On Friday, June 12th Laurel completed first grade. It was our first year of intentional homeschooling. We began first grade on July 29th and in a little less than 11 months we finished. 11 months sounds like a long school year but she welcomed a baby sister during that time and had to deal with mom and dad taking bahasa classes for 6 months of that time.
Things that surprised me during this year:
Laurel made this poster on her own.
“Books can take you anywhere.”
She learned to love school and learning. She became proud of the the new information she learned and wanted to find out more.
She became more independent as the year went on. There were days where she picked up her school things and worked independently the whole morning.
She learned to love to read. When we started this year I wasn’t sure she’d be reading fluently by the end of it, but one day it clicked for her.
Eleanor wants to “do school” like her big sister. Instead of playing independently while I teach Laurel, Eleanor wants to pull up a chair and doodle on some paper and “do school” with us.
Being able to teach my child and see when concepts click, see her excitement and wonder as she learns something new, and being able to encourage her through difficulties is more of a blessing than I had anticipated as we began this home-school journey.
God is good! Yes, I knew this before the school year began, but He has proven it time and again as we journeyed through this year.
It has been a great blessing to teach her at home as we made this transition together as a family. It helped keep her feeling safe, loved and created a stronger family bond.
Since we were already home-schooling the worldwide pandemic affected our life in a very small way.
We look forward to taking a 4-6 week break from school and then launching in to second grade.