Buckle Up

It’s a bit like starting a road trip. First I’ve pulled out the maps and looked them over a hundred times, obsessing over just where we should go and what is the best way to get there. Hundreds of roads are available, and many will do the job – but what is the perfect route? And will we need to change course along the way? And then there are the lists and the shopping and the packing and the worrying, all of which is supposed to ensure that we’re starting off on the right foot and that we’ve not forgotten anything. I wish I could just throw a bunch of stuff in the trunk and take off, except that this journey is unfamiliar and my nerves are too jumpy to take the risk. Next we drift down the driveway and move slowly through the neighborhood, warming up the engine and getting comfortable. I’m still adjusting my sunglasses and the kids are already asking for their water bottles that I forgot to pass around before we left. Dad is plugging in the iPod.

Our family is beginning a journey. Not the metaphorical road trip described above, but a much more exciting one. We’re beginning to homeschool. The last several months have been a warm up period for us – packing the car and planning the route. We’ve been teaching our five year old how to read, how to count to one hundred, how to hula hoop. The important things in life. I’ve been telling her about this adventure. The first thing she asked me on January first was whether we were “going to start doing math now.” Yes, Buttercup. Soon. We would have started on January 2nd, except that Mommy didn’t order the math book until January 3rd and it’s not going to be here until January 11th. In the meantime, we made the exciting discovery today that three plus three is the same as four plus two. Can you believe it?

I’m terribly nervous about this. I have only a general idea of where we are going, and I’m not sure I’m a good enough navigator, but it looks as though I’m going to have to learn on the job. Part of the plan is to record something of our adventure here, on the blog. I’m doubtful that anybody but me is going to do much reading here, but I want the opportunity to gush and vent and philosophize and chronicle and then look back later on and see what happened while time was flying so fast. This seemed like a good place to do it.

Buckle your seatbelts, kids. Here we go . . .