Our First Day of School

If you read this blog, you know that we homeschool our children. Before we had kids and even before we were married, Misty and I decided that we were going to homeschool. We never really decided when, if ever, we would stop homeschooling and send our kids to public / private school. Well after much deliberation and prayer, I decided it would be best to have Brittany attend school this year. Brittany is 12 and starting the 7th grade. I wanted her to be in a competitive academic environment before grades started to really matter - in high school. This would give her 2 years of all day quasi-academic activities, tests, distractions, annoying peers and other school experiences to prepare her for high school.

Misty was/is not as convinced that this is the right decision. I also must admit that I have some serious reservations about the decision. Homeschooling has allow us to be the primary influence on Brittany and control her academic and social development. However, on balance, I truly believe this is the best thing for Brittany. Brittany, on the other hand, does not agree. She does not want to go to school. I guess I should be happy that she wants to remain homeschool, but her preference to remain homeschooled has actually made this process much more difficult. Brittany is normally up for trying new things but she was against traditional school from the very beginning.

Because of her lack of enthusiasm, I have had to drag her along every step of the way - school shopping, gathering school supplies, doing her summer reading assignment, etc. There have been minor arguments and a few tears (not all from Brittany). It was a fairly painful process.

Then, came August 25th - the first day of school. Remember, this is not just the first day of school for Brittany. This was the first day of school for the Helms family. For you parents, remember how you felt when your first child went to Kindergarten? Well that is kind of how we felt yesterday. Obviously it is a little easier because Brittany is older. But it was still hard.

I woke up at around 7:30, went upstairs and found that Brittany was 100% ready to go. She was dressed, had her bag ready and was ready to leave. This despite the fact that she stayed up until 1:00 am completing her Pre-AP English assignment the night before. She was a little nervous, although she would never admit it. I was generally impressed with her attitude. Despite her disappointment, she was respectfully obedient. Clearly she was going to try to make the best of a "bad" situation.

After her mom wished her well, we were off to Cain Middle School.

Brittany right before school - clearly not happy.

Still not happy.

This was the traffic on the road outside the school. Crazy stuff. It took us 30 minutes to get from our house to the front of the school. Cain Middle School is about 1 mile from our house.

This was the 2 lanes of traffic turning into the school.

This is a picture of Cain Middle School from the front.

Maurine Cain Middle School sign.

Video of Brittany headed into school for the first time ever!!

For those of you that don't know Brittany, she is very outgoing and a natural leader. She is well liked by those around her and is generally happy, optimistic and just a nice person. Because of this, she has many, many friends. Therefore, it was funny to hear the nearly universal response from teachers and administrators when I registered Brittany at school a few weeks ago. When they found out Brittany was homeschooled they would invariably say something like -- "don't worry, once you meet some friends everything will be fine." I was disappointed that they held this stereotypical view that homeschooled kids are these sheltered, weird, anti-social kids (for more of my thoughts on the socialization topic click here). Maybe Brittany can change their assumptions on what homeschool kids are like.

Given the number of people that homeschool in Texas, I thought the school would be more prepare to accept homeschool students. They were not. On two occasions they asked me for school records. When I explained that we did not have any academic records, they initially responded that such records were required to enroll. After a few minutes of discussion, they let us enroll without such records. I also found it interesting that I was required to sign a form that stated we were "withdrawing" Brittany from homeschooling. Odd. The school counselor mentioned that they do not have much experience enrolling homeschool students at Cain. She also mentioned that some parents pull their students out of tranditional school in middle school and start homeschooling. Given the challenges kids face in the 7th and 8th grade, I understand why this would be the case. Hopefully, our experience will be different.

Cain has 700 to 800 new 7th grade students starting this year. That is a seriously large number. Misty and I graduated with 64 other students from Windsor High School. That is notable because it was (and maybe still is) the largest ever Windsor High School graduating class. Therefore, I have no concept of 800 students in one grade at one school.

Brittany is taking the following classes:

• Girls Athletics
• Pre-AP English
• Science
• Math
• Band
• Pre-AP Texas History

I am amazed at the Pre-AP classes. We did not even have AP classes in high school, let alone Pre-AP in middle school. However, I am happy they are already preparing students for more rigorous course work.

Brittany is trying out for the volleyball team. There are 118 girls trying out for volleyball. This too is dramatically different from my experience in middle and high school. In Windsor you could basically play any sport you wanted to play. At Cain they have 2 rounds of cuts in volleyball before they form the final A, B and C teams. It is very competitive - - and this is only middle school. I can only imagine what it will be like in high school.

At about 6:00, after volleyball tryouts, I picked her up from school. Brittany was in a very good mood and was excited to tell us about her day. It seems like everything went really well.

I think this transition will be easier on Brittany than Misty or me. Misty and I were just talking about how hard it is for us to not hear from Brittany the entire day. I must admit that, on that first day, a small (irrational) part of my mind was saying -- "I can not believe I am dropping my first born child off at this evil, state-run, secular institution that will waste her time, indoctrinate her and allow her to be negatively influenced by bad kids." Obviously, I have some issues to work though.

Pray for Brittany, Misty and me. This is a dramatic change for us and we will each have our own challenges to working though as the year goes forward.