Shout it from the rooftops!

We were at a family reunion this weekend.  Most of those who attended we aren't in contact with often.  As the day progressed, I heard others asking my children about school.  Here's typically how it went:

  Adult:  "What grade are you in?"
  Jaelyn:  "I'm in grade one right now."
  Adult:  "So, did you just finish grade one and you're going into grade two, or did you finish kindergarten and you're going into grade one."
  Jaelyn:  "I'm in grade one right now.  I'm in homeschool!"
 
After this, the conversation might end in an "oh", or it might carry on in clarifying what grade my child was in. 

Later, we were asked a couple of times why we chose to homeschool.  We basically shared our desire to respond to our children's needs better.  But my son summed it up best.  Here are his words, as best as I can remember them:

"Well, in school all we did was work and we had no time to use our imaginations and my mom wants us to use our imaginations every day, not just later when we're twenty." ~ Nicholas

I'm so happy the children are confident in how they will go about their learning.  We haven't coached them about how to respond to questions from others.  We did talk quite a bit about why we chose to homeschool in the months leading up to the official "start".  And that seemed to be what they leaned on when asked about their schooling.  I'm thrilled that they understand our vision and are willing to share it with others without fear of judgment.