blessed beyond measure: School is Out!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

School is Out!

We finished up our first official year of homeschooling on Thursday! I had really hoped to finish our curriculum before our vacation, but that didn't happen. So we officially have a 1st grader and Kindergartner in our house. Pax will be a very young Kindergartner. But mentally, he is more ready than Holden was at this time last year. He has chosen to sit at the table with us every single morning and participate in school. There were a handful of mornings that I didn't think he was feeling it. I gave him the option to go sit in the living room and look at library books. This is actually an activity that he really loves. But he always chose school. Always. And I believe because of that, he has pretty effortlessly learned to read. It wasn't something I was pushing yet. Jeremy hasn't even started the reading lesson book with him that he has taken Holden through. But even so, the boy is reading. So we have decided that there is no reason to delay it another year because of his age.

I will say that I am very pleased with how this year has gone. It has not always been easy. At all. Many days had their own sort of challenges. Whether it be my lack of motivation, one of the boys lack of motivation, relational conflict, lack of energy...I'm just admitting that we faced challenges, but it always felt worth it. Each day we began school time with prayer and ended our time with prayer. And if I ever skipped this step, someone reminded me. It was sometimes those little pieces in our day that always seemed to confirm to me that this is where we wanted to be with our family right now. We've never committed to homeschooling for the next 20 years. We are taking it 1 year at a time. And so, for now, I am looking forward to starting it all again in August. We will have an almost 2 year old that will have probably given up that morning that I have depended on for school time. So it will be a new set of challenges, different dynamics and a new schedule to figure out. But that's what we will do. We will figure out how to make it work for us.

As for now, we are all happy to be taking a little break. This summer we will be filling our weeks with trips to the water park, swimming with friends, morning bike rides before the heat hits for the day, playdates and trips to the library. I know we'll have some mini school sessions and little projects and crafts thrown in there. Originally, I thought we would keep a little bit of our school routine. The routine has been good for my boys. But the more I've thought about it, I want us to really enjoy the summer break and do those things that I haven't made as much time for during the school year. You know we are huge readers. Well, during this first year of school we did less reading time and less trips to the library than in years past. I was glued to the curriculum and I didn't make as much time for social outings. So this summer, I want to take advantage of our freedom to do all of those things.

Here are some pictures from our school days...