Graduation is what brings us together today...

These are a few snap shots from the graduation ceremony for me and four other grads:

The graduates and parents lined up right before we marched into the Quonset

My brother was the master of ceremonies

Each graduate and his/her parents stood on stage while the bios were read out loud

I hand-sewed my dress, and my younger sister did my hair

The dad of one of the graduates gave us a word of encouragement

We played Two Truths And A Lie with fun facts about the grads. We found out that:

- One of the graduates has the personal opinion that balloons should only be used at four-year-old birthday parties

- One of them shot a bear when she was twelve

- One of the boys' middle name is not Archie

- One graduate is never too old to go swinging

- And last but not least, one of them wanted to be a butterfly in grad one.

From the audience, whoever got the correct answer received a rose.

My sister surprised us with a game at the end of the ceremony. We were all blind folded and led verbally out side the Quonset by our siblings. They could not use our names or touch us. They then helped us to each find a copy of The Silver Chair. It was to illustrate that when God calls us to walk through a door, we are not to be distracted by other voices.

While bending down to get a package under a picnic table, the buttons on the waist band at the back of my dress burst, so my brother is helping me fix the situation.

My family

This is my good friend who is a sister of one of the graduates. She read the bios.

My dad's parents My parents My mom's parents

A mother of one of the graduates made us a cake!

We had supper and played A LOT of volleyball afterward

This is my grad bio - enjoy!

Avril Anne Lawrenson is a girl who was homeschooled her entire life, and loved it immensely! She is the fourth child of Chuck and Danea Lawrenson, and they live near Sanford.

C. S. Lewis says, “In those days a boy on the classical side officially did almost nothing but classics. I think this was wise; the greater service we can do to education today is to teach fewer subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.”

This reminds Avril of her education. However, instead of a few subjects, she tried to fill her assiduous schedule with as many as possible. She heartily agrees with him, but she did not fare well in her prowess of one subject: mathematics. Math for her went something like this:

Multiplication is vexation

Division is as bad

The rule of three doth puzzle me

And practice drives me mad

Her schooling involved many real life experiences. She once knew naught of electricity. She had no foreboding of what happens to one when one bares a knife and places it into a live socket. As she beheld the scintillates flying past her foremost appendage, and that she was nigh unto death, she pulled the knife hither to herself, ‘ere she expired.

Reading never seemed like a school subject; it was more of a free time activity. Historical fiction was her favourite subject to read.

Writing for her mostly consisted of writing many letters and also in her journal.

For years Avril did not actually know what science was. In grade eleven learning about scum in the pond did not suit her fancy, but once she studied human anatomy, she was fascinated!

She deems history as her most favourable subject. She has often wished that she lived in the eighteen hundreds, and went so far as to sew three dresses - and other things - all by hand; this grad dress included.

For the past five years, she studied German and one day hopes to travel to Germany to complete the training.

Avril has enjoyed playing four instruments and multiple sports.

She will miss being a school girl, but she knows that she will enjoy the freedom of being graduated.

In the upcoming summer and fall months, Avril plans to work for her parents, work at Fisher Bay Bible Camp, attend the Ellerslie Discipleship Program in Colorado with three of her siblings, get a nannying job, and potentially do a few “grade thirteen subjects.”

In the more distant future, Avril hopes to travel on a few mission trips and be a wife and mother.

… I realised that I was the only graduate who did not thank my parents. So...

- Thank you mom and dad for teaching us to seek God first

- Thank you for training us to have good characters as a high priority

- Thank you for getting us to work hard before the academic side of our education

- Thank you mom for enduring my crying during reading lessons

- Thank you dad for enduring my crying during math corrections