Our neighborhood is very active. A lot of people walk and run and bicycle. There is a guy that lives around the corner named Lou who walks past our house several times a day with his dog. Sometimes his wife walks with him, other times his daughter accompanies him on these walks. Sometimes he walks alone with his dog.
If we are outside when he walks by, we always end up in a conversation. We know that he is a Yankees fan and that he likes the Giants. We know where he works and what he does. We know where his wife works and what she does. We know where he and his wife grew up and how they met. But we had no idea at all whatsoever where his kids went to school. We never asked.
Tonight the girls were outside serving tennis balls back and forth across the lawn. Jason was making sure the power washer was in good working order for a project next weekend. And I was watching the action when Lou walked by with his dog. He came over to chat and somehow the subject of schooling came up and...
His kids are homeschooled. They are much older than our girls. A sophomore and a senior in high school. They had gone to public school, then Catholic school...and they still weren't happy, so they homeschooled!! Right now they both do "high school online" Lou said. But prior to high school, he and his wife used to buy the books and teach them at home (they both had schedules that were fairly flexible to where one or the other of them could be home every day). They each had certain subjects that they worked with the kids on. Our town allows the kids to be part of sports and extracurricular activities. And they are able to be part of extracurricular activities in neighboring towns!
I would NEVER have thought that our school system would be that flexible. I would never have known that Lou's kids were homeschooled.
I love finding more and more people who made this choice :)
