With both of his older brothers already in "regular" (i.e., public) school, it was probably only a matter of time before the Maker decided he wanted to try it as well. I can understand the attraction. Most of his friends are already there, as well as a bunch of other kids, and it seems like there's always a lot of interesting stuff going on there. My wife and I have always felt like we'd stick with homeschooling as long as we felt like it made sense for our kids and our family, and if the boys decided they wanted to try regular school, and if we felt like they were ready for it, that would be okay with us.
So last week the Maker and I visited the school where he will likely be attending 4th grade in the fall and got a 20 minute tour from one of the school counselors. In addition to the school counselor, we met several teachers, all of whom were very nice and, I was pleased to notice, talked almost exclusively to the Maker rather than to me. It was mostly just nice-to-meet-you kind of chitchat, but the fact that they were so nice and spoke directly to him made me feel good, and I'm sure it did the Maker as well. Afterward he said he liked the school and was looking forward to starting.
So barring any drastic changes of heart, I will likely be hanging up my homeschooling hat in the next few months. All in all, I'd have to say I feel pretty good about it. Homeschooling is a lot of work, and while I'm glad to have been able to do it, especially when the kids were younger and we were moving around a lot, I'm also looking forward to handing that job off to the public schools and taking on the supportive parent role. Knowing myself (and the Maker), I predict the transition may be easier on him than it is on me.
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