Another year down

Our 2012-13 school year has ended! We survived! 4 kids, first year with two being homeschooled (officially) and we had a great year. A few highlights for me, with pictures to come:

• Doing kindergarten with Amelia was far easier than when we did kindergarten with Caley, both because Amelia's a different kid than Caley and because I'm a little more confident in teaching kindergarten. 
• We learned about the Revolutionary war in conjunction with the election in November, I plan on doing this during each election cycle and look forward to their deepened understanding each time we hit these topics.
• Taking all of December off seems to work very well for us. It's a busy season and I love being able to focus on Jesus instead of feeling like a failure for not doing the math lesson for the day. 
• I am the teacher. I do not have to obey every instruction in every curriculum. Amelia finished her math book two months early because we didn't do every lesson because she already knew the material. 
• I am not owed a break every day. If I don't get up early to exercise or read my bible, I shouldn't get mad if I can't find the time later in the day. 
• This was the first year Caley had to take a standardized test. She is right on for her age, in most areas. Her strengths are language arts and social studies. Her weaknesses are math and science. It was redeeming for her and me to get an unbiased view of her learning. Still, the test did not test exactly what we focused on this year so I shouldn't be discouraged that her math was lower than I wanted.
• It's okay to take a day off here and there. Both the kids and I need it. I am not a failure. 
• Life happens. Caley got a headgear in April, we thought Wesley was going deaf, somedays school is just learning to slog through the daily crap together.