(To follow the tradition, of sorts, that’s been started, I thought I’d like to write a personal version of Claire’s and Mike’s essays...
Happy Spring, everyone!)

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YOU KNOW YOU'RE A HOME-SCHOOLER WHEN...

…Learning isn’t an obligation- it’s a desire.

…You can memorize your library card number in twenty seconds- and your sisters’ too.

…You’re reading one novel for Literature, another for Additional History, a third for Additional Religion- and, but only sometimes- a fourth for Leisure Reading.

…You get movies from the Library about composers, artists, inventors, and the Shroud- and watch them for whatever subjects you can make them fit, that you have for the day.

…Writing for apricotipie is English, Religion, and time-consuming enough to miss Algebra.

…Art is everyday- or, if it’s not, you do it anyway.

…Science is picking and arranging wildflowers, or making bread for dinner.

…Your homework is made up of adding to a scrapbook, working on a story, composing a new song on the piano, or emailing a friend a very long letter about life.

…Recess is your watch-the-baby time.

…You get at least two weeks off of school at Christmas and Easter.

…You can actually enjoy all the three months of summer- and more.

…You can afford to commit yourself to choir and drama, because your life isn’t school- it’s living.

…You can go to the beach for vacation in September- and, of course, be almost alone.

…You take ‘field trips’ to the greenhouse to buy garden plants, or downtown to run errands, or to the park to ride bikes and walk the dog.

…You can spend a whole evening playing chess- and your whole birthday with your family.

…You wonder how on earth the people do it who have track, swim, soccer, basketball, football, volleyball, and more- on top of hours of homework and a part-time job.

….Your whole family is there at dinner- and most of you for breakfast and lunch- and you spend the time talking faster than you eat about all you read and did in the day, to Dad.

…You don’t really have a schedule, or if you do you don’t always stick to it.

…You’re never really sure when it's ‘lunch time’, and you eat at different times everyday- depending on when the baby naps, and how long History took.

…Friday can be ‘clean day’, and you can drop school.

…You don’t really start thinking about college until you’re out of highschool.

…People shake their heads and sigh, because of your lack of ‘freedom’, and you smile because you know they just don’t get it.

…Nobody knows who you are, and no one can remember your name.

…You don’t know any of the strange songs you hear people singing, or the song artists that fill the TV and radio channels, and stores’ music sections.

…Someone asks you what school you go to, and you can look them in the eye, and smile, and say: “I’m home-schooled." -But you know that only other home-schoolers will understand what that really means to you. And then, not even all of them.