Have you ever read that book by Robert Munsch, Purple Green and Yellow?  Or something like that?  In it, the kid gets these wonderful markers and keeps drawing this great stuff.  The mom always says, "Wow, my kid is an artist!"

And here I am, cliche moment of the year, but, "My kid is an artist!"  She has such amazing fine motor control.  It really blows me away.  Her printing is, I think, even neater than mine!  She can write her name, Ephraim's name, mom, dad, and the other day she did Oma and Pake with some help.  I can spell off letters to her and she will write them down.

Now, I know what you're all probably thinking...  she is my daughter, and I probably am a bit biased...  but honestly, this kid is a GENIUS!  Must be the good genes she got from me!

Which brings us to the other genius child in the family, our son.  At his two year checkup, the doctor told us that the speech goal for two year olds is two word sentences.  Eph then told him a story about how Daddy took him on the bus.  I have to remind myself that he's still the young side of two...  his vocabulary is huge.  His understanding is amazing.  He blows me away. 

Last night, clear as a bell, he said, "I looked for Zia upstairs!  I looked but I couldn't find her anywhere!"  You can have a complete conversation with the boy.  Probably even on socioeconomics... 

And now, now he's almost there.  At the magic moment that all parents of young children wish for.  The toilet training.  He is doing GREAT.  Most of the time...  well, mostly as long as he's wearing his Bob the Builder big boy undies.  You see, the thing with these undies is that there's a little picture of Bob right on the front...  on the little flappy thing.  ((is there a technical term for that flappy thing??  What is it's purpose anyways???))  Saying "don't pee on Bob!"  Brings whole new meaning when he can look down and see Bob right there on the front of his undies.  The Franklin people need to get with the picture and put Franklin on the front...  it really doesn't do much good when the picture is on the back all the time!

I'm still putting him in trainers for naps and for when we go out anywhere.  Diapers at night.  But the messes are getting to be fewer and fewer.  Except, of course, when he takes himself to the bathroom.  I'm not really sure how he managed to get poop on the wall and on his socks...  and I'm not really sure that I want to know that one!

It's a hard life, you know.  Being the parents of such geniuses (geni-i??) as these.  What's especially hard is knowing that they're already smarter than us.  It makes me lose sleep at night.

The struggle about what to do about schooling our kidlets has been going on for quite a while now.  We've gone back and forth between sucking it up, sending them to the school up the road, finding a french emersion school, looking into begging our way into Christian school, and yet nothing seemed to fit.  It's the mother's instinct.  You mother's out there KNOW the instinct I mean.  The one where you talk and think about one choice to make for your child, and your stomach starts to hurt, and you get that stabbing feeling in your heart.  This is not to be mistaken for the hate that your kidlets are getting older feeling...  that one is more like a weepy thankful feeling.  Sadness at what is already gone, and yet anticipation for what's coming.

Ja and I, after more research than I ever did for any essay in university, have decided to commit to homeschool for the next two years.  That will be JK and SK for Keyzia.  The years when we can screw up the least.  The cheapest years of homeschooling.  It will pretty much be an extension of what I'm already doing with them.

The bottom line is that at this point we don't really trust the public school system to do better than we can in educating our children.  Do I believe that every family can or should homeschool?  No, I don't.  Am I certain that I can homeschool?  Not even a little bit.  My fear certainly over-rides my excitement in any given moment.  And yet, when I start the round of self doubt, the round of wondering what's coming, I get filled with a peace like I have never known.  I really and truly believe that God has led us in this direction, and that He will be faithful in pulling us through it.

Are there still issues that we need to work through?  Of course there are.  Who knows, at the end of a year we might decide to send them to school.  Or, at the end of two years, we might feel God leading us to continue homeschooling.

I was worried about what people would think.  My family, his family, friends and etc, and then I realized that it simply doesn't matter.  Not only do they already think that I'm a bible thumping/cloth diapering weirdo, but now they can just add homeschooling to the list.  The bottom line is that I need to do what we feel is best for our children.  At this point, what is best for our children is to school them at home.

And now, here we are, at the most important question that I think people are going to ask us.  What about socialization?  Let me just say that socialization has been one of our biggest issues...  that is until we realized that in the "big wide world" that we all live in, we don't just socialize with people our own age.  In my case, my world isn't made up only of people who are 28.  In fact, I think there may be only one other person that age.  In the school system, kids tend to only socialize with their own age group.  I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, but from the homeschooling aspect, my children will learn how to socialize and play with all age groups. 

This is a very good article on homeschooling and the aspect of socialization. You can also type homeschool and socialization into Google and get a lot of articles on the whole aspect.

Our intent is to hook up with some other homeschooling families here in town.  This creates a support base for us, and also let's us use any possible talents to help other families out.  It becomes a win win situation.

I am very excited and peaceful about this decision.  I only want to do what is best for our family, and for us, for now, this is the best thing.