The end of the school year is always a time of mixed emotions for me. On one hand, I’m so happy to be nearly done with school and have another year under our belts. On the other hand, it’s a time of “g00d-bye” and “see you later” to some of my greatest blessings in education.

We homeschool, sort of, and we send our kids to school, sort of. We use an online charter school that is an alternative to our local neighborhood public school. This option works great for us in allowing the kids to work at their own pace, but also allowing someone else to keep all the school records. I live in a state that is not particularly homeschool-friendly, so this online charter school was the best choice for me. In our form of schooling, I am the learning coach - I am the hands-on teacher, the 1:1 resource for each of my children. However, each of my kids has a head teacher. (I must pause here to say that with our child who has special needs, having a head teacher from whom to request resources and ideas, is such a help!)

Education is so important to me. My parents valued education and that made a tremendous difference in my life. I want the same - and more - for our children. So when my oldest son came home from the local Christian school one day, in 2nd grade, to tell me how bored he was, I decided to listen to him and look at options. That is how we arrived to this particular charter school.

My daughter is at the end of 1st grade. What sweet beauty and innocence she brings to the educational process - the world is unfolding before her and reading, especially, is enabling her to explore beyond her wildest dreams! Her teacher is everything you would imagine a first-grade teacher to be: kind, gentle, compassionate, with the ability to share even more of the world with her students. In her gentle way, she has charmed my daughter into a greater love of learning through the online classes, individual emails and occasional phone conversations.

My younger son is about to complete 2nd grade. He is the our child with special needs. I remember emailing his teacher at the beginning of the year, saying that we highly value education in our home, and that we were trusting her to come alongside in our journey and help our son on his educational journey. She has been the perfect teacher for him this year! She seems to innately know when to push, just a little more, and when to back off and let him be. She asks questions designed to draw him out when he seems withdrawn, and has a loving way of reigning him in when some work needs to be accomplished.

My oldest son is finishing his first year of middle school. He has a homeroom teacher, who is also his Language Arts teacher, and 3 other teachers for the other core courses (Math, Science and History). I’ve had a little less interaction with all of them, as schedules are different in middle school, but I’ve exchanged emails with them all, and have talked, in person or on the phone, with all of them.

At the beginning of the year, we were at a school-sponsored outing, talking with some of the staff who had our oldest son in sixth grade. One teacher was telling me about a program called Eighth Grade Scholars. The program takes students who are excelling in seventh grade and gives them the opportunity to skip 8th grade, and enter 9th grade a year early. My son was intrigued with this, and so was I. As academics seems to be his niche, this program seemed like it might be a good fit!

We went through all of the necessary steps to apply for the Eighth Grade Scholars program - he carried grades of 95% or better, all year. ALL school year. In every subject. Some of those grades came easily, others he had to really work for. He applied for, and was accepted into, the National Junior Honor Society. He completed the application form, which included listing all of his community service and leadership roles for the past couple of years. I don’t know about you, but at 12 years old, we had to really think about what those roles looked like in his life. But sure enough, when we looked for leadership and community service, even at 12 years old, we were surprised by how much we found. These won’t necessarily look the same for kids as for adults, but don’t discount the many things that kids do - raking leaves for a neighbor, helping at Vacation Bible School, things like that. That’s where their leadership and service qualities begin, and start to be noticed.

On Tuesday we received word that our son was accepted into the Scholars program - HOORAY! With that acceptance, I sent a short email to his teachers, thanking them for their time and effort to make his learning enjoyable and rewarding. I thanked them for partnering with us, for working with him to keep his grades high, for inspiring him to achieve even more! I included a short quote from “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss, because I love that poem!

I got several replies to that email, all applauding our son’s efforts and our family’s efforts to keep education a priority. One teacher replied that his skipping 8th grade is bittersweet for her, as she won’t have him for next year’s classes. But she picked a line out of the Dr. Seuss poem for him, too - “Kid, you’ll move mountains!”

Their teachers are my greatest asset in making sure they have every advantage, educationally. As we get to the end of the year, consider what our teachers do - for our own kids, and for so many others. The news has been full of teachers who go above and beyond, even willing to put their own lives in danger in hopes of protecting their students. Most teachers really are that amazing! And while we all give gifts, cards and good wishes, be sure to include a sincere, heartfelt thank you!

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A Royal Daughter

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