And so it begins...

And so it begins…yesterday was the first day of our homeschool/unschool adventure.  It was a spectacular fall day here in the northeast, and the perfect kind of weather to spend the day playing hooky from school, which we did…and plan to do all year.

 

So many people ask me why I decided to homeschool the twins for 6^th grade, so answering that questions seems like the best way to begin our story.  The short answer is, “Why not?”  Other than the loss of a bit of my free time, I can’t think of any other reason not to keep the girls at home.

 Here’s the long version:

 

1. They are growing up so fast, my beautiful girls.  They’ll be out the door to college in the blink of an eye and this year will give me a chance to slow the clock down a bit and cherish them right where they are at this moment.  Every one knows preteens start to pull away from their parents around 6^th grade as they become young adults. I want to make the most of this time.

 

2. I miss them.  The school day is so long here and guess what?  I am not at my best at 4pm and neither are they.  Everybody is tired and ready to relax, but there’s little chance of that for kids in the afternoon these days.  It’s a rapid succession of homework, piano practice, sports, dinner, bath, make lunch for tomorrow, load the backpack, brush teeth, off to bed.  Not much time for anything else.

 

3. That “anything else” would be all the things I dreamed of doing with my children.  I want to teach them to sew, bake bread, paint and draw and a million other things that we never seem to have time for when we are on the public school systems calendar.

 

4. Not to mention time to be spontaneous.  Try as I might to get my girls to talk about important issues or share their secret hopes, dreams and fears when I have a free moment, they always seem to decide to share these things at random moments, when I many not have time or energy to hear it all.  This year, I will.  And we will stop right in the middle of our math lesson and talk about boys or bullies or the meaning of life or whatever!  

 I could come up with a dozen other reasons and talk about how successful homeschooling is and how much time is wasted in the average day in the public schools system and the negative influence of peer pressure, but I won’t.  Because while those are valid reasons for homeschool, it’s not why I am doing this. 

 I hope this will be an adventure.  I hope we will travel and explore all manner of new things.  Most of all, I hope to build an enduring friendship with my oldest girls that will last a lifetime.  And if we accomplish nothing else, that will be enough…