life: who to marry? When do we arrive at success sufficient that we can call it that? And how would we know it ALL came from homeschooling? No clue.

What I DO know is that homeschool CAN produce kids able to be accepted in collge, kids that are bright, fun, articulate, and talented. And so up to this point, 16 years in, homeschooling continues to be a blessing in our family!

No, it's not a typo! Gradulation is not graduation, but we are celebrating the close of one chapter and the beginning of another! (The backside of this announcement featured her accomplishments - from winning first place at State in Speech to being a big sister -  and take-aways from her various life experiences.)

Adding My Voice, Finding the Chorus

In 2020, during the world-wide Corona Pandemic, thousands of people tried homeschooling. This was my advice for their experiment, for perhaps merely the dozens that saw it: 

"There are things about choosing to homeschool that make it a hard choice, AND there are things that make it the wrong choice. Don't confuse the two."

The fact is, I believe with all my soul that everyone CAN homeschool. I may be the last person on earth to try to persuade you you SHOULD homeschool. Those aspects of your life that would make it hard, and those aspects that would make it the wrong choice are unknown to me. 

I may also be the last person on earth to try to persuade you about HOW to homeschool. Your child is as unique as your choice of how to go about his or her education. What works for one child - what works for MY child - may be an utter disaster for yours. This is true even among siblings. How could I ever hope to instruct an unknown parent on what is best for her child?!

But I do believe that as a parent, YOU know best. You understand best your child's needs. You understand your own capacity to meet those needs - even your inability to meet the needs yourself. Or in other words, you know when you need to call in outside resources. Those outside resources might be as big and comprehensive as a whole k-12 education system. But the resource could be as simple as a phone call to a friend whose advice leads to a shift in your understanding, or a great idea about how to approach those unmet needs.

So I want to raise my voice up against the outside and inner voices telling you you can't homeschool - that the only resource for any and all unmet needs is a 13-year-long system. Because the simple truth is this: YOU CAN HOMESCHOOL. 

I know you can not as some theoretical exercise, nor in a disengaged indifference of a stranger. If you WANT to homeschool, if you believe it might be best, if you want to hope that it will lead to better outcomes for your family, for your children, then I am cheering for you! I want you to succeed! I will cheer your successes, but MORE importantly when you stumble, fall, and feel the fear of failure, I hope you hear ALL the voices that believe you can succeed, and hear them all the more clearly! 

The following quotation has been attributed to many authors, but its message is WHY I share my homeschooling experience:

"A friend is someone who knows the song of my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."

That you CAN homeschool, AND find success, peace, and joy doing it is my lived experience. If the desire to homeschool is the song of your heart, let me sing to you a story of my own stretching, my own fears, my process and joy and happiness. Let me add my voice to your voice inside that believes you can do this. And let this chorus grow and be heard and make the world a better place one childhood at a time.

A Few Simple Suggestions for Organizing Your Homeschooling Space

I began homeschooling in the days before social media. I'm STILL not on Pinterest or Twitter, or anywhere else where I might come across a darling room in a home, set up like a darling room at a school. That's fine by me - we don't have an extra room in our home to dedicate to the sole purpose of homeschooling. And I don't want to be locked in just one room for the process for a few reasons.

First, I've got things to DO! Teaching and/or learning with my kids is only one small part of my day. I spend less time on instruction than they spend learning. That means we do some portion together and they continue on their own while I make dinner, or fold laundry, etc. They find me when they need me, so the ARE all over the house learning.

Beyond MY needs, the kids often need to be in separate spaces, one needing to concentrate on Math while another practices Spanish pronunciation, my little guy escaping the piano practice to find a quite corner to read while we snuggle.

Finally, I like spatially representing that learning happens everywhere. "School" is not confined to a space or a time. So we learn all day, and learn everywhere we go.

But doesn't doesn't need to mean our tools for learning are scattered to wherever we used them last (though that has ALSO happened!). So here is what WE do, so things are easy to find and use and hunting them down doesn't become a barrier to accomplishing a task.

