I am sooooo itching to be done with school it’s not even funny. I’ve never felt like this before! I think that’s because this year has just felt like survival mode because of jumping into homeschooling Lindsey even before I really knew much of anything about her learning style or skill levels or anything. I realized the other night that if I survive next year and my kids actually learn anything, then I will add “experienced” to my job title of “homeschooler” because I will have completed my fifth year of homeschooling, including one year of high school! That’s exciting and overwhelming all at once!

Anyway, back to this year — and this week. We’ve been virtually touring the Pacific Islands this week, and next week we’ll finish our year’s geography study with Australia. Kathryn has really enjoyed doing this “Children Around the World” curriculum, and told me recently that she couldn’t think of anything negative to say about it. I think I need to submit her review to Winter Promise! I think Lindsey actually enjoyed most of it, particularly the readings; her only complaint was that she felt like she was doing third-grade work, but part of that is the fact that she doesn’t yet realize that homeschooling just doesn’t work like public school, and we don’t have to segregate everything in order to work on two different grade levels. In addition, I was giving her a bit of a break because this was a good but stressful year (with being adopted and all that!) — and because I do plan to challenge her for ninth grade next year!

We have continued our daily Bible readings and the girls continue to do about a page each week for their Bible notebooks. We are so happy to have finally finished Leviticus today! I know that every word of the Bible is important, but there is only so much of the rules and regulations I can take all at once. Chapters 18-20 are particularly awkward to read with a 9 and 15-year-old! Especially when they stop to ask questions. But since we had spent soooo much time in Exodus recently reading about building the Tabernacle, I wanted something to help that info stick in their minds. So I bought a 3-D puzzle of the Tabernacle, and Ken and the girls put it together last night. There’s another kit I’d love to have, but it is $50-something, and this one was only about $17 on CBD.

Here’s the finished product:

The highlight of our week was a field trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (see yesterday’s post). That was nature study, geography, and a bit of history all in one! Woohoo! Having oodles of pretty flowers to look at didn’t hurt either. 😉

So, ONE MORE WEEK of officially doing school, and then we’ll call it a year.  Even though I’m totally ready to be done with this year, I really am very excited about next year —  AFTER some time of refreshment for my mind and soul!

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »