The End of Homeschooling

Well, we did it! We survived an entire school year of homeschooling! Before this year if you would've asked me to homeschool my kids I would've laughed in your face. I knew that there would be lots of head butting and arguments involved and I just knew that I wouldn't be happy.

Well, I was wrong! 100% wrong. I absolutely loved the slower pace and being home with my girls 3 of 5 days a week. Our homeschool year was wonderful and I would love to do it again.

Unfortunately for me, I was working way less and I really need to bring in a bit more each month, so we decided to go ahead and send the girls back to school next year. And, the world is finally returning to whatever this normal is. So long as masks aren't required next year we can figure out a way to deal with the rest of any craziness that might happen. 

That being said, I figured out that once you remove the external stress of: waking up for the day, getting kids dressed, fed, out the door, and then rushing home to do homework, activities, feed, bathe, and get to bed- life is a heck of a lot simpler. I was not stressed much at all this past year, because we had removed all of the things that stress me out. If we could afford for me to stay home, I would do what I could to continue homeschooling. 

Adalyn used a mixture of The Good & The Beautiful for language arts/reading and handwriting, Brain Quest workbooks, and an actual 2nd grade math textbook. We also incorporated Bible verses, science that sisters were doing, spelling, sight words, and watched some history lessons on YouTube. 

One of my favorite things I did was have her call her grandparents on the days that I worked so she could read to them! It was a wonderful way to connect them together.

Math was by far her favorite subject, although she absolutely hates when she has to regroup in subtraction. She is well on her way to learning the basics of cursive handwriting, and she knows about all 500 sight words that our elementary school would require. We are currently working our way through 600 & 700, and she knows a good portion of them already! 

The curriculum I wanted to use with Megan wasn't available at the beginning of the year because it was sold out! So many people started homeschooling last year!

We started off using Brain Quest books with her, and then transitioned her over to Easy Peasy All in One, which was the same program that Gretchen was using. 

I loved it on the days that I was home with her, but on the days that I had to work, she continued her Brain Quest workbooks. Eventually we had her using Easy Peasy even on days that I worked, once she could navigate the website on her own, and that worked well for about 2 months. Then I realized she was completing the workbook pages only and not logging in. Grr. 

On my off days I had to go back and reteach what she was skipping. So, needless to say it took us a long time to get through math! We are still working on it throughout summer and touching up on some things so she'll be ready for 5th grade! 

She also used Good & Beautiful for handwriting, and I am amazed at how much growth she had in that area! 

Spelling was also an area that Megan excelled in! 

Currently, she's working her way through reading The Swiss Family Robinson, and once she's done, she'll be finished with the reading for the school year. 

Gretchen excelled at school work this year, but that's just who she is. She loves school and learning. She took pre-chem, algebra 1, language arts, reading, and 2 history courses. 

She also used Easy Peasy All in One and read too many books to count! She completed end of the year power points and taught us some things too! 

She's super excited about going back to school next year and being with friends. 

I absolutely loved this homeschool year and I don't regret it for a minute. Seeing them learn, grow, play together, rely on each other, teach each other. Those are moments I will always treasure. We laughed together, cuddled, read books, studied the Bible, memorized verses, wrote stories, and just had fun. It was definitely a year to remember!