Stephen passed!

We were quite intrigued when the Swiss Department of Youth and Education contacted us to schedule their visit to see how Stephen's homeschooling is progressing. We cleaned the house so it sparkled, baked chocolate pumpkin bread, and laid out all his books and programs. Madame Wearser was just lovely, and we had a great time chatting with her! She has been a teacher for 25 years, and this is her first year to be in this new job - checking on homeschooled students. Our home was her first in-house visit to do! She hadn't seen Rosetta Stone before, or Sonlight, and was very impressed with the sheer amount of reading and learning he's been accomplishing. Stephen spoke quite a bit of French with her, and we laughed about how she's looking forward to going to see other homeschooled students now, and comparing them to Stephen. She said some people come to live here for 1 year, and just do NOTHING with their kids - no schooling, letting them stay at home and play computers - and since Swiss law mandates that some form of education take place, they have to do these visits to ensure it's happening. So in the end, we had nothing to fear... all is well. Stephen was quite relieved, and so was I. 8-)  He was such a big boy talking with her and explaining about keeping up his 'social skills' with his gym classes at night. I was so proud of him.

And here are the kids' school pictures for this year!

Stephen, 11 years old

Kassie, 9 years old

Kenny, 6 years old