And that’s a wrap on this school year, my friends – our 11th year homeschooling. Speaking of a wrap, it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that my youngest just finished 8th grade. My oldest just finished 10th grade and in just a few months, in the fall, he will take the PSAT.
My two children on an overlook near Cumberland Gap National Park
You have to understand something: the PSAT represents the Holy Grail of my long-term planning this whole homeschool adventure. When my children were preschoolers, I read in the local newspaper about the National Merit Scholarship and thought, “THAT! That’s what I want for my children.”
Yes, education means a whole lot more than a score on a test. I explained about this recently in a post about the digital SAT. But this has been my long-term strategy all along: prepare them so well academically that the PSAT NMSQT feels like a breeze.
If they do not get it, at least we strove for it. At this point in time, college does not seem too interesting for them anyway. But we are shooting for it because it is there.
We did not go the moon because it was easy, but because it was hard. We do not shoot for a National Merit Scholarship because it is easy, but because it is hard.
