Our oldest child John was the first;high;school;graduate in our local support group. Since we had never attended a
homeschool graduation, we had to invent
a way to celebrate. After several years of
homeschooling, inventing new ways to
do things was getting to be a habit with
us anyway.
Our early years of homeschooling were
burdensome.;We;felt;like;we;were;carry-ing;a;load;of;rocks;on;our;backs;as;we
tried to meet the expectations of others
about;how;our;school;should;look.;Our
real;breakthrough;came;when;we;made
the;decision;to;lay;down;that;bag;of;rocks
and;start;making;our;homeschooling;an
expression of who we are rather than a
heavy load we had to carry.
My husband Ray and I wrote down
our family philosophy. It really wasn’t
different;from;the;unspoken;one;we;had
always believed, but one thing was differ-
ent.;We;were;determined;that;the;world’s
pressures;to;conform;would;not;knock
us off course. Our homeschooling would
reflect;our;decision;to;live;purposefully
each;day.;Everything;we;did;had;to;fit
that;goal;or;it;just;wasn’t;worth;taking
our energy. This is what we wrote:
We believe that we should spend our lives
praying for and pursuing our goal—
That we, our children and their spouses, our grandchildren and their spouses, and every succeeding generation
live as Christians on earth and live
forever in Heaven with our God and
with each other.
We want to spend our lives working
diligently for the realization of this
goal with all the strength He gives us.
Thus;began;our;family’s;“age;of;in-vention.”;We;are,;of;course,;fallible,;and
we;didn’t;always;live;up;to;our;philoso-phy, but we tried. God blessed us, and
the adventure was a wonderful one. It
still is.
We made sure that our children met
every requirement necessary to gradu-
ate from high school in our state, but
their course content was far from typi-
cal.;They;used;textbooks;for;some;sub-
jects. They read widely and listened to
their dad and me read great literature.
As we had always done, we continued to
find;cheap;ways;to;travel,;adding;state
after state to our family travel map and
visiting;places;we;knew;first;in;books.
Art classes, music lessons, plays, and
concerts enriched their experiences.
We gave them time during the “school
day”;to;write,;produce,;and;act;in;plays.
We also gave them time to volunteer,
www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
Graduation at Home
Homeschool Graduation
and Beyond
By;Charlene;Notgrass
We decided to celebrate our out-of-the-norm high school experience
with;a;one-of-a-kind;ceremony;and;graduation;party;at;our;home.
