Green Eggs and Ham

You know that verse?  The one that says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails?"  (Proverbs 19:21, if you want to look it up.)  Well, we've lived that one this past fall.  Our grand experiment with enrolling all four children in our local public schools this fall ~ in order to have the time to pack, make travel arrangements, close up the house and raise funds for the mission ~ didn't exactly go as planned.  Along the way, however, we learned something:  our bookends (oldest and youngest, Hannah and Sam) are NOT public school kids!  Just like in the children's book, Green Eggs and Ham, we all discovered, "They do not like it, Sam-I-Am.  Not in the class, not in the hall, not in the building, not at all.  They do not like the public school plan, they do not like it, Sam-I-am." 

Well, so, Dr. Seuss I am not.  But you get my point.  If I've learned anything through this experiment, it's that it just doesn't work to think we can squeeze every person into the same educational mold.  Hannah ended up transferring back home to our homeschool sometime in November.  It's all a blur to me as to exactly when.  And Sam hung in there until the Christmas break.  Now he's back as well.  I miss them all, so I must say, long "to do" list or not,  I wasn't disappointed with Sam and Hannah's return - in fact, I was rather excited.  Besides, it turned out to be a myth that putting the kids in school would save time.  I could have been an experiment on MythBusters! Enrolling the kids in school only shifted time allocations, not lessened time spent on education.  Instead of teaching, I was chauffeuring ~ not a very good trade off in my book, anyway!  

Our middle kids, Stephen and Ruthie, stayed in school for 2 simple reasons:  they adore it, and we believe it is the best thing for them right now.  School-wise, they are made much more like their mom, I think, while my bookends in many ways are more like their dad:  artistic, creative, sensitive folk who relish solitude and marching to the beat of a non-public school drum.  Stephen and Ruthie love the solid structural exoskeleton that is public (or private) school - the immovable start and end times, the bells clearly delineating the change of classes, the set-in-stone due dates for homework, the dependability of having a substitute when the normal teacher is sick or unable to work that day.  They love walking through life with a peer group and changing teachers every 50 minutes. (This is especially nice when one teacher is having a bad day.....whew! Thank goodness for the bell!  Hope the next teacher is in a better mood!  Of course, we would know nothing about this in home school.  Cough, cough, cough.)  They love visiting with friends before and after school, and getting to participate in a vast array of extra-curricular activities.  As much as I may miss Stephen and Ruthie, I wouldn't take this experience from them for anything.  I loved school, and they do, too.  And next year, we will be back in our little home school again -- so to them I say, live it up, and cherish these days.   Enjoy your time with your friends.  I hope we will become our own little friend group again next year when we're all studying together across the Atlantic, but until that time, my prayer is that they have a wonderful and memorable Spring semester at our local KISD.  I'm thankful for their teachers who love, inspire and motivate them to be the best they can be.  Those teachers work so hard! 

Meanwhile, I now have two more helpers and companions to help me figure out how to pack up our house this Spring.  While they study and read, I hope to stay focused on planning for our move, organizing our things and packing, packing, packing.