I have a "school work bucket" in the kitchen in a lower cabinet where everyone can reach it. It is the catch-all for everything we use or could conceive of using in the space of a few month. It holds the books we are working on together, papers, math worksheets, answer books, and DVD's. It may have the art projects and a few art supplies too. And a few crayons and markers thrown in for good measure. I tell the kids that their task (penmanship practice, math, whatever) isn't done until their things are put away. Of course, some days it feels like I'm saying that 'til I'm blue in the face. But when I come across something that has been left out elsewhere in the house, I just drop it in the school work bucket, and when they can't find something, that is always the first place to look.

The school supplies we AREN'T using regularly (the books on science experiments we haven't gotten to yet, the discount workbooks that were on a screaming sale we aren't advanced enough yet to crack, the math worksheets one kid has grown out of before another grows into them) are all in a closet. (But lacking closet space, I would organize them either by grade level or subject and box them up to fit in storage or under a bed somewhere.) 

Then a few times each year I go through the school work bucket. If we aren't using something anymore, it goes back to the closet to wait for another sibling (or given away if we are done or I didn't find it useful). And as the kids advance I see what is in the closet that can be transferred to the school work bucket, like a tickler file to remind me to try this or use that.

I should comment about storing completed school work too! Their math until older grades, is done on transparencies so I lack a lot of evidence they DID it. But samples of their art, penmanship, writing, projects, etc. go into a collection bin (also in a cupboard in the kitchen). A few times a year, I empty this bin by sorting out who did what and placing this completed work into binders for each child, like a scrap book only FAR LESS darling. I divide the work by "grade" level, and because I only save incremental samples and not ALL of it, usually a few grade levels can fit in a single binder.

Having these binders helps the kids to see their progress and helps younger sibs see that their older sibs, who may presently do something better than they do, once were at the same skill level as their younger siblings. AND I found it really helped when I was putting transcripts together for college and an application to attend a private school! For my oldest son's "high school" transcript we assembled when he was 15, we were able to flip though this binder and remember what he studies in history, in science, in Chinese, and THAT he studied certain things so we had a fuller record of his learning.

This system has worked for our family for over a decade. Homeschooling does NOT require a school room, though if you have one and love it, more power to you! You don't need to spend a fortune on setting things up. Remember that along side your children's learning, YOU are learning what works best for YOUR family. You will discover what that is, and if the solutions you find are simple and inexpensive, all the better!

"All the Way to College"

Here was my progression:

We are NOT going to homeschool because I want and need a life.

We ARE going to homeschool ALL the way to college because it is more optimal for child development.

Actually, that is not exactly how it went. But we landed on homeschooling as our first educational option when my oldest (and only child at that point) was 3, and within 2 years (or in time for him to begin Kindergarten) we were telling everyone our intent to led it ride through Junior High and High School, "all the way to college"... if it was working. 

Clearly, we felt that the first 2 years of homeschooling preschool were working. And the caveat of "if it was working," is a large caveat that brought a lot of peace. "We're in this for the long haul. AND we are not locked in and will do public school whenever it seems MORE beneficial."

Immediately, when this became our mindset, with kids merely 5 years old and 2 years old, we started fielding questions about college: "How are they going to get into college?" "How are you going to get them ready for college?" "Are you going to homeschool college TOO?" "Are they even going to GO to college?"

There are probably parents who can answer those questions definitively for their 5 and 2 year olds with a straight face. I had to laugh, because what OTHER parents are grilled about college before their kids have graduated Kindergarten?

Still, it's not like my laughter was a GOOD, or INFORMED answer. Well honestly, I didn't have one. But I DID have a decade to figure it out. So I opted not to sweat it. "We'll see," seemed a sufficient answer to the barrage of doubt others wanted to hurl at me for our choice.

Fast forward one decade. My oldest is 15 and has ONLY homeschooled. Something was working. But was it college worthy? WHAT ABOUT COLLEGE?

I figured it was time to find answers to that question. He was quickly reaching the limits of the instruction and even the structure we could provide. He needed to continue to stretch himself academically, and I figured we might as well stretch in that direction, so I began to explore options. Could he take concurrent enrollment? Well no. He wasn't a high school student - that is how colleges provide those classes: through the high schools. Could he take college level courses at our local tech school? No. He was too young. Do correspondence online? Maybe, but when I asked around about it, I didn't hear good things about the programs, and IF he didn't end up attending the college through which the correspondence courses were offered, the time and effort and expense diminished in value.

