Today was our last day of school.   I think we’re all looking forward to a bit of a break, but when I asked the kids today if we should do this again next year, it was a resounding yes that they gave me.   They were very proud of themselves and all they accomplished this year, and so I was also the proud momma who got to turn to Abigail and pronounce her a Fifth Grader.  And then I got to turn to Zander and pronounce him an official First Grader.  It was cool.

I had asked them what their favorite books were of the year.  Abigail’s favorites that she read were two books by Ken Thomasma, Om-Kas-Toe and Naya Nuki.  Her favorite read-aloud surprised me, as she chose Calico Bush by Rachel Field.  It was a delightful story, but I didn’t think she enjoyed it that much!  Her second favorite was The Journeyman by Elizabeth Yates.  When I asked about history books, it took just a moment of hesitation before she grabbed both Imprisoned In The Golden City by Dave & Neta Jackson as well as The Story of Eli Whitney by Jean Lee Latham.  They were all wonderful books, and we enjoyed the moment that we were standing at the bookshelves remembering those stories we read not that long ago.

Abigail logged a total of 971.90 school hours, and a total of 197 days.

Zander’s favorite book that he read this year was The Golly Sisters Go West by Betsy Byars, followed closely by Thomas Jefferson’s Feast by Frank Murphy and Lewis & Clark: A Prairie Dog For The President by Shirley Raye Redmond.  His favorite read-aloud of the year was Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, following in a very close second was The Sign Of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.  When I asked him about history, he instantly pulled out North American Indians by Marie and Douglas Gorsline and then after a moments thought he added The Lewis & Clark Expedition by Richard L Neuberger.

Zander wrapped up his kindergarten year with a total of 568.50 hours and 180 days exactly.

Someone asked me the other day how I gave Zander a grade designation.  This was his kindergarten year of school, and yet he was doing first grade math and second to third grade reading.  Could I have called it his first grade year?  Sure, I could have.  But I think that socially, it is important that I keep him in the same grade level as his peers his age.  Everywhere he ever participates in a program- like church, park & rec, library programs, sports, etc. They will always ask what grade he is in, and then put him with the similar aged children.  So next year it will be his first grade year.  He’ll be doing second grade math and fifth grade reading, but it will be in the realm of first grade.   He-heh, my kid already has the stigma of being “the homeschool boy” I don’t need to make that worse by adding “smart kid who skipped a grade”.

I’m already looking forward to next year.  I’m slowly making my lists, and a plan seems to be coming together.  I think I have all our different components of curriculum picked out, it will just be a matter of starting to order it all and get it in- and then I have to go through and figure out exactly how I’m going to mesh two school days together to be one.   I’m rather excited to figure that all out.

In the meantime, we have some summer reading to do.  We have some fun read-alouds to tackle, and a world to explore.  Summer dance, tumbling, and swimming lessons will fill our days in no time.  And we’ll be learning the whole while- because we’ve learned that learning is truly fun.

As we are winding down our first-ever homeschooled school year, I think it’s only natural for me to look back and see how it all began.   Once upon a time (and not that long ago), Andy and I were staunch supporters of sending our kids to public school.  As Christians, we really felt that it was important that our kids be “out there” in the real world, being a light for Jesus as much as possible.   We had dear friends who had been homeschooling their daughter, and while it was obviously going wonderfully for them, I just couldn’t see myself taking on the responsibility of teaching my children myself.  I mean, what if I screwed it up?

Sending Abigail to school was really a no-brainer at the time.  She needed it.  When people would ask if I was sending her to school, my answer was oh, yeah.  She was my strong-willed girl.  She didn’t like mommy teaching her how to write her letters at all.  She really needed another adult to look up to and learn from.   Sure enough, just two weeks into kindergarten, my non-reading daughter was reading, and all the sudden my little princess was in all the advanced classes- advanced reading, advanced math- in kindergarten, no less.   But when she brought home that math, and I couldn’t help her do it, because I didn’t understand the kindergarten math assignment, I should have seen that red flag right there.

Abigail enjoyed school, she really did, but as the years went by, I just became more and more flabbergasted at the things she wasn’t learning.  She was learning a lot, and her teachers really worked hard to keep her engaged with the advanced classes, but it was the little things.  They did a unit on fractions for several weeks, but she didn’t learn that the top number was the numerator and the bottom the denominator.  She could play math games like there was no tomorrow, but there was no mastery at all of the basic math facts- addition, subtraction and multiplication.  And don’t get me started on the spelling atrocities caused by years of phonics.

