Last Day of School!

 Last week, we reached our official 180 days of school! We celebrated with waffles for breakfast, and spent the morning at the playground. We had already completed our evaluation for the year, and "passed" with flying colors. 

In the evening, we had our art and science show at our co-op! It was a wonderful way to celebrate all the hard work and learning that the kids had done during the year!

Here are some of my reflections on the past year:

1. We finished waaay earlier than I expected, so I think we will take more breaks next year. We didn't really take breaks during the holidays, because I found we needed to structure. But that means we're finished at the beginning of May, and have a very long summer break! We don't have to follow a normal school schedule, so we can do what works for our family, and a too-long summer break is not it. 

2. Not using a single curriculum is a lot of work! We really enjoyed varying our learning content with different unit studies and pursuing our interests. It kept our learning fresh, and we didn't really get to a point of being tired of learning. I've learned from the past that being tied to one curriculum for a whole year gets a bit boring. However, that meant a lot of extra planning for me. So, my plan for next year is to use a pre-planned curriculum, but take breaks from it to pursue our own interests. 

3. Learning is really fun! Looking back on our experiences from the year, we all have really positive memories. I honestly didn't know that learning could be such a joy. Geography? Fun. History? Fun. Who knew?? I've really enjoyed going on this learning journey alongside the girls, rather than simply imparting information and the girls being passive recipients of that information.

So now we're done with official school until next year, though we are always learning!