The Light At the End Of the Tunnel

The end of the school year is quickly approaching and I am happy to report that we are ALMOST FINISHED!!! Mary Alice has been working like a trooper to complete all of her work and just finished up her Math and Spelling last week. We have about a week to go on all of her other subjects. You know what this means??? Free time! I am so excited!!! I guess this means more play time outside and more trips to the usual fun places before the crowds of school children take over at the end of May.

This has been a great year being at home with Mary Alice. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her and watching her grow in her love for learning. You wouldn't believe how much I learned this year from all of her Kindergarten textbooks! (Well, maybe you would.) Anyway.... This first year of teaching my girl at home has been such a joy. I am constantly grateful that I am able to do this.

The book fair that we went to last year is coming up soon. This year, Mary Alice requested to go with me. We are looking forward to it. Even if you aren't considering homeschooling your children, I would encourage you to attend your local home school book fair. There are some really great educational materials, both for "school" and for training your children spiritually. I always enjoy seeing the many different types of people who visit the book fair. I remember last year seeing this mom with, like, seven kids, all under age 10. The kids just followed along behind her, happily, all day. The mother wasn't having to constantly remind them not to touch or bother things on the shelves. They were obviously well trained in how to behave. I wanted to ask her for her secret, but instead just watched (probably with my mouth open) as her little charges walked along joyfully behind her. Amazing! All that to say, the book fair is a great place for people watching as well as for checking out all of those incredible learning resources. I would never take my seven children there, but am sure impressed by those mothers who can pull that off!

I feel like the girl learned a lot this year. Here are a few words from Mary Alice about each subject.

Math: "Math is my least favorite subject because subtraction is sometimes too hard. Like when it says 27-18 or something, I think, Why can't I just do plus? Math is such a pill."

Phonics: "I love Phonics because of Miss Long and Miss Silent and Mrs. Short and Mr. Short. Phonics is such a blessing to me because I like all of the things I get to do, well, pretty much all of them."

Bible: "I like Bible because it is interesting. Memory verses are sometimes hard, though, because there are so many Romans verses, like Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 1:21, and 7:12, and stuff. That is the only reason that it is hard, though, just entirely too many Romans verses!"

Spelling: "I kind of liked Spelling and I kind of didn't because I had to write the words 10 or 20 or 1500 times each." (Um. Perhaps there is a bit of exaggeration here.)


History: "I LOVE history. It is my favorite subject because of all of the books that we got to read. I liked all of the books except for two. I especially liked the book about Gladys Aylward because she missionaries in China and helps people worship God." :)

Science: "I like Science alot. I really liked learning about mammals and also learning about butterflies because of their beautiful wings and magical ways to fly. The experiments were my favorite thing to do for Science."

Handwriting: "I don't like Handwriting because you have to write words too much."

Reading: "Oh, my favorite! I just like reading. It is one of my favorite things to do."

About Kindergarten: "I like being home schooled because it doesn't take all day to finish school and I have my own mom as my teacher."

Well, there you have it, Mary Alice's Kindergarten year in a nutshell. As you can see, Mary Alice is very typical in the fact that she clearly doesn't like some things about her schoolwork. I was excited, though, that she listed her teacher as one of her favorite things about the year. Hopefully that is a sign that I am doing something right.