But then, during Christmas break, in 2008, the kids and I were playing the game of LIFE and having a rip-roaring time.   It was a particularly fun round of game playing, and Abigail said as much.  I looked at her and (don’t ask me where it came from) said, “You know, if we homeschooled like your cousin, playing games could be part of our day.”  Both kids looked at me like I just gave them the key to a candy store.  “Really?”  And then they both declared right then and there, that they’d really like to stay home with mommy and do school.  Zander more than Abigail, really, but the more she thought about it, the more she got excited about it as well.

And just like that, my mind was reeling.  Really?  Did I really just offer to homeschool my kids?  Why on earth would I do that?

And so I entered the world of homeschool curriculum.  I ordered every catalog I could find, tracked down online message boards and spent a ton of time in the aisles of our local school supply stores.   I learned our state requirements, and started formulating a plan.   I chose a curriculum to try out, which is a whole story in itself, because it was the last one I thought I would consider.  But  the whole time I worried about the change in our family dynamics.  Mommy as teacher?  I just didn’t see it going very well.   Would Abigail, my strong-willed, independent little girl take kindly to Mommy telling her what to do…All…Day…Long?

Before we were to the point of no return, I decided a trial run was in order, and we tackled a period of summer school.   I wanted a trial period of time where we could learn to adjust to this new idea of Mommy as schoolteacher.  And as it turned out, the rest is history.  Literally.  They took to homeschooling like a bird to the open skies, and I really don’t see us ever going back.

The thing is, as a mom, I was already their chief teacher in life.  It really wasn’t that difficult to add some reading, writing and arithmetic to the mix.  I did have to adjust to a few things and adjust my expectations.  I learned that Zander does not sit still.  Ever.  So when he reads aloud to me, I have learned to be patient with his squirming and hopping around.  He still reads, and he reads very, very well.   I had to be ever so patient with him regarding writing and cutting, and things of that nature.  But boy, has that patience paid off.  This second half of the year, his fine motor skills have taken off, and he’s already looking forward to next year’s writing, and working on writing more whole sentences.  With Abigail, I had to learn to ease up on her.  When she knows her material, she knows it, I don’t need to continue to go over it with her and be redundant.  She has become even more independent, and I have marveled at how she takes every effort to learn something correctly the first time.

This whole process  has been nothing short of amazing.  I was once that mom who said I would never homeschool my children, and now I can’t ever see an alternative.  Well, high school may be an entirely different ball of wax, I suppose.   Ironically, it also made our recent moving process that much easier, because the location of schools and which school district didn’t matter a lick.   What mattered was that we moved and were able to get right back into our schooling.

We officially now have seven-and-a-half days of school left.  Abigail has met and surpassed every goal I had for her this year, and Zander.  Well, let’s just say that saying met and surpassed is a huge understatement.  Watching him grow up before my eyes this year was such a treasure in itself.  Because had I sent him off to school, I wouldn’t have been the one to get those moments.  I would not have gotten the cheering and happy dance when he finishes his math in just a few minutes.  I would not have gotten the swelling of pride when he confidently spelled our last name.  I would not have gotten to watch his face light up at the conclusion of every single book we read aloud this year.  I would not have been the one to walk in on him last week and discover him silently reading a chapter book to himself.  And finishing it just one day later and looking for more.  Every learning moment and achievement this year was mine to savor, and I have this crazy homeschooling journey to thank for it.

As parents, we truly are the best teachers our children can have, and where I was the last before, I will be the first person to encourage anyone to explore the options of teaching their own children.

We’ve had a great week of school here this week.  It’s hard to believe that we’re winding down our school year already! I swear we only just started this journey, but yet, I feel like an old pro now, and we’re ready to take on any new challenge that comes our way.

Last weekend I sat down with my curriculum and really looked at what we had left to learn this school year.  We had six weeks of history and geography yet, but our reading were really sparse and short for each day.  We had six weeks of read-alouds scheduled, and only five weeks of reading, due to reading ahead a few weeks back.  So I tweaked and re-figured, and condensed those six weeks down into just four- and actually the load per day seems much better to me.  I like it when we can really sink our teeth in, instead of reading a bit one day, and reading more the next.

