I’m in the middle of my eldest son’s senior year, and my younger son is a freshman at a private school near here. Oh the mixed feelings I have. Some days I feel blue because we’re nearing the end of an era. Many days I’m excited for the future. I’m also a little anxious because the future is unknown. We have plans, and we think they’re good plans, but who knows? This is what makes life exciting, though.
Some good news from this year is that my pianist received a 2024 YoungArts Award, which, according to the website, was given to “nearly 700 of the most accomplished young visual, literary and performing artists from across the country, heralding the next generation of artists to watch.” You can follow my son on his YouTube channel, and I’ll be sure to write a post when we’re celebrating his homeschool graduation.
Other than these awards and inevitable milestones, I don’t feel I have the right to tell my boys’ stories because they are at an age where privacy is important. All I can say is that they both seem happy about where they are, and I’m very proud of their work ethic. I’m especially proud of the feedback I get from other people who tell me how kind they are. That makes my heart sing. It makes all those years of homeschooling and sacrifice worth it.
Even though I still have more work to do with my homeschooled senior, and my high school student needs me to drive him to school among other brick-and-mortar-school-parent-duties (it’s a strange place to be after homeschooling all these years!), I have been giving more thought to what my life is going to look like after my boys are finished with school here–after they are away at a conservatory or college–yikes. I can’t believe I am at this point in our homeschool journey.
I have started to build a new community for myself that isn’t tied to having young children. I have started writing more too. This is all I have right now, but I hope my post-homeschooling journey might also include more gardening, traveling with my husband, and some kind of work. I’m 53 years old, so I don’t know what I’ll do. It’s all simmering like when you first add the ingredients to your pot. There’s no aroma yet, and it needs more salt. It’ll be a while before I have a comforting soup.
That’s all I can tell you for now. If you don’t mind sharing, where are you in your homeschooling journey? Remember, I’m always happy to answer your questions about homeschooling/not homeschooling. Just send me an email.
Hi Shelli,
Just a little note to say that I really enjoyed reading your update and I always enthusiastically click when I see your name pop up in my inbox!
As someone still in the early stages of home educating, I sometimes think about what my day-to-day life could look like if __ transitioned to school, which is not actually in the plans at this stage, but is something we will review collectively as he approaches secondary/high school age. This is some 4 years away, but I also often find myself asking: how on earth would I even homeschool the secondary school years? …
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… Often in conversation people will ask me – “are you working?” I find this question interesting, as this view sometimes comes across that home educating is not a job. I just reply that home educating is my full-time job. I do spend a lot of time facilitating play dates, ordering books from the library, coming up with topics to dive into, finding new chapter books to read.. all the stuff behind the scenes that is essential to home education but isn’t really seen!
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Thanks for your message! I will respond soon by email. 🙂