A Little Sad, A Little Surprised That We're Here Already.

I just completed the 2021/2022 school year registration for two kiddos. Two.

That feels so incredibly strange.

Fifteen years ago I registered first kiddo for the few months in preschool that would constitute the beginning of her “schooling” journey. She went to the Science Center Preschool in Des Moines a couple days a week. She seemed to like it fine, although there were early signs it probably wasn’t a perfect fit.

She wasn’t a huge fan of the group singing at the holiday concert.

When Buds and I went to her one parent/teacher conference, the teacher asked if she could count above 5.

She could.

When we got home I asked her what was up with that.

“I wanted to see what the teacher could make me do.” was the gist of what she said, but in that sweet, baby voice she would have still had at the time.

That didn’t seem like a great dynamic.

When we moved to Virginia, we put her name in the lottery for a Spanish Immersion school in our neighborhood. Buds wasn’t totally on board with homeschooling yet, so this was our compromise. If Monkey was accepted there, that would be the path we would try. If she didn’t, we’d homeschool and see where that led us.

Twelve years later, here we are. Eldest will graduate from homeschooling and jump into the next phase, though it will look similar to the lifelong learning journey she has always been on.

As a parent, that’s part of my role. To help support the children as they grow from phase to phase. But the individual days have been so rich and full and busy, I didn’t really take the time to think about how this would feel. The closing of one chapter for one of you.

I’m so glad your learning journey has been so entwined with our life journey, Monkey.

Onward to new opportunities.