As far as math goes, Zander has one more week left, and then he’ll be completed with his first grade math.   This week he was subtracting double digits like it was no trouble at all.  I thought for sure that he would have at least a hiccup with it.  Nope, not a bit. He just sails through his work in no time at all and is so proud when he finishes his work just a few minutes later.   Abigail could probably do math for about… six more weeks.  But I’m thinking that what I’ll have her do is finish up the next three weeks (which include decimals and the metric system) and then do the last three weeks as summer school in July.   Those last three weeks are graphing, ratios, and other forms of measurement, so I’d at least like her to touch on them yet this year.

Zander finished his handwriting last week, Abigail has just next week left in her book.    I’m also trying to figure out what to cull out of her language arts.  We’ll be skipping the chapter on writing a research report, since she already did that first semester, and I think we’ll also be skipping the chapter on writing a friendly letter.  Would that be nice to work on?  Yes, it would.  But I think it’s more important that we knock out as much of the grammar in the next three weeks as we can.  Good grammar will help her with her writing so much, so we’ll squeeze as much of that in as possible.

This week we also went and scoped out our new library, and the kids are in heaven there!  It is so huge compared to our small town library that we were used to.  I think they would have spent the whole afternoon there, had I let them.   Maybe next week I’ll get a chance to see what they offer for adults, because we didn’t even make it out of the children’s section before we had to go.   We also made great use of our park that we’re just four blocks away from.  There is a nice basketball court there, so we had extra gym class this week while both kids worked on shooting hoops.  They had a blast! And I’ve never seen Zander so diligent- he must have tried to shoot a hundred times, and only made it in five or six times.  Regulation height hoops, six year old boy makes for tricky hoop-shooting.  In the weeks to come we’re hoping to pick up some tennis equipment and spend some time in the tennis courts as well.

The milestone I mentioned in the title of this post?  This week we hit our target hours of schooling for the year.  Abigail is required to receive 875 hours of instruction, which I was honestly concerned about meeting.  No concern required, apparently- as we are at 892 hours so far, with three weeks yet to go.  And in those three weeks, we’ll be doing extra work to try and wrap things up for the year.   She has also had 182 actual days of instruction, so by the time we’re done she’ll have had 196- well more than the public school districts.

We didn’t do too bad with Zander either.  He is at 523 hours for the year and 165 days of school.   That’s not bad for a kindergarten year.  I think he’s got the spelling of his last name down pretty well, and the only kindergarten skill we’re really missing is his shoe tying.  Honestly?  He doesn’t wear shoes that tie.  Totally off subject, but the laces they put in shoes these days are a joke- the materials they use simply don’t stay tied, so either we have to put knots in his shoes, or keep re-tying them every ten minutes or so.  So we opt to spare ourselves the headaches and get velcro shoes.  Hey- I had a friend in school who only ever wore velcro shoes all through middle school.  If Zander is a little late in the shoe tying game, I’m not going to be too upset about it.   This week he finished reading a chapter book aloud to me about the Trail of Tears- I think I’ll cut him some slack if his fingers just don’t want to cooperate.

Anyway, our last day of school will be May 27th- a Thursday.  It is very bittersweet to be winding down.  We’ve had such a wonderful time with our school year, and with our romp through early American History.  It’s such a precious time to study, and while we are definitely looking forward to the new adventures from 1850 to today, we’ll definitely miss hearing about our friends of early America.  This week we had a bit of a treat, as we spent a good deal of our week discussing the Buffalo, New York area- where Andy’s parents live.  We spent time learning about Niagara Falls, and Sam Patch the jumping man who successfully jumped the falls.  And then we moved right into learning about the Erie Canal, and how that was built thanks to the Irish muscle who fled their homeland for greener pastures.    In fact, we learned a lot this week about the different people groups and immigrants who really pushed our country into growing.  Where the cities in Europe slowly developed over time, American cities literally sprang out of nowhere and spread rapidly.

Today we wound down the week with some Wii Sports gym class, thanks to a drizzly day here in Wisconsin.    As we look ahead to next week, it seems that we’re going to be learning a bit about doctors in the new world, how homes were built, oooh, and we get to learn a bit about the Alamo as well.  It’s an exciting week ahead.