A year in review: Our first year of Homeschooling comes to a close

So I wrote the majority of this blog post in the BEGINNING of the summer and well... it never got published. So I figured "hey probably a good time to get it up before I start blogging about the NEW school year right?!"

Just like that in the blink of an eye we finished our first year of homeschool. This time last year we had been praying for wisdom and peace whether or not that this was the best choice for our family. A Up until a little over a year ago home school wasn't even something on my radar, I doubted I was capable of being my children's primary teacher, but God kept giving us gentle nudges until finally one day it was like "Ok God, we hear you and know this is what we need to do." You can read a little more about that here on my post "Why we are homeschooling and our first day of school."

So how did our first year go? Short answer: It was amazing. Were there days where it just didn't go our way and I wanted to hide in the closet? Yep. But the majority of it was amazing, memorable, encouraging and fun. All of it was humbling and filled with God's grace. I am so proud of my son for how much he learned this year and his love for reading. It's been truly a blessing to be right there in the midst of the little moments while he learned things like, how to tell time... how to subtract... fun science experiments, nature walks and everything in between.

Carson learning dice math, Lily being... two.

I wasn't sure how it would go with having a 2-3 year old in the midst of it as well and keeping her entertained and happy turning our school time. Truth is she just wanted to be a part of it all. She wanted to be right there in our little school room with us, singing songs, learning the abc's, story time.. coloring.. participating in our projects too. I saw her grow and thrive so much this year and hope that I can always hear her sweet little voice saying the pledge of allegiance in my head because it's the cutest thing ever. There were days where she was very much a 2-3 year old... But we got through it together, sometimes with a little extra coffee or time outside on the trampoline.

One of my favorite parts of the year was being a part of our amazing co-op school that we went to full class days with 2x a month and field trips. Being a part of the community and fellowship was such a blessing. I have new wonderful friends because of it and they were truly mentors for me as our family navigated it's way through it's first year. The kids made amazing friends too! When I was researching co-op schools to be a part of it was no accident that I ended up on their website. I know God lead us to that school and community.

American Dress up day at one of our class days both of them wanted to go as farmers. 

We had a lot of fun units and projects/moments this year, so to keep this blog short I will share our top 10 favorites :)

(Not in any particular order)

1. Sun Unit: Learning what melts/doesn't melt in the sun

2. Regrowing used vegetables! Our green onions are still going strong. Even after all the snow we had this past winter.

3. Fruit of the Spirit/Apple Slice Paint Craft. We has a LOT of fun with this one! It's still hanging in our school room :)

4. Homemade Play dough with essential oils. Carson said this was one of his favorite projects.

5. Advent Reading Christmas Tree Ornaments

6. Snow Day walks! We had lots of fun snow day walks. This was several days after our last snow. We couldn't believe how long it stuck around. So fun!

7. Volcano launching with Daddy. Another awesome part of homeschooling... we got to save some projects for when Daddy got home from work so he could participate too!

8. "Swimming Octopus Craft" - We ended our Octopus unit making swimming Octopus with recycled grocery bags, water bottles and food coloring!

9. Caterpillar Unit! It was so fun to get our caterpillars as tiny tiny little guys and watch them go through metamorphosis! The kids agreed this was one of their favorite things from the whole school year. I loved that we did it at the end of the year and were able to release them in our garden.

10. Graduating Kindergarten! We are so proud of our boy for how much he learned and thrived his first full year of school. 

So that's a wrap to our first year of school! We made so many fun memories, had a few trial and error moments, had amazing class days with our co-op and learned so much together. We are very excited to start Pre-K and 1st Grade in the Fall!

Stay tuned for a LOT more blog posts this school year as we do new projects, crafts and more that I will be sharing here. 

Blessings,

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