Friday was the last day of school for
my two junior high children, and as of this Monday morning, they announced they
were bored.
“There’s nothing to do around here,” they
complained, as if I hadn’t heard them say it the first 27 times.
“You got 3 acres of woods back
there! Build a fort or something.”
“We want to go to Grandma’s!”
“Sold! Get in the truck!”
In reality, this school year was a
kind of experiment. Yeah, I finally sent
them to school. Seriously, in truth, I had
home schooled them since second grade. And,
me, being as I am, could never bring myself to buy a curriculum. I made my own for them, for each grade
level. It was a fun ride and they
learned a lot.
Then one day it became apparent that
they were way smarter than me. My God!
What had I done?
It was my daughter who first
approached me. Tenderly and cautiously she
said, “You know, Mom, I’ll be an eighth grader next year.”
“Yes, honey.”
“I want to go to public school so that
I can be among my peers.”
After she and her brother had revived
me, I finally absorbed what she had said.
I freaked out - My babies! My
babies wanted to spend time away from me!
Of course, then it dawned on me. Free
time free time ME time!
Hey, yeah, sure, this could work.
So in the fall of 2012 my son and my daughter
went off to public school and on a big yellow bus, no less.
What could I do? I figured what the hell, so I went to
college. I mean I couldn’t let them keep
on getting smarter than me, now could I?
I had no idea what I was in for. We’d lived a relatively quiet life until
then, every day was our own, we belonged to no one’s schedule. Our hours were so totally flexible.
Reality check.
The first day of public junior high
school and The Son signed up for wrestling.
The Daughter came home and immediately confessed she had a crush on a
boy (later she decided he was a jerk). And
so it was, in between driving The Son to wrestling practice and meets four or
five days a week, The Daughter to ballet and The Self to my classes, all the
while hearing the teen gossip, and keeping up with my own lessons, my head never
stopped spinning and my gas pedal foot stayed continually numb. I teetered between being the clueless mother
of two teenagers and the only person in my class with gray hair.
Yet, all in all we had a good
year. The experiment was a success and
we are actually planning to take on year two.
I am all signed up to go back for fall semester, shortly before my kids
start back in September.
But for now we’re all out of school
for summer break. They’re at Grandma’s, and
I’ve nothing to do; I’m bored. Jeez, I
think I’ll have to go back in the woods and build a fort or something (out
of empty beer cans).
