Walnuts on My Windshield

Issue #6

July 16, 2004

I envision a little girl, clutching a backpack that dwarfs her, turning back hesitantly to wave one more goodbye, her eyes shining with a mixture of equal parts excitement and fear. She's about five years old, and a big yellow bus has just swallowed her up. I wave hard, unsuccessfully blinking back tears, until I realize that even if she had chosen the very back seat, she could no longer see me. I pray for her, but more for me, as I think back to all the events that have led up to this unique day: her first day away from home in the care and company of strangers; her first day of school.

Yes, that was all supposed to happen when Katie was five, but being weird, we chose a different path. The fact that she and all our children have spent all their years learning at home with us means that we have never had a first day of school. Further, because we view life as the lesson and the world as our classroom, we don't "do" school at certain times of the year. We are always learning, and since we don't stop (in May or whenever), we don't re-start (in September or whenever). So, not only have we not had THE first day of school, we've never had ANY first days of school.

Katie has been away from home several times - once on a business trip with Scott, once alone to Switzerland to spend three weeks with some very precious family friends, once on a cross-country car trip with her aunt - but all those adventures were with family, or with people who might as well be.

This past Sunday, I guess you could say that Katie finally had her "first day of school." Scott took her to Drury University in Springfield for a twelve-day academic camp called Summerscape. It would be the first time she would leave home to spend time with people she had never met, people who are not necessarily Christians, in an academic and social environment designed for bright young teenagers.

It's a good thing I didn't take her. I could not have gotten through it at all, much less without tears. Scott said the hardest part was watching her wipe her eyes as she walked away. Wow! If it's this hard when they are 14, how do people do it when they are five?

Katie is living in a co-ed dorm (men and women on different floors!), with a roommate (a nice Christian girl, praise God!), eating cafeteria food (which she hates), participating in required silly social events (which she loathes) and attending classes six hours a day (which she likes, for the most part). She set up an email account for herself the first day, so we have been able to communicate. That's been really nice. She has also called a couple times, and for a kid who hates to talk on the phone, she has been downright chatty, willing to talk to each of us, in turn.

I didn't know how she'd fare in a classroom, having never been in one, and we still don't really know. These classes are not the typical college variety. The ones she chose are both computer classes, requiring many projects, but little or no official note-taking or testing. The class that requires creative thinking has been a challenge for her, but she says the instructors are nice and seem determined to make this more fun than normal school.

All in all, it has been a different kind of week. I think Katie is doing well, but it's harder on me than I thought it would be. Just for today, I'm glad I have thirteen more years until Andrew leaves home. Hmmmmmm. . . You might remind me of that next week, when Scott's at work, Katie's at Summerscape, Josiah's at Camp Lookout, and Jessica and I have Andrew to occupy by ourselves all day for most of a week.

Until next time, Patty

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This week I started reading It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong, winner of the Tour de France and cancer survivor. So far, so good.

I'm also about to tackle A Can of Peas by Traci Depree. It's fiction (typically NOT my genre) about rural life in the midwest. It came highly recommended by a number of online friends, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

In the spirit of learning more about the challenges our children have not yet had to face but probably will someday, I read The Middle School Survival Guide by Arlene Erlbach. I cannot believe this book was written for kids!!! If I had doubted whether or not we were doing them a favor by homeschooling them, this book would have convinced me.

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Quote of the Week: "Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes." ~ Author Unkown