What a difference a year can make!

I was at a homeschool workshop yesterday discussing lots of different topics and someone mentioned how at ease I seemed with homeschooling and how it really seems as though I have been doing it forever.

The irony in that statement for me is that exactly one year ago, I was sitting in a large conference room with a group of parents at a PTO hosted "Boo-hoo Brunch". This is an annual meet and greet for parents of the Kindergarten class to meet each other and learn about how they could help out by supporting the faculty and PTO. I was telling people how wonderful the teachers were and how many great activities the PTO sponsors and while these facts are all still true, it is just amazing to think that I am now advocating an entirely different lifestyle all together.

Although I may appear all calm and collected most of the time, I am also very good at disguising my trepidation for the upcoming year. Although I know that I have made the absolute right choice, a very wise friend of mine said "if you weren't nervous, I would be nervous for you." What she meant was all parents are nervous about something for their children. If KM was in school I would be worried about so much more and have so much less control over the outcome of those worries. At least with homeschooling we have control over what, how and when she is learning. If she wants us to spend three months on microscopic antibodies, guess what we will!

Our family has become an entirely different entity than it was a year ago. Our lifestyle is different, our schedule & routines are different, a lot of our friends are different, but by and large our priorities are different. Some people fear change and we used to be like that, but it seems as though these huge changes that have gone on over the past few year are exactly what we needed to make us a stronger more unified family. So for any newbie homeschoolers who may be reading this, please know that it will get calmer. You will become more confident in yourself, your kids and your choices! I have no doubt that you will see a miraculous difference in your children, as we have with ours. We enjoy being with each other, learning, laughing and living everyday just the way WE want to.