Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Closing our first year of home school.

Today is "clean up the schoolroom day".  We're basically done with school, and at this point I am ready to just call it.  So today we're packing up books, cleaning out drawers and getting rid of clutter.




I am so proud of the work that Emma has done this year in home school.  The year was a challenge, for sure.  I had a huge learning curve as a "teacher".  Plus the juggling act of teaching Emma, entertaining the younger boys, and still keeping up with other responsibilities.  Then add my pregnancy sickness at the beginning of the school year, and Braxton's challenges at the end of the school year.  It's been an uphill battle in many ways.

I've learned a lot about my kids, how to teach them, and how they interact with each other.  And most importantly, they have learned a lot, too.  So challenges aside, the year was a success.

We have already purchased our curriculum for next year.  We decided to go with Alpha Omega's Lifepac curriculum for History & Geography, Language Arts, and Science.  For Math, we are using their Horizons curriculum.  That's all we're planning on buying for formal teaching.  I am intentionally keeping our load light so we can fill in with other things that interest us.

Next year I also want to focus more on making things fun for the kids.  More charts.  More goals.  More rewards.  I realized that even something as simple as writing "100%" or "great job" on Emma's papers meant a lot to her.  So I want to focus more on the little things along the journey...not just the destination.

Cheers to the end of the school year, and to the start of a GREAT summer!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you just wanted to show us your computer monitor is as big as the Imax Theater! Please tell ALL the kids "GREAT JOB!" for me. Kathy and I are very proud of all you have accomplished.

PS: One of your clocks (Africa or America) looks like it's off a bit.