We did it! By the grace of God and with the prayers of family & friends, I managed to homeschool our firstborn through Jr High & High School. Friday evening we had a little graduation service for him, jointly with the school, and awarded him his High School diploma.
I'm biased, but I believe we had a very nice service. We're pioneers blazing a trail- the first to pull a student out of the school here and homeschool. It's not always easy to be the first at something, to shake things up, so we didn't know what kind of response we would get to the service we chose to have. We appreciate the principal's support and the parents of the other seniors for allowing us to join their party. We are so pleased with the family members who were able to travel from out of state to celebrate with us, as well as the local family & friends who came to show their support. We are also very proud of him for making a speech- something he originally said he wouldn't do.
I don't have very many pictures yet; I didn't take many snapshots - thank God for the hired photographer covering the event, capturing the things I missed! I felt stretched a little thin -I couldn't take more than a few steps all evening before being stopped by someone else who wanted to extend congratulations.
He got very nice gifts and a quite a bit more cash than I ever expected.
These are the classmates that he went to elementary school with.
The other 2 wearing corsages also graduated Friday evening.
Having a son graduate brings up some interesting feelings. It honestly doesn't feel that long since I was the senior. Where has the time gone? I felt a real sense of pride & accomplishment, too. I used to say I would never homeschool. To be truthful, there were days when I resented being tied down with homeschooling and wondered if we'd survive spending so much time together. But we learned together- not only academia, but also about homeschooling options/styles and each other. Eventually I understood the beauty of homeschooling- the ability to tailor the curriculum to the student. Homeschooling was a good experience and I would do it again. I wouldn't trade the relationship we have for all the free time I would've gained by sending him to school. (Take courage, homeschool moms!) Only one thing mars the excitement of graduation- that he does not have a job yet. We continue to pray for God to open doors to employment. God has led us faithfully in so many things and He can do this, too.
Because we were so crazy busy in the past few weeks, I'm glad it's behind us. We're rewarding ourselves by taking it easy this week.
