I came in here this morning wanting to check on my little blog and maybe write another entry.  Except I didn't really have anything to write about.  So I started clicking on the "random blog" link and read a few entries here and there.  Then I came upon a blog that touched my heart.  I don't remember the name of the blog or its owner.  But it was written by a mom who, in her last entry, had just lost her beloved MIL.  The entry before that was written not too long before her death.  This woman wrote of how "academics" were sliding in her home because of the responsibilites of taking care of her MIL in her last days on earth.  But also at how much the kids were learning just by seeing their mom take such care of another human being, and the reality of how much learning does go on outside of ANY kind of "school," be it a classroom or even a home school.

At this point I breathed a little sigh of relief for our own situation.  We don't have anything nearly as dire that going on in our family, but we've had a busy year with lots going on for us, and so many times I've wondered what DS11 is really "learning."  His books don't get cracked open every single day!  As the year is ending and I'm trying to decide whether to test him or have him evaluated, I realized that there isn't much in his portfolio for the evaluator to look at!!  Would he test any better??  Probably not. 

But what he's gained in the last 4 months of being home and not in a classroom, is one-on-one time with his father, every morning, instead of 15 mintues a day.  They have just been together, father and pre-teen son.  He has helped his dad work on the house, or on the car, and they have had the chance to do a devotional together.   As far as academics, I really struggle with comparing home school to public school, and worrying if they're learning "enough."  This has been my chance to let go!  I'm not "there" yet, but I'm coming along.