whew

We've FINALLY finished our first full year of homeschool ... it was a tough year, but I think we ultimately came out on the positive end of the scale.

CHALLENGES
- attitude. Oh, the attitude! Sunny and I had a battle of wills most of the year when she decided (usually) that she just didn't want to do her daily work. If I had a dime for every time she told me she didn't want to do something because it's boring ... that alone could have paid for Disney World. AC and I have discussed and tried a variety of incentives as well as disciplinary action with her, often a combination of the two. We're still working on this but in the past few weeks, things have been going better. I'm hopeful that our new year will have a better start.

- the babies. Both inside and outside of Mom ... in August and September, I was in the first trimester of another pregnancy (the new baby is due in March and will be 17 months younger than Magnolia). Those kill me. Magnolia is a pretty clingy baby so I was constantly juggling her climbing on me when I was trying to work with the other girls. Birdie, at age 2, is a pretty strong-minded kid and has to be included in everything but gets into things to make situations more difficult rather than easier. We're still trying to figure out how to include her so it's effective for all of the girls at the same time.

- our perpetually messy house. This bugs me more than it does anyone else. We have our family of almost-7 in only 1000 square feet with minimal storage. The mess really does make it hard for me to think.

- organization and methodology. I started out reading The Well-Trained Mind, which outlines a stringent schedule for classical education that is pretty much impossible for our family to maintain right now. But I like the targets and the curriculum track. It's chronological, which is how I think best. In trying to figure out how to work best with Sunny, I flipped to what seems to be the opposite end of the spectrum - I started reading about unschooling, or child-driven learning, or project-based learning, or whatever the favored catch-word is today. I think we're landing somewhere in the middle - firm on some subjects (math), and letting Sunny be more in control on other subjects (science). But it has been a challenge to sort through it all and figure out what might be best for our family.

All of the challenges are still works in progress, but I think they're coming along. Slowly, but at least moving forward.

POSITIVES
- time. We've spent all of our time together. I don't know that we can quantify the benefits of that, at least not yet if ever. But I am confident this is a good thing for our family.

- reading and math. Sunny's reading level is at least upper-elementary, if not middle school. Posy can read fairly well already. She's not into chapter books yet, but she's been able to read everything we've put in front of her. They're catching on in math - they're both at approximately grade level. Sure, I'd like to think my kids are geniuses and will be doing algebra before they're ten, but of course I'm satisfied with "at grade level" especially since the subject area in general hasn't received a lot of attention.

- field trips. Except for our spring break trip to Texas, our road trips have been during regular school days. And we've tried to make sure every trip, even Disney World, included learning experiences. In Louisiana, we went to the aquarium and the children's museum. In Texas, we went to the zoo, the science museum and planetarium, and two other cultural and history museums (the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and the National Scouting Museum). In Florida, we spent a couple of days on the beach, toured a historic military installation, and went on a dolphin cruise. We went to Disney World and took our time in the science sections of Epcot and the Animal Kingdom, as well as watched two Broadway-caliber theater performances. And we finished in Oklahoma, visiting the zoo and science museum. And that doesn't include all the times we went to our own local children's museum.

- sleep. Oh lovely sleep! Especially with me going from nursing to being pregnant again. We don't have to get up at oh-dark-thirty to get Sunny to public school - we can sleep as long as we need to, and if we don't eat breakfast until after 10, oh well. It's also been interesting to watch the girls' sleep patterns. They've had times when for a couple of days, or even a week, one of them will sleep in later than usual and still go to bed on time. They've all done it at least once or twice this year. Growth spurt time! If they were on a more firm schedule, they would have missed that opportunity. Sick days are also not an issue. They can sleep in really late and nap as needed, and we can still read with them and do low-key activities like puzzles or drawing.