Wrapping Up Another School Year

Our 21st year, to be exact. After 21 years you would think I’d know all there was to know. Not true. What I do know is that I don’t know it all. I have often said my own education began when we began homeschooling. I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until then. I’m still learning, my kids are still learning. (Is that what they mean when they say ‘continuing education.’)

We are closing the books on another school year. But because homeschooling really is a lifestyle, learning will not cease over the summer and begin anew in the fall. I’ll be watching for and making notes on all the various ways my students learn and gain knowledge these next few months.

These last couple of weeks have included a little bit of drudgery (do I HAVE to? can’t we just SAY we are done?) along with some fun and exciting activities.

There have been nature walks with Dad. With the arrival of 2 new kitties into the family, there was much reading and research to learn proper care for them. This included crafting homemade toys like yarn-balls for them to play with. Big Brother Luke stoked up the campfire for an end of the year cookout. See how they chose the biggest, gooiest marshmallows for S’mores?

The highlight of the whole year has to be our homeschool choir production, with our Luke as Director. It was an informal ‘play’ with the premise of a group of kids preparing for a talent show. Esther did a routine of interpretive movements to Arise, My Love by NewSong. Gabe and Noah played the bears in Goldilocks and performed a rather funny recitation from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Bekah played Laura Ingalls in a Little House skit. Luke directed them all in 3 songs which our inexperienced beginner singers performed amazingly.

And now what? We’ll sit back and have fun and take time to many things we’ve put on hold. But we’ll also take a good hard look at what worked, what didn’t and where do we go from here. Most years I begin this evaluation mode as February rolls around, but with the wedding this year I guess I’m a bit behind.

We will be working on some educational activities over the summer, but making a clean break from the previous year and starting up a new year after a short break seems to work well for us. I love the flexibility and freedom we have as homeschoolers, to be able to set our own schedule, our own pace. I can hardly wait to find out what we’ll be doing next year!

Where are the kitties you may be asking? Meet Caspian! We’ll introduce his sister Eowyn soon.

sharing this post on Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners and Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and the Ultimate Homeschool Blog Hop