DONE

It's a beautiful thing to be able to say we finished our school year last Thursday.  This was the toughest school year for me so far as Joey's workload increased and Hannah needed a lot of attention.  I think I spun around in circles most days but we finished and survived to tell the story.  :-)

My main goal was to finish language arts.  We did, then took pictures to commemorate the occasion.  Ben finished All About Spelling level 4 and First Language Lessons level 3.  Joey finished All About Spelling level 1 and First Language Lessons level 1.   

We worked through several different science and history resources that I had planned at the beginning of our year.  The only thing we didn't finish is math.  Joey almost hit the end of Saxon 2.  Saxon spends a lot of time at the beginning of each book reviewing, so I'm just calling it quits for the year, and I know he'll pick up anything he missed (which is very minimal) in the fall.  

Ben is a different story, as we're only about 2/3 of the way through Saxon 5/4.  One thing I've learned about math education is that math must be mastered before moving on.  There is no point in flying through it just to finish if students truly haven't mastered the material.  And technically, he is an entire book level ahead of grade level so there's nothing to worry about.  The beauty of homeschooling is that we work at his speed.  I really think if I pushed him through math and didn't spread it out as we did this year, Ben wouldn't have mastered the things that required more time.  So the days that "math class" was spent doing drills online or extra practice with problems like n+745=9,200 or long division wasn't in vain.  It just means he knows his stuff and won't get tripped up later when math gets harder.  And believe it or not, we're on a math track that won't involve calculators until very late high school or college.  These early years are vital to laying a foundation of math brain power (ohh how I wish I was classically educated, but it's awfully fun to redeem my education as an adult, especially in math).  So this summer we will continue working through his math text maybe two days a week, and once he finally finishes the book we will move straight into the next book.  For now, the name of the game is NO SCHOOL.  

We're being CRAZY lazy around here after a couple really busy weeks of jobs/obligations that Andrew and I had.  Those are now over and we'll spend this week mostly decompressing, rotting our brains in front of screens (true story), and getting ready for vacation Bible school at our church the second week of June.  I have zero desire right now to do any "summer schooling" or planning for next school year.  And that's ok.  We all need a break.  After we take a little time off, I know I'll crave some routine for all of us.

Simply put, our prayer for the summer is just to grow and bond as a family and make wonderful memories along the way, however God leads us.