Enrolled

I enrolled my eldest son in school today. That is to say, he and I went down and signed him up for the fall. He’ll be a freshman at a local charter school beginning in August. For all of the praying and worrying that we did over this decision, I am at peace and know that it was absolutely the right one for him.

While I have loved homeschooling him, I knew that there would come a time when he would go elsewhere for his education. Homeschooling may not be right for every family, or even for every child in a family. It was no longer the best educational choice for him, and we knew it.

He’s an extrovert. He needs people like other folks need to breathe. While he has had a small and devoted circle of friends since we moved to Texas, shuttling him back and forth has become more difficult with the plethora of medical issues which have hit our family this spring. While the other children have adjusted well to a quieter life, he has not. It’s driving him slightly crazy, and he’s driving the rest of us up the wall. His loneliness is painful to watch, and there’s no reason for it.

He’s also a bit of a daydreamer, and on the teenage side of lazy most days. If I’m not there to check on him, he stares off into space and his lessons are easily forgotten. He’s a kid who needs a routine and structure. Most of the time I can provide those guidelines for him, but life has stepped in and made that hard and he’s floundering because of it.

We’ve been praying about this for months, and looking for the best possible solution. Our local public schools are not what we want for him academically, and the private schools are too expensive for our family to be able to afford. I had resigned myself to more co-op classes, which he enjoys, and a year which I knew would not be easy. Then on the ninth day of a novena to St Rita, we got a postcard in the mail for a new charter school which was opening a short drive from our house. The academics were rigorous and offered things I could not hope to duplicate at home. The more research I did, the more we liked it. After attending an informational meeting, we knew for certain that this was what we had been looking for.

We put his name into the lottery for one of the 144 places in the incoming freshman class. A week later he received an email welcoming him to their school. Today we met with the counselor and picked his classes. He’s required to take Spanish and Mandarin Chinese as are all of his classmates. For his one elective, he chose classical guitar. After a stop at the uniform shop to order the coat and tie which he will be required to wear every day, we headed home.

I had expected to feel some kind of loss over the end of his homeschooling years, but I don’t. I feel a peace and a certainty that this is what I have been educating him towards, and now it’s someone else’s turn to teach him. I’m grateful for the clarity to see where he needs to be, and that such an option is available for him.

We’ll take this as we do the education of all of our children, case by case and year by year with honest discussions and a lot of prayer.