See Us Homeschool

Therese at Ordinary Lovely and Micaela at California to Korea are hosting a homeschooling link-up (or blog hop) -- and a really fun one!  For this particular round-up, no words are allowed -- only pictures to illustrate our home school days.  I like this idea.  All the words in the world can't capture a life (and trust me, I try!  Just look at the length of some of my posts!)

Anyone who home schools, though, knows that home school is life. It's not some small part of the day, not something that's compartmentalized, an afterthought or momentary chore.  It's a vocation.  A culture.  A mindset. And each home school family's take on the whole thing is as unique as a fingerprint.  A fingerprint that changes constantly.  How do you explain that? It's practically impossible to put into words what really goes on in the inside, outside, upside down of a home school family.  Charts, schedules and book lists really don't explain the life. And how we love it.  The craziness is perfectly upside-right to us.

The theme of this meme may be just the thing, though.  Maybe you can get a better idea with a bunch of random pictures, a window on our home schooling world.  I pulled the following photos down somewhat quickly and rather haphazardly from my files; they're not very good pictures most of them (Alas! My poor Nikon may never make it to the top of the necessary expenses list); my daughter's little, red, pocket-sized camera has been standing in for a couple months...  But, better than nothing, right?  And, you know, actually... the fuzz and poor lighting may capture real life better than the perfect focus of the expensive camera.  Our big picture is generally better than our minute detail around here, anyway -- and time's going by so quickly it does seem all to be a bit of a blur (heaven knows I was only just schooling the top five and now they're all off on their own!).

But, anyway...  No more words.  Here ya go.  The "big picture" -- with no captions, except for the first and last photos:

All ten children, plus grandson, Gavin -- about a year and a half ago. L-R; top row:Cathy, Paul, Kevin, Dominic, Frater Philip holding Gavin,, Michelle; front row: Theresa behind William next to Gabe and Cathy.

The five still at home: Theresa (11th grade), Cathy (9th grade), Anna (7th grade), 
William (3rd grade), Gabe (5th grade).  And, check it out: 4 normal smiles out of 5!

*  Why say i t in five pictures if you can say it in fifty, right?  ;)
*  Oh, and for the record, though you could probably tell -- we're a little more crazy than classical...
* Make sure and run over to Ordinary Lovely or California to Korea to do some more home school blog hopping!