I can't believe I'm saying this, but our first official year as a homeschool family is completed! Now, I'm a firm believer that lots of learning and teachable moments happen at all times . . . not just when we are "schooling" . . . but all the curriculum I purchased for this year is finished. We did it!
I went into this year truly not knowing what to expect. I didn't know if the curriculum I chose for my kiddos would be a good fit for them or if we'd even be able to finish it. I tried to not have a firm picture in my head of exactly how our days would look, and honestly I set my expectations kind of low. I wanted a year to get our feet wet, find our way, and discover what works and doesn't work for our family.
My expectations were blown out of the water! This year was better than I could have imagined!
Not every day was perfect, for sure, but we found our rhythm fairly quickly and thrived in our routine. The curriculum picks were {mostly} good, and even though I'm changing a few things next year, there was lots of learning that happened. But best of all? We were together in the safety and peace of our home. We loved spending our days together!
LIGHT Academy students - Brenson, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Brianna
Brianna completed fifth grade this year. I thought the transition to homeschooling might be the most difficult for her since she had been in public school the longest, but that was not the case. She quickly found her groove in both homeschooling and running, and I watched her become a self-motivated and reliable student. She is the only kid with a desk in her room. Sometimes, she would disappear into her room to work, but other times she would work at the kitchen table or in the living room with the rest of us. Her favorite subject was ELA, but she really thrived in all her subjects. She continued to play piano and became more proficient in the kitchen this year. I also taught her to cross-stitch! Best of all, though, was that some of her spark that had been dulled during her last year at public school was back! Being around nice girls makes a HUGE difference at this age, and we are so thankful to give her this opportunity!
Definitely starting to lose that "little girl" look!
Brenson's transition into homeschooling was pretty much seamless. He's always been an independent thinker and worker, so this method of schooling fits his personality well. He loves the freedom to dig deeper into subjects that interest him, and he loves being able to plan his days around other activities he wants to do. His favorite part of homeschooling was the shop class he did with Grampy. He and Brianna did the same level of math, science, social studies, analogies, and Bible because I pushed him to her level. While I did see some frustration from him at times, it was because the amount of work would overwhelm him and not because it was too hard. He continued to play guitar and enjoyed running. I loved seeing his interest sparked in various subjects and having the freedom to dig into those subjects as much as we wanted.
Such a big change!
I think Brooke probably grew the most as a student this year. She went from an impatient and distracted student to a student who knows how to focus and get a job done. She learned to read this year, and her penmanship has improved by leaps and bounds. Her favorite subject was math, and I was amazed at how quickly she could complete her math lessons sometimes. She loved anything hands-on and bonus points if it was messy! I also learned that she can easily memorize passages of scripture or poetry, and she's often listening even when it seems like she's not. Her growth in one short year has been amazing!
She's lost her chubby little face 😢.
Brecklyn started out the year being able to read some, but her skills have exploded this year! I'm often amazed at her fluency and ability to decode words. Reading was her favorite subject. We would only work on reading about 20 minutes a day, and she was often sad when the time was up. Math was sometimes a source of frustration for her, but she was always successful with it. She's the type of student that wants to sit down and get everything finished for the whole day without messing around. Some of my favorite moments were her "lightbulb" moments when she was learning something new!
Look how tall she's gotten!
Like I said above, I didn't know what to expect going into this year. I didn't know how smooth the transition from public school to homeschooling would be, and I wasn't very confident in my own ability to balance it all. However, we had a lot of support and encouragement that all came together to make it work for us. I am so grateful for a wonderful year of homeschooling!
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