Graduation Day

My boy graduated! I still can't believe it. James is such a wonderful young man. I am so proud of
him.


I will never forget his face or what he said during the summer after eighth grade when we told him he would be home schooled. "What? I'm not going to be in high school with my friends!" It was devastating to him. I felt bad, but I knew we were doing the right thing. As far as James was concerned, we were for sure going to ruin his life. We asked him to try it for 1 yr. and then we would decide as a family on what to do. During his first 3 yrs. of home school we used the ABEKA dvd program. Wow! If you can get through ABEKA, you can get through anything. Talk about tough, he had quiz's every day and tests atleast 2 times a week. He worked his tail off from 7am until 3:30pm, on a good day. During his junior year his grandmother (my mom) came to live with us. She has a lot of health issues and needs my constant care. Richard and I couldn't give James the attention he needed and you really couldn't afford to get behind with this curriculum. For James' senior year we decided to change curriculums. We used Bob Jones and a couple other text books Richard found. James did very well. He graduated with a 3.5 GPA. James will go to community college in the fall for a few semesters and then off to a university.
If you asked James during his high school years if he liked being home schooled, he would tell you no. He would have gone to public school in a heartbeat. He knows that this was the best for him though and during his speech on graduation day he thanked us and described home school as being a "sweet deal".

Happy Graduation James!! We love you so much.

Pomp & Circumstance, here he comes

The graduates preparing for their speeches

James getting ready to give his speech

Here we are presenting James with his well earned diploma. It was so hard not to bawl. I kept it together though, as hard as it was.

Richard giving the commencement speech. What an honor for our family.

The graduates just finished turning their tassels & throwing their caps

In the reception area getting ready to chow down

This was the fruit and veggie table, yumm!

I just had to take a pic of this dip, it was so amazing.
I think it was marshmallow creme and cream cheese.

After all of the hugging and chatting with family and friends,
this is what was left of the cake. I wish I could have gotten a pic
before it was half eaten ha,ha

The food is disappearing

My handsome guy


Stay tuned. My next posts will be the graduation party!