Revisiting A Forgotten Tradition

Our homeschooling journey began when Isabelle was about a month into kindergarten. We pulled her out of public school for many, many reasons. Initially, we thought we would just hold her back a year and send her back to kindergarten the next year.

At the time, Alex was only a few months old and I had just officially quit a full-time job as office manager at a Title Insurance company. I began to reevaluate many things during this time period and I remembered how interested I had been in homeschooling while I was pregnant with Isabelle. I began to research.

I quickly realized how large homeschooling had grown. There were three very full and active homeschooling groups within a 20 mile radius for us. I requested some catalogs and checked out some books on homeschooling from the library. Meanwhile, Isabelle was eager to learn.

Eric and I came to the mutual decision that homeschooling was a very viable alternative for us. We were both excited at this new prospect. We figured we'd try it out for a year and see how it worked for us.

A few days before we officially began homeschooling, I took Isabelle and Alex (who slept in his stroller the whole time) out to lunch. Isabelle and I discussed the new plans. She was full of questions, but definitely also excited with the idea of homeschooling. It was a very special day for us, and I think it was a great way to start this new period in our lives. As we drove home, I remember thinking that this would have to become a tradition for the start of every year.

Obviously, homeschooling worked beautifully for our family. Our reasons for homeschooling have evolved far beyond what they were initially. We now look back and realize what a blessing the events that led to our decision were, even if it didn't seem that way at the time. While we do take some time to reevaluate our situation each year and would never boldly say that we will homeschool all of our children through high school, no matter what, I honestly don't see us ever wanting or needing a different avenue. We all flourish as a homeschooling family.

Anyhow, the going out to lunch tradition got put on hold for a while - until today. This afternoon, Eric stayed home with the 3 younger children while Isabelle and I went out for lunch, just the two of us. I took my planning notebook along so that we could discuss the upcoming year. We went over the daily schedule, the goals for the year, and some new things we are instituting.

And we also got to enjoy each others company over a very girlie lunch. Isabelle had tomato basil bisque with a breadstick and I had mushroom & brie bisque in a bread bowl. Isabelle also had chocolate sorbet for dessert. It was just wonderful! I can't even begin to describe the emotions as I thought back to the little girl I had lunch with 5 years ago as compared to this young lady. (Please, I use that term very loosely as the elbows on the counter and dirty fingernails of said "young lady" do not exactly fit the name.)

We are absolutely doing this again next year. Hopefully we'll find other occasions to celebrate also so that she and I can enjoy some more one-on-one time like this.