Kindergarten Wrap Up

We did it!

We finished our first official year of homeschooling!  Josie is now a kindergarten graduate and ready to enter the 1st grade. After a couple of months swimming with her buddies, of course.

First Day of Kindergarten                             Last Day of Kindergarten

I sat down last week and went through all of her workbooks, projects, and art from the past year and let myself give myself a pat on the back. Not only did we both survive this adventure in schooling, but we both thrived. She reached (and exceeded) the goals I wrote back in August, is reading above her grade level, and can draw the prettiest stick people I've ever seen (art totally isn't our thing).

And I've learned too.

I've learned that not all lessons are planned and over scheduling kills all of our joy and a walk in the mornings is a better mood changer than a solo trip to Starbucks.

I've learned I love my kids.

I mean, I knew that before, but if I told you I never questioned how we'd do spending every waking hour together, my pants might literally set on fire.

But it was good.  Really good.

Not a once did I look longingly at the bus driving by our house or even glance at the local school schedule to see when enrollment ended.  I've loved watching my kids become friends, even when it meant they had to fight it out.  I didn't mind having a sous chef while making anything involving a mixing bowl or sweeping up play-doh.  Again.

If I'm really honest, and I like to be really honest, the only stressful times had nothing to do with schooling or my kids but with my own image of what things should look like.  Once I got out of my own head and saw that the best way to teach is the way that they learn, and that that might not look like how my friends are doing it, I enjoyed every day.

We are going to keep going over the Summer with a lightened load.  A few fun science units, finishing up our unit on the book Sarah, Plain and Tall, and nailing down her writing skills are on the agenda.  All things we can move outside with and that can be done in our down time.

I'm excited for next year.

I have both of the kid's curriculum sitting on the shelf just waiting for it's turn to show us new adventures. We are diving into history and I'm amping up our reading lists.  And, hello, Gabe is joining us which is like doubling my enrollment!  I should get some kind of bonus for that.

But first, we celebrate a year well learned.

Happy Summer Friends.