Though home schooling Emily has been a wonderful experience in a lot of ways, it has become apparent that doing that on top of raising three other children age 5 or less requires superhuman abilities. Add that to the fact that Emily has been pining for more friends her age, and we finally made the decision to give Emily another crack at public school.

We assembled all of Emily’s shot records, TB tests, and other prerequisites, and scheduled her to begin today. I was awakened at 5:00am by a fussy Maggie, and was blearily, ruefully amused to see that Emily was already up, prowling around the house, getting herself ready for her much-anticipated first day. Two hours later, we said a quick prayer with her and sent her off.

This has been a particularly tough decision for Kathy, whose public school experience was much less positive than was my own. I’ve admired the devotion to home schooling and the energy she’s put into it, and now I find myself admiring even more the good judgement and humility she’s showing in realizing that ever SuperMom has her limits.