Another word about high school

Because I'm lazy, foolish, ignorant,  who I am, I never added labels to my posts.  Now when I'm looking for something I have to try to remember when it was and go back to the year, then the month, and see what I can find.  I consider this my way of warding off Alzheimer's.  Well in going back looking for cow pictures I found this post from the year before Jonathan started homeschooling high school.  It was from my blogging hay day when I actually had commenters!  I would say we've learned a lot since then, yet our basic philosophy hasn't really changed very much.  I'm getting a lot of, "I can't BELIEVE that Madi is going to high school!!"  "I can't BELIEVE that Jake is going to public school", and of course my all time favorite, "WHAT are you going to DO with all that free time?"  I usually just smile, and then think all day about all of the clever things I coulda shoulda said.  Really these decisions, for these kids, for this year is what homeschooling and our educational philosophy is all about.  Madi thrives with competition.  She also very much a typical teenage girl, who is very excited about having a locker and going to Friday night football games.  She glows with excitement and is ready to share more of that light with the world.  (Not that she hasn't already been out in the world, she has!  This is just another part of the world.)  Madi loves to make new friends, homeschooling has in no way held her back in the friend department, but now she'll meet even more!  She is a questioner, when I read Science or History with her, she's all about "WHY?"  I'm ready for her to direct those questions to someone else once in a while.  She got a 99% in the English Honors class that she took at the high school this fall.  She's gotten regular A s on all her virtual school classes.  The two classes that she did this year as a plain ole homeschooler, still aren't completely done.  She is much more motivated when she has an audience.  Lastly, Bright Futures is the state of Florida's way of making college affordable.  The requirements for homeschoolers are considerably harder that those in a brick and mortar school, we want some of our kids to get this scholarship!  Each of these factors alone might not  be a good reason to choose public school, but right now all of them combine for the right reason for us for this year.