Growing up

Eldest's birthday has come and gone. She is now 16 years old. Hard to believe that, in two short years, she will be legally an adult.

I don't think that particular transition will be very hard to deal with. She's already very mature and adult-like in her attitude and behaviour. More so than quite a few adults that I know, to be frank. Still, it's sometimes a bit jarring to realize how quickly the time goes by. Youngest will be turning 13 in a few months, and we will have two teenagers in the house.

I still get the odd person who reacts with sympathy when I mention the girls' ages. The teen years are supposed to be so challenging, after all. We haven't found it so. Not that there aren't any rough spots. There will always be times of misunderstanding or clashes of opinion whenever a group of people spend time together. Most home schooling families that I know haven't had a whole lot of problems with the teen years, either. Some do, of course. I think the fact that we, as parents, get to know our children so well goes a long way to preventing potential problems.

I'm very proud of my daughters, and even when we sometimes butt heads and get on each other's nerves, I'm so glad we discovered home schooling as an option and went with that route. We've probably made mistakes along the way, but such is life.

All in all, I love watching my children growing up to be such competent, intelligent young women.