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Graduating From Classical Conversations

4/20/13

The past two weeks have been rather full for us compared to our usual. Last week, our daughters enjoyed 2 days of lab intensives with Landry Academy about an hour from home. Soon I'll upload our one daughter's assessment that she wrote as a prerequisite for a writing class for next year.

During the labs, I traveled to a neighboring state to attend my uncle's viewing but returned home that same night. He bravely battled Lou Gehrig's disease for a year and a half.

A day home was had where we had schooling to do and work for a class next year, then we loaded the van and headed to my oldest sister's house 3 hrs away to prepare for our middle sister's baby shower. It was held last Saturday and was a huge success! We planned it for 6 months and I'm so thankful it all went well.

Back home for two days and we headed off to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate the work our 3 kids put in to achieving Memory Master this year. A day home, baking lasagnas, grocery shopping, doing some school, making final school decisions for next year, and we headed in to today...which brings me to this post.

I've known this day would come when we started CC 5 years ago. It just seemed like it was so far off. Our daughter was 7 and bright, bubbly and eager to learn more. Over the years she was blessed with some of the finest tutors our campus has had, and the final 2 years she had the same tutor. This one is a person I hope will continue to be a part of my daughter's life--godly, older, submissive women, who are committed to their family and married to godly men are hard to come by.

So today came, and after my husband traveled to see his sister who is having some pregnancy complications in the hospital, he and our son headed to baseball. They were awaiting my call that tonight's year end ceremony was about to commence. I alerted him that dinner was going fast but never got to tell him it was time to head over. As I went to my phone, our daughter said they were already there, dressed and ready. You see, tonight was not just the usual Memory Master awards, slide shows, class presentations and graduate ceremony. It was our daughter's graduation ceremony. It was her slide show with the wonderful students she's been with the last 4-5 years, which may not sound like a lot, but when you home school classically, finding common ground like we do in CC makes the relationships really strong. My daughter has made us so proud with her achievements in CC, but also in her choice of friends. She has finished Foundations with 2 girls that I'm proud to say are her bosom buddies. Godly girls from good homes and families that strive to achieve high goals and are hard working. Seeing all of their pictures from birth to now was so moving; it was not like just watching some one else's kids, these are kids I really care about and hope my daughter knows the rest of her life. The boys weren't much different--boys I have enjoyed watching grow and who I am so thankful to have known. Both were in a literature group I led here years ago and until a year ago, we attended church with them for 6 years.

Tonight was the best end of year ceremony I can remember. Not just because it was our girl's turn, but the order of events, the simplicity, the succinctness...it all lent itself to a thoughtfully sweet night. No one was haggard, we all have had a lot going on, and we all found time to come together to bless these kids as they head in to a new phase of maturity. I'm so thankful for our CC community. Nothing has blessed and encouraged our home school success like CC--the materials, the accountability, the praying friends, the love--it has shaped our family.

Seeing this time come has been much harder than I ever thought it would be. We're not moving on to Challenge as we'd initially planned so many years ago, and while we are all certain it is God's leading, it is sad to change courses tonight. I know it will be better in the days to come, but sometimes just a short while to feel sad is OK. So on this night of graduation for our oldest, I've got a lot to reflect on.

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