It’s that time of year again, kids everywhere are getting back into the swing of the school year. And as my Facebook newsfeed is flooded with adorable first day of school pics of smiling faces and homemade signs, a small part of me is feeling a little left out.
I could totally do a fake first day of school pic with my kids in their pajamas on the front porch at noon like I did last year, but there is nothing about right now that says “back to school” for our family because we never left school. School has been going all summer for us.
We’ve decided to be year-round homeschoolers. We’ve decided to take breaks whenever we want instead of when the public schools do. And we’ve decided to let our kids learn at their individual paces rather than pressuring them to fit a 10-month learning schedule.
And what all this means is that Sugarplum finished up 2nd grade last month and Honeybun is wrapping up 4th grade in the next few weeks (the grades they’d be starting this week if they were in the traditional school system). And then we’re going to take an extended break.
So for us, their “first day” will be sometime in late October when they start their next level of work (unless I follow through with my threat and make them work on only handwriting for the rest of the year!)
But as homeschoolers, there is always an underlying feeling of “missing out.” There are a lot of school-y things my children don’t get to experience and all those first day and cheesy school pictures are some of them.
As a child, I regularly partook in back to school pictures. My sister and I would pose out front of the house with our giant backpacks and look excited for the new school year (and I actually was! More pics in “The Blogger Before Babies”.)
But times have changed. And I know that homeschooling is the right choice for our kids right now. I know that all the things they miss out on are made up for by all the other experiences they get and the stress they get to avoid.
This may be the only first day of school pic I have of my kids (Honeybun’s kindergarten year) and I may never get to see my kids be a bunny in the 2nd grade play but it’s okay.
When I think back to my childhood, I don’t remember all those first days beyond the pictures. I remember the feeling of being on stage as a “dreamer” in my 2nd grade dance performance much more than I do my 2 minutes of silent bunny fame in my 2nd grade play.
And those are the same memories my kids are going to have. Honeybun is going to remember those moments up on the big stage in her dance concerts. Sugarplum is going to remember standing on the podium after her gymnastics competitions.
And those are the memories I want them to have. I want them to remember doing all the things they love.
