There are cheers and screams going out all around me. School is out at M.A.K.E. today! Praise GOD! We are so ready to be done. It was a great year, and I feel so blessed that we could do it and that God gave me what I needed every day in order to survive!
Top 3 reasons I'm glad we homeschooled this year:
1) Luke & Grace are playing together better than ever! When Luke used to "go" to school, he would come home zonked and ready to veg out in front of the TV, so Grace got the leftover Luke playtime. Now, they really enjoy playing together and I really (hope) believe they will be closer in the long run. (Don't get me wrong. I have to scream out the occasional "Hey! Stop beating each other up!"...but a lot less than before!) :)
2) Flexible schedule: We got to spend some quality time up in Kansas with Papa, before he died, and still had the required 180 days of school, without missing anything! We picked up our books and drove up there, continuing school as normal. We can also get up in the morning, when we're ready, especially during the Passion Play rehearsal nights, when we all stayed up until 11 every night. Sleep makes us all nicer people.
3) I choose what my child is learning. I choose the books he reads, the kind of math that works best for him. I choose to teach based around the life that we're living. During Passion Play, we studied all of the stories in the Bible that we portrayed on stage at Easter, leading up to the resurrection. If at times I thought we needed more help in the area of obedience, those were the scriptures we read and talked about that week. I choose what's best for my child. That's my favorite reason for homeschooling, hands down.
We are done with our entire day schooling. But Luke knows he will do a page of math and read a chapter in his choice of a chapter book, each day during the summer, along with chores, before he can play for the rest of the day. Pretty tough, I know, but I don't want him to think that learning is only for a few months of the year. They won't get those months off when they start careers, right?
Now, we're looking forward to Bible School at church, Art & Theatre Camp for Grace, Golf camp for Luke, Theatre camp for Luke, swimming with friends, going to dollar movies, going to Camp Grandma's, and most of all our anniversary trip to CANCUN!
Thank you, God, for a great year of learning, and especially for refreshing days in the Son!
