Museum of Natural Science

Our last official field trip was to the Museum of Natural Science in downtown Raleigh.  I feel like between Ben and me, we drove to downtown Raleigh 5-7 times in a week.  It's ridiculous.  It causes me so much anxiety driving there with all the one way streets and skinny lanes and parallel parking in the middle of traffic.  Ugh.  I hope the kids know that I do this because I love them.

Even though there are so many amazing things to see at the museum, it never stopped Ella and Thad from yelling "COUCHES!!!!" before running and collapsing on them.

Two of our CC families met up with us.  The kids love any excuse to get together.

With Joshua and Rebekah.

Not only did we get to pet a rabbit but also a dove.

We however did not pet the copperheads...

Although Ella desperately wanted to pet her favorite animal, the beloved turtle.

Lily, Rebekah, and Maddie.  So cute.

We are officially done homeschooling for the year.  We did it!

Normally the last day of school is a day where I commend Lily and Skyler for all their hard work throughout the year.  I truly am so proud of them.  It has been amazing to see how much they have learned in just one single year.  It blows my mind a little.

Not trying to toot my own horn, but this year has been a huge accomplishment on my part, too.  I actually enjoyed putting lesson plans together and sitting and teaching them.  But there were days, OH THERE WERE DAYS, when we all just needed to go to different rooms and take a break.  There were days I was frustrated because no matter how many times I would repeat a lesson, Lily wouldn't pay attention.  And there were days when Skyler would be doing an assignment, get confused, and convince himself that he was stupid, which is of course ridiculous since he's one of the smartest kids I've ever met.  But not one of those days made me ever regret choosing to homeschool.  While I still firmly believe that it's not for everyone, it has been a huge blessing for our family.  It has taken away so much stress, time conflicts, and the ever-annoying fundraisers, and has given us personalized education, more time for kids to be kids and play, and more time as a family.  How many families do you know where every single family member is home together 5 days of the week?  It's pretty amazing.

While Lily and Skyler learned new spelling words and how to do multiplication, I learned how to become better organized and how to best manage time.  It has been a learning experience for all of us and I'm thankful for it.  I'm excited for next school year which looks like so much fun already.  But first...

SUMMER BREAK.