Last Day of School

All my Facebook friends are sharing this blog post by Jen Hatmaker:  Worst End of School Year Mom Ever. In case you don't click through and read it, it's about beginning the school year with a bang and ending it with a whimper.  "I tapped out in April," she says, "and at this point, it is a miracle that my kids are still even going to school."

Even as a homeschool mom, I feel the same pain! Once the weather gets nice, who can make themselves, let alone their kids, stay indoors and do math drills?

The only thing that saves me is thinking back to how diligently we did them all through the first half of the year. I think of how in her year in third grade in the public school, Chicklet was supposed to study her math facts every day but was only tested once a week on them. But we have tested every day for most of the year, so maybe it's fine if we go down to twice a week now!

Then I think of how public school kids go to gym class once a week all year long, and we don't always get that in--unless you count dancing at show rehearsals, which I do. But shouldn't we add some other PE experiences in the spring? It's been biking and rollerblading daily for C10 and B8 for the past month or so, plus running for B14.

And I think how kids in middle school take "life skills" (or home ec) for credit and how none of my homeschooled middle schoolers have ever gotten credit for that. But isn't reorganizing your bedroom and your closet a pretty big Life Skills project? How about helping mom move and create a new raised bed in the backyard? Yeah, I thought so too. I think we will continue to offer Life Skills as a summer course!

Because we are DONE. Despite trying to wiggle out of it with rationalization, we have gone through each one's student planner and made sure that all the most important boxes have been filled in, and we are DONE!

A couple of my students still have a few pages of work to finish up, but we are calling that "summer school." They can do that along with their summer reading--at least 30 minutes first thing--and summer math. (Those math drills that we skipped will get done after all!)

But today, we celebrate by going to Six Flags with friends! We bought passes last fall (for the three younger kids and I) when they were on sale and came with free parking, and we intend to use them lots. There's a water park there too!

Happy end of school! Cheers!!