A Homeschool Confessional

It's the second of June and 2 out of 4 children haven't completed our school year.

Gasp!! But....

Oh well!

.... we're stopping anyways. 

There it is. My confession. And for some reason I've expected the roof to collapse or the homeschool police to crash our front door, or the homeschool community to shun us, or the non-homeschoolers to point and gossip. 

But here's the truth....all that pressure comes from me, consumes me, fatigues me, and ultimately, must be realized by me that this is one of the greatest gifts of homeschooling... We have no 'school year', or even set school day. We have no start or stop date, no summer, fall, or spring break. We just do school. However that looks, season to season, year to year.

My last post about school was in the May Wrap Up and I stated that my first and second grader were probably a couple weeks from completion. By that I mean, their workbooks aren't quite done. They have mastered grade appropriate concepts and all but a couple tests are complete. It's just my OCD nature that feels they need to complete the books, which ultimately, they will, but not now. We, more importantly, I, need a break. So we will take one. At the end of that time, and probably even a little along the way, they will complete the remaining pages, as practice/refresher/rainy day time fillers. And when we decide to officially go back to school sometime next month, we'll be sure these books are done before they move into the next grades material. 

So, why write about, or share any of this, when no one would actually know, or care, if I didn't tell them? Because somewhere a new homeschool mom, or seasoned one, is out there in the same boat I've been in, fussing and grumpy because they don't want to just scratch the work, but they need a break from pushing their kids across the finish line. Guess what? Your kids need a break too, so just take it! It's part of the reason you homeschool right? 

We started this year at the end of July, but only officially had school three days a week for four hours those days. Tuesday's and Thursday's were packed with speech, allergy shots, swim lessons and grocery trips. Some seat work would happen most days during quiet time, but official school was only three days a week, with the occasional fourth when a lesson or therapy was cancelled. Friday will only be our 116th "actual" day of school! And even though we are taking a end of year break with an incomplete school year, they got really close in those 116 days, and the learning has overflowed into our daily lives. The measurements and fractions they learn in math come in handy when they worked with daddy to build the garden boxes, and the liquid measures they learned materialize when they help me cook. Their writing and story telling have come to life this year as their love of all things literacy has exploded on all fronts. Spelling and penmanship are slow to perfect, but they are 7 and 8 year old boys, writing in cursive and using phonics to navigate our ridiculously heavy "exception to the rule" language. Science and health bleed into so much of what we discuss with nutrition, our bodies and the world around us, and Social Studies comes full circle when we travel and see different parts of our world, discussing the history along the way. 

So what if they have a few pages left. Why have I let this stress me out so much? Because I won't have cute "last day of 1st or 2nd grade pictures" done in a timely manner? Blame it on the "OCD, perfectionist, don't want to be the one who lets my kids slack or fall behind", crazy mom mindset. I'm throwing that straight out the window and diving head first into summer vacation!!! WOOHOO! (Just as soon as they take their last tests and I take those pictures!) (Because, let's be realistic...we can't completely avoid those tendencies.) Bye, bye 1st and 2nd grade...hello 2nd and 3rd!! So proud of these guys! Akin Academy, OUT...for a few weeks anyways.