Committed to continually walk through options, we found ourselves walking through the doors of a community college and sitting down with a gentleman in the enrollment office. I said something like, "I have a 15 year old here who has been homeschooled and moving forward, we would like to prepare him for college. What do we need to do?"

He responded, "Would he like to attend here?"

"Sure," I answered. And why not? The school was easily accessible to where my boy lived. They had lots of online options too. It was going to be cheaper than a university. And my son's goal to be a professional ballet dancer did not necessitate a degree of any kind, so what did it matter to his employer where he rounded out his knowledge and skill set?

But what came next shocked me. "Would he like to enroll NOW?"

I stuttered, I stammered. "Is that POSSIBLE?"

"He needs a diploma."

"But we've only homeschooled."

"Then you need to create a homeschool diploma."

HOLD ON ONE MINUTE! CREATE a homeschool diploma? Well, as it turns out, YES!! A "diploma" is a piece of paper from an institution certifying that one has completed the institution's course of study. It's "official-ness" or LACK of "official-ness" is only a reflection of the institution. When you have completed Papa Henry's Yoga Basics, he can issue a REAL diploma stating you completed Papa Henry's Yoga Basics. You are DONE with his class. The diploma is as real as Papa Henry's course and your completion of it. That means that the only difference between a homeschool diploma and a high school diploma is that one comes from our homeschool and the other from an accredited public school (presumably). But the pieces of paper certifying completion are equally "official."

As incredible as it sounds, here is what we needed for my 15 yo's college enrollment: a homeschool diploma (we got a nice piece of paper and came up with a name for our school, certified he'd "finished," and signed it), a homeschool transcript (I typed up everything he'd studied in the last 4 years including trips we'd been on and books he'd read), $40, a state ID (we'd already got him his learner's permit), and some filled out forms. 

What about GPA? That's a funny story. When we returned to hand all this in, they opened and looked at his homeschool transcript. I'd broken it down as alike to a high school transcript as I could, by broad subjects (ex: History), by a more narrow topic, (ex: American History), and then listed what he'd done. (I actually had my boy do most of this. I just cleaned the formatting up and made sure we hadn't left anything out.) So they glanced over a few pages and asked, "Are there any grades?" I had not assigned him any reflection on how he'd performed in any of these studies. "No, but I'd be happy to add them." Why not? I could go back and reflect on what level of mastery my boy had arrived at and indicate that with a letter. "No, it'll be fine," they said. Clearly my boy was not enrolling in an academically rigorous institution. That worked fine for our non-rigorous approach!

And what about tests? Interestingly the  SAT and ACT are tests which are supposed to measure college aptitude and readiness. And increasingly, colleges are feeling that scores on these tests are NOT a decent measure. But that is a side note in an evolving institutional prerogative. I think all THIS school cared about was whether or not MY child could keep up in whatever class he chose to take. To determine this, and without anything MORE official, WHEN my son needs to take a class with a pre-req requirement he will need to take placement tests for English and Math. When we spoke to a counselor about his classes, we were told that the English placement classes simply determine if you speak English with sufficient fluency. Noting how I yammered on, he quipped that he didn't expect my son to have any problems. (So far, my boy has enrolled in one science class, one philosophy class, and one music class, all without taking these tests.) He will need a math test to place into the class he needs for his associates degree as well. We are working to prepare him to test into that class, and hoping he can learn what he needs to get in (with the help of free, school provided tutors, no less), learn the content of the class, and be done. I should note that these tests cost $40 and can be taken over and over.

What about paying for these classes? Yes, they DO cost money. We didn't think we'd qualify for finacial aid of any kind, but it is available. The first class he took, "Scientific Foundations of Human Nutrition" cost between $500-700, I think. If I remember correctly (it's been 2 years now since we looked at it) a 2 year degree was around $9k maybe... BUT his enrollment came with a free public transportation pass, and this boy was on the bus daily. The monthly bus pass was costing us almost $80/mo. When factoring in that we have not needed to pay for the bus since he enrolled, THAT class was paid for. So the cost, whatever that amount is, is something most of us will pay anyway. The kid with a full ride might need a car and gas. We ALL pay a bit. This bit seems economical to us.

