our non traditional family

Today I had the blessing of having to explain homeschooling to a pretty mainstream bunch of people namely attorneys and mediators at a court house. This is always an interesting thing to me especially when I have encounters like todays in which the curious questioners were surprisingly rather open to my unconventional ideas and since I no longer have the fear of losing custody or suffering consequences where my teenager is involved it left me rather open and honest. The curious minded in this scenario asked the basics like "Do you have to teach all your children?" and "Do you have to do your 'teaching' during the school hours?" and "What about testing?" Pretty standard stuff for the seasoned homeschool mom. I took it with stride and found that the more I talked the more they were able to hear me which was nice and welcoming and not scary.
Recently two friends of mine have lost custody of their young children due primarily to their homeschooling choices which makes me feel incredibly sad and so grateful to be at this stage in the game with Molly.
On the ride home of course I did the standard questioning of myself that occurs after such a conversation. Am I doing the right thing? What are my children learning? What are they missing?
I got home to my three little ones in the yard playing with the neighborhood kids who had a half day. When I got out of the car one of the neighborhood kids said "Look I am just like Sadie today, free to do what I want!" with such glee and happiness on his face, I felt so happy for him for today.
Sadie had spent the morning delivering Meals on Wheels with Grampa John and I had the great opportunity to sit with her in her room for a long time talking about the many people she had met and the many challenges that they were facing including one woman who has pulmonary fibrosis like Grampa John and wears oxygen too. What a blessing that she had this time with him. How beautiful and truly meaningful is her life.
I built a huge elaborate dominoes building with Nora and Jonah and then watched in joy as they knocked it down and then played in their fort in their room and all three of them read a bunch of books. We read this really cool Cartoon History of the Universe one I got from the library on the beginning of our solar system, the big bang and our evolution. The kids loved thinking about this and wondering about it and then we read some of the Little Shakespeare books that I found at the library. Sadie did some math from her little workbook and we practiced Spanish from this new conversational Spanish book I just got and while I did the dishes Sadie and Nora practiced the many things they could say related to food and dinner including Jonah es gordito which means Jonah is chubby")
Sadie is locked up in her room almost done with Harry Potter 5 and I can't wait to start together on number 6 just to have the experience of finishing the series with her!
Molly went to her teen mentoring program and worked on some school work. She hung out with Grampa John for a while and he fixed her up with an awesome Halloween costume of a letter carrier. She looks really cool in it and is excited to spend time in Needham with some friends on Halloween while we take the little ones trick or treating.
Gary is in NYC playing with Sam James for 6 record execs tonight. I have my thoughts and prayers with him and the red guitar. He's an oldie but a goodie:)