For Lucy and Drew!
This is a photograph of a wire owl taking flight from its perch. This is a little what I feel like right now. Full of hope and excitiment and scared to death!!
I am a mother of 4 beautiful , kind, sweet and very handsome young men. The oldest is 16 and the youngest is 10. The middle two are 14 and 12.
We have enjoyed many years of good education in what some call "the system" and I guess in many ways it is a system of education. I think people often talk about The System as some kind of terrible kind of thing. A necessary evil. We have had a very healthy and good experience in so many ways in sending our children to school. We are beyond forunate to be at excellent schools and our sons are being stretched and grown in their experiences at school for which we are indeed grateful.
The two older boys are in high school at Westerford High in The Western Cape and the two younger ones attend Sweet Valley Primary in our local area.
We have had many blessings and watched our sons grow and thrive through the good things and also through the negative things that inevitably come with school. We would not have changed these many experiences for the world.
Two of our children have ADHD which has meant a real shift in the way we parent and also in what we expect from schooling for them. The one son has found his groove and is thriving in so many ways.
Our youngest unfortunately has not yet found his groove .
Each year I hold my breath and wait to see how he settles and how it is all going to work out. Trusting the Lord and pressing on with helping him find his groove has been the aim.
This year, right in the very beginning of the year, we visited our specialist who is walking with us in our ADHD journey.
She confirmed my fears about Jet in school and shared some of them.
Then she said these words....
" I think Jethro would thrive in a homeschooling situation"....
I stuck my fingers in my ears because this was not what I wanted to hear.
This was not the first time the homeschooling idea had been suggested. My precious friend Colleen who is homeschooling her daughter, had suggested it many times before.
So, here we are, 6 months down the road and we have made that jump. We are leaping forward, like that owl, and going to take the plunge.
He is in school for the remainder of this year and God willing we will bring him home to school him in 2017.
My thanks is to all those brave homeschoolers who I interact with and are willing to share life with me and to my dear friend Tammy who has boldly gone where many fear to tread. This blog post is dedicated to Lucy and Drew who actually were the final catalyst to my KNOWING that this is what this boy needs... for now.
Drew you rock kiddo!
Who knows what the future holds but God and we are heading his call with this son of ours so that he can learn and thrive.
May the year ahead be full of good learning for you Jethro.
Lets do this thing!
