Yippity Skippity!  Tomorrow is our last day of school!  We’re planning on doing a bit of summer school in July and August - just a half hour to an hour each day of math and language arts review – but for the month of June we will be free spirits.    So happy and proud of us all.   We did it!

And while I’m on the topic of weathering and erosion… I feel weathered. Beaten down.  Tired.  This year has had it’s ups and downs, but it’s been a pretty good experience for the most part, I think.  These days, though, I’ve been feeling, for the first time, like I just want to quit.  Probably a good thing that this is happening with only three weeks left until our summer holidays begin.  Oh boy, I am so ready for summer holidays!  Wahoo!

Have you ever heard how pets can be thereputic for children?  The eager, accepting wag of a dog’s tail or the soft, content purr of a cat…  Being able to just love on something that really expects nothing at all from them…

Ellie is Elijah’s pet.  So adorable.  He can’t even put her down when he’s doing his school work. 

“But I just love her so much!  I can’t help it.  I have to hold her.  Look, I can do my work while holding her.  See?”

One of Zeke’s daily school activities is reading to Phoebe and Noah for a half an hour every morning.  (Pretty sweet deal, eh?)  Zeke’s fluency in reading has improved so much since the beginning of the year.  I’m very impressed.   Today he read them Curious George Goes to a Costume Party and Curious George in the Big City. 

Meanwhile, Elijah has been preparing for a Spelling Bee this Friday.  We have a practice Bee planned for this evening.  Mommy vs. Elijah.  Yikes!

We transformed the dining area of our kitchen into our schoolroom.  Cool, eh?  It’s bar height, so that the little ones can’t interfere with their older siblings so easily.  We have officially started school here this week, and it’s been going ok, I think.  When I have more time, I will blog more about all the triumphs and difficulties.  For now, though, we need to all get ready to go to the airport.  Grammie arrives today!

I’d say…it’s going.  Going well?  Mmmm…I wouldn’t say that.  “Satisfactory” would be a good assessment, I think; as per my expectations…and it helps that I didn’t have very high expectations.  (Hee hee)  For the past week we’ve been working on establishing a semi-rigid schedule and laying down some ground rules as to what we can expect from each other.  I’m really glad that we’ve set aside some time to work through these things now.

Here’s our schedule:

9:00 – 10:00  Language Arts with Mum at home
10:00 – 10:25  Recess
10:25  Head over to the College Ad. Building
10:30 – 11:20  Math with Dad in the Ad. Building
11:20 – 1:00  Prayer Room time/Lunch in College Cafeteria/Recess/Pick up Noah from Preschool 3 days a week with Dad
1:00 – 1:30 More Language Arts with Mum at Home
1:30 – 1:50  Recess
1:50 – 3:00  Science/Music/Art or catch up on whatever

History Lessons will take place 3 or 4 nights a week after Supper with Dad (The history is really fun and interesting. It reads like a story. Dave, the boys and I love it!)

So there you have it.  Our schedule in all it’s glory.  We’ve more or less stuck to it for this past week and it seems to be working.  One thing that is going to make this whole homeschooling thing fun for the boys is the fact that we live on a college campus and Dad’s flexible schedule.  It will be nice for them to have a change in scenery everyday to do their math lessons.  And how cool is it that they get to eat lunch with college students?  Even cooler is that fact that these college student love Jesus and my kids.  (Oh, and on Tuesdays they will get to participate in the Prayer and Fasting time that Dave mentioned in the previous post.)

Logistics and rules and all that kind of stuff aside though, I know I’m going to love – already love – interacting with my older kids every day on an intellectual level.  And as I’ve actually sat down and worked with them in various subjects I feel my confidence growing.  “I can do this!” I often think to myself with surprise.  For me, it’s totally debunked the myth that learning should take place in a formal setting with a highly educated person at the helm.

I also can’t help but remember all of the times that I’ve been able to volunteer in Elijah and Zeke’s classrooms… and how little one-on-one instruction really happens.  I’ve heard that a very small percentage of a school day in a public school is actually spent learning, and I totally believe it.  I’ve seen it.

Another thing, of course, is that students need to deal with distractions consistently in a classroom setting…something that just might happen here in our home school once in a while.  …Okay, who am I kidding?  Distractions will be happening here consistently too.  But, here’s the thing:  that’s Okay!

I feel very blessed to be in one of the fifty states that have a free online school like the MNVA. (There are about 20)  It’s a pretty cool program.  Not perfect – I plan on troubleshooting my way through it – but it’s free.  Like, everything is free.  Teacher support if you need it, lots of hands on material, text books…they even ship you a free computer, printer and scanner.  The lesson planning is even all done for you, and the daily online assessments will keep us on track and accountable so that we don’t fall behind.  I’m excited.

We’re having a great summer vacation too!  I love having all my kids together, I really do.  I need to start taking pictures for you all.  …Oh dear, so much to do, so little time.

Anyway…this is hardly much of a post, but I wanted to let you all know that we are all alive and well.

Later…

Today was the boys’ last day of school.  Unbelievable, isn’t it, that a whole school year has passed?  I’m flabbergasted.

That phrase, “the last day of school,” has a double meaning for our family today.  Not only is today Elijah and Zeke’s last day of school for this year, this is also their last day of public  school for… a while.

Yes, we’ve decided it is time to take a huge leap of faith and start homeschooling our children this coming fall.  I know, crazy eh?  To be honest, the thoughts, emotions and convictions that have lead us to this decision are many and they are turbulent.  I’m still sorting through all of them!  To echo the ladies with whom I met this past Friday night about starting a homeschooling co-op, “We have more questions than we have answers.”  But for now I will just say that I am quite convinced that there really is no other place where I should be channeling my energies right now.

(to be continued…)

Elijah documentented his first day of third grade on his video camera.

And then there were two…

Wowzers it’s quiet here today.  I don’t like it.  …At all.

Over at Hillcrest, my school, quite a few things are happening. For instance we’re haveing a school read-a-thon for Costa Rica, for money of course. we’re raising money for a community center, and I want to sign up.  Also at my school we have things called mad minutes, we half to anser 40 math questions in 2 minutes. it sounds a little tricky, dosn’t it? so I half to think like this: What is 18+24=? wait I know this one… is it 40? no thats 16+24.  Oh yeah! It’s 42! so you see, thats a little tricky. Oh, and also my best freind at school is Cammbell Karjala. We play a game called snowbording at reccess where we make snowbord jumps and test them out. well thats about it. Bye.