I have 50 days until my kids graduate from high school. 50 days after 16 years of homeschooling. That takes my breathe away.
16 years of picking out curriculum. 16 years of doing school whether I wanted to or not. 16 years of making homeschooling my job. 16 years of worrying about whether or not I was doing enough. 16 years of giggles over writing assignments. 16 years of read alouds. 16 years of failed science experiments, seriously, why do only about 30% of experiments work? 16 years of my house looking more like a library/craft room/science lab than a home. 16 years of saying, yes, we must do all of our chores and all of our schoolwork. 16 years of my husband providing so I could stay home. 16 years of the hardest, best job ever.
In 5o days, we will be done.
What has that 16 years brought us? Young adults who love God and love others. Siblings who love being with each other. A family home filled with love, laughter and memories. Young adults who are confident in who they are and in who God made them to be.
Practically, it has given our oldest(and us) enough scholarships to get out of college with no debt and a swanky job in NYC starting in August. The twins have been accepted into their dream school and programs in Engineering. They have been accepted into a highly selective Engineering Honors dorm and program and have close to a full ride in scholarships each. They have been leaders on their Robotics team and have won 2 State Regionals this year and are going to World’s.
Looking back, I think it has been worth all the blood, sweat and tears (theirs and mine) that we have all put in.
You might be at 50 days of just starting homeschooling or 50 days before you finish your first year of homeschooling. You might be at 16 years of homeschooling with 4 more to go. Wherever you are at, take a moment and look back at the wins. So often we are looking ahead at what needs done that we fail to look at the wins, the accomplishments, the little things that make every day worth it.