This past Saturday was the graduation ceremony for my son.  I have to say that it went incredibly well.  I introduced him (and his accomplishments) to the gathering of his friends that he had invited.  His sisters then sang a song (I Hope You Dance) that he had chosen, which made me cry–just like it had every time they rehearsed it.  Then one of his teachers and mentors gave a short, but very moving, commencement address that had me in tears.  Then we had another sweet and short address by another ones of the people whom he most respects in the world.  Then he gave a speech that had his sisters and me all in tears.  Then we just celebrated the end of one stage of his life and the beginning of the next.

It was wonderful, and exactly what Joseph wanted.  One of the beauties of homeschooling is that you can always create the exact ceremony that you want, instead of having to fit into the school’s version of what a graduation should be.

He is leaving our homeschool now to begin again at UL. 

Posted: June 9th, 2008 under celebration, emotions.
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Posted: June 1st, 2008 under emotions.
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This is the week where we make the final preparations for Joseph’s graduation.  We are trying to “formalize” the party that we had planned as just a celebration by including a couple of people to talk about him and graduation in general, and having Ruth and Martha perform a song in his honor.  I think it’s going to go pretty nicely, except that we’ve got a lot of work to do to get our house ready to receive the guests who are going to join us to celebrate this (sort of ) rite of passage.

I will only have two at home this coming year.  That in itself will be a major change for me.  And the two who are left are at very different stages in their educational journey–one will be in the ninth/tenth grade and the other in first/second grade.   I’m not sure what changes we will be making in our structure, but I’m sure that there will be some changes upcoming. 

I am thinking about the changes that will come to my son now that he is starting college.  I know that it will be very different for him–and will require him to learn some things that he doesn’t have a lot of experience with (like taking notes).  I’m sure that he will be all right, but it does make me nervous that there might be lacks in his education that I have created or failed to bridge.  He has always amazed me, though, by exceeding the (high) expectations that I have for him and doing really well when I was not confident.

One more starting a new stage of life.  It hasn’t been that long since he was too little to do school work.  Now he’ll be in college.  And another child to practice the easing into the parenting of an adult on.  I hope that I do as well as that as he will in college.

Posted: June 1st, 2008 under emotions, opportunities.
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