Life in fast forward

Sean found some of our old videos, so we were watching them yesterday. Besides the "awww" factor of them as babies, they were just drop dead funny as toddlers. The best was one of them when Emily was 3 and Sean 8. She's playing with an old stuffed gorilla of David's named Gonga. She sings a song about Gonga, tells a story about Gonga, and to distract her, I ask her to tell a joke. She immediately says, "Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Gonga." (You can hear me choke back a laugh.)
"Gonga who?"
"Gonga wears his pants on his head!"
"Did you make that up?"
"Yes."
"I thought so."
Later Sean joins the recital with another joke, then they both sing Old McDonald. Sean, ever the supportive brother, is singing that on that farm he had an Emily, E-I-E-I-O, with a whine, whine, here.... and she tackles him. Bowls him over and yells in his face:
"THAT IS NOT THE WAY IT GOES! YOU HAVE TO SING A AMINAL!"

And I watched the video, then my 5'10" son and my 4'10" daughter, and I wonder where the years went. And I know! They went right here. They weren't stuck in school eight hours a day, and I wasn't rushing home from work just to feed everyone and get them in bed and start over. We've had seven years of field trips and park days and pool parties and skating. They got to bypass bullies and cafeteria lunches and that numbing feeling of school days stretching out in front of you.

Next year will be very different. Sean as a sophomore will be studying on his own more than ever, although I imagine I'll still be called in occasionally. I"ll be teaching an English class here at the house for him and some friends, and we'll do government and Texas history together, but he'll take geometry and chemistry in outside classes. Emily will be at Coram Deo on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but will be home with her homework the rest of the time. We'll still all be in enrichment classes on Fridays, and I'll work two days a week. None of that would have come about without homeschooling, though. They are doing what they want to be doing, and that's one of the greatest gifts I can give them.