We've reached the end of our homeschooling journey. My kids are beyond happy...the end of school...even homeschool is something to celebrate. I can't believe that we did 11 weeks of homeschooling. It's been such an adventure with ups and downs, and I hope that we never forget what it has been like.
Both bigger kids had a tough start to learning. There was a steep learning curve to figure out the technology involved. But each week we got more and more familiar, and now Ben is able to do all the work independently on Google Classrooms. I still have to guide him, of course, but he can do all the classwork on his own. His teachers were amazing at sending just the right amount of work to keep them busy. I'm really surprised at how he was able to time manage much better than I thought. Each Monday they would get their lists of assignments to complete, and we broke it down day by day to see how much he had to complete to finsih everything by Friday.
Maddie had a harder time with at home learning. She truly missed her teacher in person and all her little friends. She loves the routine of getting ready for school, being with her friends and socializing. With Maddie's school work, I had to be alot more hands on. Loading the videos for each day's assignemnts and helping her through the work. Once she got working, I could leave her for 10-15 min at a time depending on what she was working on. Her reading has been much improved, but I'm hoping we will continue to work on it over the summer.
And we did lots and lots of google classroom calls. The big group calls were difficult sometimes as there were so many kids, but both my kids loved the smaller more intimate groups. They always felt refreshed and so happy after seeing their classmates and chatting.
Our school issued our Family Fridays which was our favorite weekly activity! No school work was given, and we were encouraged to spend time together as a family. How amazing is that! We spent our Fridays enjoying beaches, parks, picnics, movie afternoons, baking, and outdoor time together. We loved checking weather reports during the week and then deciding what we should do together as a family.
All in all, this experience was something I never thought I'd get a chance to do. Homeschooling with the big kids, Ellie working on her Kindergarten books & journal and little Annie trying to get some attention. I loved that the bigger kids got to be home during Annie's first year (I keep thinking that these little memories of all 4 of them will be SO cherished!) and how lucky we all were to have a safe and happy to home to be in.
Our school had an end of the year parade, and the kids absolutely loved it. We drove around the school (during our specific sign up times) and got to say bye to our principal who is retiring, and all our teachers. Such a sweet memory for the end of school.
And now we can't wait to do ALL the summer things! Here's to looking forward to all our summer memories!