The End of School

Although I haven't posted about it, we did officially end our school year at the end of April. The last couple of weeks just kind of flatlined as both kids were sick, Eli with an upper respiratory infection and Brynne bookending that with two bouts of stomach flu. It didn't feel like we officially ended anything: we just quit ... hours completed .... done.

Bennett started joining us for school two days a week
while his mama is at work. He liked astronomy.

Brynne did continue to work daily on Study Island in the subjects of math and English because she was going to be sitting for the state MAP test with the public school 6th graders. She did sit for that test starting May 8th, her first standardized test ever. She also got a small taste of school because she got to stay for recess and lunch with the other students. We live in a really small town so she pretty much knows everybody, but it was good for her to be in that environment for a few days. It didn't scare her off so she is all good.

It was obvious we had not been in a school in a long time:
They don't use No. 2 pencils in standardized testing anymore ...
They use computers! LOL!

This summer will be a completely different schooling experience for us. Typically we school part-time in the months of June and July making sure we hit grammar, math, and reading every day. Then we take off the first few weeks of August before we start back full-time. But with Brynne going to public school next year, she doesn't really need to stick with our lessons other than just getting in a good summer of reading.

She has also signed up for summer school with the public school from May 30th to June 30th and will be attending seven different camps for volleyball and basketball. So Eli and I will start back together at the beginning of June to keep him moving in our regular summer studies. Doing school without Brynne will be sad, but I guess I should get used to it.

Overall we had a really great year of school. We did an intensive study of Missouri history, read the Percy Jackson books so studied Greek Mythology and astronomy, and continued on steadily with math, grammar, spelling, and copywork. We had a fun time watching Timeless and researching those times in history, watching The Wheel and studying biomes, and watching The Zoo while learning about the animals and the inner workings of The Bronx Zoo. The kids did a lot of reading, had some enrichment classes at our house with a couple of their friends, and continued with their individual sports activities. Eli also continued with his weekly speech therapy and participated in some educational activities for National Stuttering Awareness Week. It was a well-rounded year, and our last as a little school of three. It was definitely a bittersweet year for me as I watch my two little kiddos blossom into young adults.