I'm a Mormon.
I bring it up for two reasons. First, I don't want there to be any confusion regarding whether or not this is a religion-thing. It's not. While there is undoubtedly a Mormon home school curriculum... or thirty... with coordinating clip-art and downloadable sing-alongs... that isn't what we're using, and we certainly aren't doing this because we don't agree with teaching evolution or sex ed or a Tree Grows in Brooklyn or whatever. Of course our faith is a part of who we are, so just as I'm excited that the kids will be able to spend more time bonding with family, learning the ukulele, and following through on responsibilities, I am happy that there will be more time for them to learn about and consider the facets of our beliefs.
The second reason is because my sister is staying with us for this school year. This is the practical reason why we're able to go ahead with this -- I could not do it without her. She is a smart, lovely, insightful, fun, and creative young woman who brings a lot of joy into our home. She graduated from high school at the ripe old age of 16 and was about to shove off to college when our mom started to hyperventilate. The idea came to us that she could get out of Dodge like she wanted, but defer her college acceptance by a year and come to help out with our crazy scheme (while taking some online college classes). Once again, it was clear that everything has come together so this year can happen. The children take instruction from her better, so she has signed on to handle all of the dirty jobs (math and swimming lessons).
I brought this up now because when I refer to her as The Sister, I want it to be crystal clear that she really is my actual sister (i.e. got squeezed through the same birth canal), and not like a Sister-Wife or something. There will also be Big Sister mentioned inevitably, she lives across the country, yet factors into our lives big-time. Big Sister drew the picture of me riding on the flying pig. (Note: I'm thinking that she's not going to like the use of "Big" now that I think of it. I like it because she is older, it's nicely Orwellian (I do go to her as if she knows all), and it sounds like Big Witch from the Dorrie books, which are the best books ever. Drat. Well, stay tuned.)
So what's with the goofy "names" -- The Mom, The Dad, The Boy*, The Girl, The Sister... And why aren't there any recognizable faces in the pictures? Answer: because we have no names and we're ugly.
Actually, I don't want this to be a blog about our personal lives, as much as our "school" experiences. So far there has been a lot of personal (i.e. tedious) details dropped to build the foundation I felt was needed to holistically document the home school experience preface, but that is not the goal of the blog.
*The Boy requested that his name on the blog be Judd the Red Chicken. I told him that I would think about it.
