When our kids say they want to go to school...

Way back at the beginning of our homeschool journey, Mindy seemed to want to go to school. After all, everybody in society--all the strangers she met, and all the well-meaning relatives, and her doctor and the dentist and on and on--everybody seemed to be conspiring to make kindergarten sound so, so cool.

Mindy seemed to feel she was going to be missing out.

I asked what she was going to miss. What was it that school kids had that homeschool kids didn’t have?

Her answer was prompt but surprising: “Lunchboxes.”

That was easy to fix. Soon my two girls were the proud owners of Popple and Smurf lunchboxes.

Still, something seemed to be missing.

“A school name,” Mindy said.

I realized that all the adults fawning over my 5-year-old’s assumed entry to the fun, fun world of school had asked, “What school are you going to?”

Of course, the girls would want an answer to that almost-daily question!

My two daughters got together with fellow-homeschooler Camille and chose a school name: “De Colores,” which was the name of a song they liked.

Now our homeschool had it all. Lunch-boxes AND a name!