A Fringe Benefit of Homeschooling

My second youngest is now 12!

I brought her and her 2 sisters plus 7 of her friends to her the pool today, and treated them to Dairy Queen afterward.

Two will be sleeping over, currently they are running around in the sunshine, YES, we finally have some sunshine! There is still mountains of snow, but it's beautiful out.


Isn't it a wonderful thing, when children ages 7-14 can play together? Where they don't feel it's 'weird' to play with younger kids? Where the 14 yo aren't feeling they are 'too old' for such things? I love that dd14 is happy to play hide and seek, that they aren't glued to the tv, computer or texting. It is such a great thing to have children that ARE children, not mini adults.

Are they immature? No. I don't think so, but they aren't as worldly as other children the same age. But while they aren't worldly, they are not naive either, I give them an appropriate amount of knowledge so that they can make the right decisions.

It doesn't mean they don't fit in with the 'regular' school kids. Our family just have different priorities. My dd14 has never had a boyfriend, and will likely not have one for several more years, I'd like to avoid it for all of her school years, yet they have friends that are between ages 11-14 that have had several boyfriends. My girls have no interest. They do have a few friends that ARE boys, but they are friends. They are always supervised. There is no courtship happening.


In a world where there are children 14 to 15 having babies, it's scary.

Now there is life after birth, lives aren't necessarily 'ruined', some move on to have great fulfilling lives, but it is a choice that can make life unnecessarily difficult.

My girls have huge goals for themselves. Right now their goals are achieving their next belts in karate, learning the katas. Improving their ringette games. The two older girls home to make the A team. DD14 wants to improve her writing and write a novel next year. DD12 wants to 'specialize' in science, thinking of going into veterinary medicine. So, they know it's important to have some focus. Best way to do that, is avoid emotional attachments.

University, college, careers. Things that will be much easier to attain without the commitments of a having a child, or the heartache of giving up a child for adoption. I know some wonderful moms that started out as single unwed moms. They are now married and have beautiful families. But it's a rough start.

I can't guarantee mine won't be young parents, no parent can, as much as I'd love to have that guarantee, but I can see it far less likely with my kids because we talk about it, the older kids KNOW the consequences of such actions.

There'll be time for all that 'guy-stuff' later. I'm hoping that they truly get it! That when all those hormones hit at 15/16 that they remember their goals for themselves. Right now we are on a good path, and I hope to keep them there.

Even dh-the skeptic, sees a huge difference in their attitudes compared to their peers. It isn't all about boys, it isn't all about fashion(well, a little, they are girls and teens/tweens), but over all, its about family, school, goals, friends, church. And I'm sooo happy for that that!

I'm so happy I have children not really young adults.