The first day of school always gives me stomach butterflies. Each year I was in school myself (and I went to school for MANY MANY years) I got that familiar tilt-a-whirl feeling, and now that my children are in school, I get it again.
I still don't know what I'm afraid of.
Handing over two children to the public school system is not easy. My girls have had good teachers so far, but they are good teachers with twenty-five other students. My oldest excels in this environment; my second-oldest steels herself for it. It will take most of the year for my second-oldest to unclench from the unfamiliarity of it all, and by then the school year will be almost over - almost time to adapt to a new class all over again.
My sister, a homeschooling mother of five (soon to be six!), tells me wrily that she wants her kids to attend Utopia Academy, a school with all the benefits of both homeschooling and public school, with none of the drawbacks of either. If someone can tell me where to register, I'll happily wait in line. Camp out all night if I have to.
But it looks like this is the best I'll get for now. Stomach butterflies and prayer, and only twenty years to go.