So the plan was and remains this: start slow to learn how to "college," after which we ramp up to 2-3 classes/semester. Because of his early start, he may still finish by the time he's 19 or 20 (after his 1 yr break to train with the Boston Ballet) and walk away with an associates. Sure, it's from a community college, but it's a degree that may help him get into another institute of learning. Living life with an expectation TO learn. Always expecting to move forward and figure out how to progress with the knowledge and experience one has, expecting to master what ELSE is needed. In the bigger picture, isn't this what college is for? Isn't this what "higher education" IS?

Yes, we homeschooled all the way "to college." We just arrived there a little differently.

Homeschooling as a "Directional" and Not Merely "Destinational" Experience

I'm struck by how often in life we benefit from the direction - from the aim - we've taken to reach a certain outcome before and sometimes even regardless of whether or not we actually obtain the stated objective. I suppose this blog is filled with evidence of this. I certainly did not begin homeschooling TO reap most of the blessings articulated here. Homeschooling was FOR the kids. I wanted them to have deeply enriching childhoods, I wanted them to find balance in their success however they defined it, and I wanted them to be able to learn about whatever it was that seemed to fuel their souls and passions.

Are we THERE yet? Maybe, in brief snatches a time. On the path, certainly. And still waiting to arrive. But along the way there have been a host of other benefits reaped by this direction, before our stated destination is fully in view.

The ones springing to mind to today are likely echos of sentiment I've expressed before. I don't think that is because they represent ALL homeschooling has to offer. I'm sure the blessings of the direction vary from family to family, parent to parent, and child to child. But if these sound repetitive, I believe it is because they are consistent. They persist regardless of the ages of my kids, regardless of what ELSE we are doing or not doing, regardless of my inexperience in what I'm doing growing to a comfortable confidence that something is working.

The first blessing of this homeschooling direction is TIME! I have enjoyed more quantity AND quality time with my kids. This has enabled daily pleasures like (still!) snuggling with my youngest, now eight years old; to more life altering outcomes like being able to let my oldest move out of the house when, at 13 years old, his talent and dreams caught him up and away. (A choice I might never had allowed were it not for the wealth of memories we'd created together over his entire life to that point.)

And it has not only been "time with mom" that has been a blessing. The kids have also had more time to develop relationships with each other and our extended family - that's time spent vacationing with grandparents, nannying for their little cousins that live out of state, and visiting and playing with cousins, uncles, and aunts whenever we have the opportunity to get together. We have been able to seek out this family time more often, not constrained by rigid attendance requirements, and enjoy it better when we are together.

Homeschooling has also increased my intellectual curiosity. I think of all the things I have learned studying history with my kids I never would have known, remembered, or cared about. I've tried painting with my kids who need "art." We put science events on our calendar as a high priority, and enjoy going; without homeschool setting our direction, it's unlikely these outings would be on my radar, let alone my priority list. I'm even more politically engaged than I thought I would be, because I'm engaged in creating a future for my kids instead of passively letting one unfold.

This has all translated to a more active family lifestyle. Looking for engaging ways to learn has made us more likely to travel, to attend events in the community, and to care about community and involve ourselves in it. (Not to mention that being networked with homeschoolers is an immediate connection to so many resourceful and active people that activating ourselves becomes all the more simple.)

Finally, homeschooling has transformed me from a "program follower" into a "problem solver." My parenting has become both more responsive and more proactive. Every parent faces challenges in raising and securing an education for each child that meets their needs and benefits their future possibilities. Homeschooling has helped me to take an active role in meeting these challenges. I DON'T assume "this is just the way it is," or that "maybe it will be better next year," or that "this is rough, but there's nothing I can do about it." When problems arise, I actively engage to find solutions and assume I have some power to make things better. And when opportunities seem few, I create them! Rather than lament that this or that is not part of my kids' school experience, I find ways to add in whatever it is that is lacking! (This chance to create and implement solutions and growth experiences is extremely satisfying to my soul, I would add!)

In the end, who my children become, what THEY take away from their homeschooling experience is still their choice. We can never enforce the success of another human being, regardless of how we measure or define it. Despite my "destinational" intentions, where my children GO is up to them.  But I have been so blessed by our journey, by our direction in homeschooling. And these blessings seem to shine a warmth and joy on so much of the rest of life!