Twelfth Grade, Tenth Grade, Seventh Grade, Fourth Grade, and First Grade. Oh my! (And woah! That barn door color changes a whole heck of a lot in the hour between 6 and 7 when the sun rises these days!)
I disappeared there for a little while, didn't I? I did. In all manners of my life. When friends and family started calling and texting on Friday and Saturday to wish me a happy birthday, I was confused. Wait, I made it? We made it through the week? We did indeed! My head was down, buried deep in not only the making of seven lunches each morning, and the logistics of getting everyone to very different places each morning not at all close to one another, but also the emotion of it all. It was a big week. And thankfully, I had those lunches and drives to distract me a little bit from some of the emotion, for I could have easily slid down into feeling ALL the feelings. Thankfully there is plenty of distraction...and also? Some incredibly happy kids who are all going to thrive in each of their different but similarly supportive and nurturing environments. And well, when it comes down to it, that's what matters right? There's some grief at the loss of our days as they once were, there's some relief at the letting go of some of that educational responsibility, and there's a whole lot of gratitude for our options.
And so...Calvin, Harper and Annabel are loving their Waldorf school and community full of both old and new friends, and rhythms that are both familiar and new. Ezra is back at his groove in the technology and science charter school he attends. And Adelaide? She's with me! There is a year (or more?) ahead full of all kinds of adventures and opportunities we have planned together. I'm excited for her to spend her seventh grade year surrounded by the people she's chosen and asked to be mentors of hers, and frankly, excited to be learning alongside her. It's going to be a great year.
I don't know that I'm all that great at change, to be honest. But this change has been a slow and gradual one, organic and natural by both nature and design. I'm so very glad for all of our years homeschooling and how precious and wonderful they were. And I'm also grateful that by some blessing, we knew when it was time to make a change. And so, cheers to new adventure and all the many ways that we learn all the time and in all the places!
