With Flying Colors

 

back in 2009 when we first started homeschooling....

 

Ladies and Gentlemen ....

 

drum roll please....

 

He did it.

 

The BoyChild passed the GED with flying colors!

 

He did extra great in Science and Reading.

 

from www.paperfashion.net

We were busy decluttering his room upstairs (I'm forcing everyone to declutter!) - and I had to come downstairs for a potty break - there on the kitchen island lay the mail....

 

There it was.

A 9x13 envelope with Aaron's name on it.

My heart started pounding.

I ran upstairs with it.

 

Aaron and I sat on the edge of the bed just staring at it -

I felt his heart - it was jumping out of his chest.

He opened it - we looked -

 

Meets or exceeds Math

Meets or exceeds Language Arts

Meets or exceeds Reading

Meets or exceeds Social Studies

Meets or exceeds Science

 

Bam.

There's his diploma.

We were both speechless.

We hugged so hard.

We ran down to tell Glenco.

We called his mom.

We texted people.

We Facebooked.

 

Happy day!!

 

We've since been to Chicago to start the enrollment process for Paul Mitchell.

He should be starting the January session - he has to wait until he's 17 - and he'll be 17 in December.

This week he starts looking for a job in earnest.

This Friday he takes his driver's test.

 

All so quick.

 

seems like yesterday we were planting a garden together....

 

Last week I was decluttering the office (two large bags removed!) - I was cleaning out the desk drawer and I found all of Aaron's pencils.  Many of them never used (I had a little pencil fetish for a while - bought pencils for every holiday, etc.)  Some of them were worn down to the nub with a replacement eraser on them - I thought of how often Aaron struggled with math and would erase so many answers, so frustrated, so defeated.

 

I just kept smelling those pencils.  I sharpened them all and put them back in the drawer.  Relics of a day gone by - memories of sitting on the couch - drinking lattes together reading, laughing and learning. 

 

We both learned so very much.

 

The biggest lesson I learned homeschooling was to calm the heck down.

 

Children learn so much more in a relaxed environment of nurturing and love than they do in a strict environment of starting school on time everyday and pressure of understanding everything.

 

 

To say I'm proud of Aaron is such an understatement.

I'm so proud of the man he's becoming.

I'm so impressed with his manners, his sense of humor, his kind heart.

I'm so impressed with his ambition and hard work to get on with his life at such a young age.

 

I'm going to be sucking the marrow out of these few, precious short months that he'll be here with me more often than not.

Come January he'll be gone - off to Chicago - having new experiences, meeting new people, learning - growing and fulfilling his destiny.

 

 

Aaron posted this on his Facebook page - I love it.

Rock on Aaron - I'm so blessed you are a part of my life.

 

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes.

The ones who think differently.

They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify them or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you look at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, I see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

THINK DIFFERENT.