The Boy

Seen here walking his sister down the 'aisle' (or perhaps down the garden path is more apt) 'the boy' has put up with a lot growing up with 3 sisters.  I talked him into homeschooling for grade 4.  For grade 5 he returned to school but by November he was back home and this time it was his idea.  Once we found a home at SelfDesign, we sailed through homeschooling happily until grade 10 when he was too old for SD.  After that we tried several different online courses.  None of which he completed.  We contemplated him going back to school and I worried a lot and felt like a bad mother.  Online courses were never his thing.  Sitting solo in front of a computer doing schoolwork was not his idea of fun.  And neither of us really wanted for him to go to school, either.  I wish I could have provided him with a few mentors and a small learning group.  I think he would have really thrived in that.  But alas in Vernon it was not to be.  Last year he would have graduated.  Of course, he didn't.

However, this fall he is going to College.  After taking the placement test in which he tested out at grade 10 English and grade 8 math, they put him in the appropriate upgrading classes. They expect him to be done upgrading early in the new year but we are giving ourselves until June.  And then he will take the trades entrance exam with the goal of taking the studio woodworking course and getting an apprenticeship in cabinet making.

Right now he is housesitting for Eryn and Tyler while they are in Europe.  He's cooking for himself, looking after the cats and keeping the place tidy and when I dropped by the other evening, there he was sitting in the living room doing his math homework.  And most amazingly, he is waking himself up in the morning.  Incredible.  Eryn says he is the baby of the family and maybe its true.  Somehow I never worried about  how Eryn or Kaetlyn would wake themselves up when they left home. And I can assure you that when they were 17, they knew how to use the washing machine... Or maybe its just that he is sweet and huggable and everyone's favourite brother...

Whatever it is, I am so proud of him.  I wish I could have had a glimpse into these days 2 years ago.  I would have worried a lot less and I wouldn't have been so hard on him, either.  And I wish I had been more persistent with that unhelpful person at the College last year who told me he couldn't go there until he was 19.

Anyway, there you have it, an update on the boy.  Who would have thought he would be my first college student?

All Alone

So I have managed it. Andrew is in Kamloops. Rhiannon and Dean are camping with Rhiannon's friend and her dad. I am alone. My whole life, as the oldest of 12 children and someone who became a mom at 21, to be all alone is premium. The house is quiet. I have Skydiggers playing off of the computer. I am going to eat whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it. The sun is slowly fading from the sky. The house is a mess but I will slowly clean it and it will stay that way. And right now I am going to do whatever I feel like... now, what is that?