I have a book called School Years I’ve kept current since Hanna was in 5K. In it for each school year there is a place for a school picture, question/answer section for the student, info about the school year and a pocket for each grade to hold keepsakes. In the pocket for each year I’ve kept a couple of my favorite artwork pieces, a handwriting sample and several pieces of school work from various subjects. I’m so happy to have this little scrapbook, and glad I’ve kept it updated.
I decided to start doing it a little differently this year though. I’m going to put Hanna’s School Years book in our homeschool box with all of her work for the year so I’ll always have it and know where it is, but from here on out I’m going to make a scrapbook page for our family album at the end of each academic year instead. We all look through our scrapbooks regularly, so I know these pages will be seen more and better remembered this way. Plus, now that we homeschool, I have schoolwork in boxes and artwork hanging everywhere—school is part of our daily home life.
Since this was Hanna’s first year of middle school, I thought it would be neat to include a picture of her from 5K, and a current picture since she is just growing and changing so much. She doesn’t even look like the same little girl anymore. She is so beautiful inside and out and I am so blessed to spend each day with her. I did a Q & A on these pages as well with both Hanna and Joe and that was lots of fun.
This picture of her from 5K was taken the night of the graduation ceremony. All of the kids in her Montessori school made their graduation hats and I just loved that. They were darling, so full of each one’s individual personalities. Hanna (and myself) were so blessed to have such a wonderful school for her to attend all of the years before we began homeschool.
Here is Joe’s.
Joe has changed a lot since last year’s school pic too! He looks so much more big boy to me, and so handsome! I am one very, very lucky, blessed and happy mama to be able to homeschool my children. I can’t put into words how much joy it brings me each day, along with the joy comes many challenges, but each one is so worth it. I never thought I had the patience or know how to homeschool. I am so, so thankful that I took the leap of faith to do this, and I can do it, and I am doing it, and I hope to be blessed enough to continue this amazing journey for the long haul.
This year we all learned so much together. I watched Hanna and Joe grow by leaps and bounds. Hanna has become so much more responsible and her work ethic has truly grown more than I ever thought it could in just one short school year. I am most proud of her accomplishments in self-discipline, work ethic and math. She completed two Teaching Textbooks maths and one Life of Fred math. She worked very hard to do this so she could be where she needed to be to prepare herself for a college prep track later in high school. Best of all, she is understanding math now and has self-confidence in this subject—wonderful!
Joe has learned to read, write, learned many math skills and he has blown us all away with how fast he learns and how much he loves to learn. He has a super work ethic and is very motivated to do his school work.
I couldn’t ask for more as a homeschool mom—wonderful children who listen, love to learn and help me as much as I help them. A supportive husband who goes above and beyond in all that he does for us. We have had a wonderful school year and I look so forward to the start of another one as we continue our amazing homeschool journey.
