This morning I woke up at 5:30 in a panic. I thought I'd either forgotten to set my alarm clock or had slept through it. It took me a minute to realize that it was the first day of our summer. Yesterday we finished the most unexpected, craziest school year ever. Our schooling has been anything but traditional the last six years, but this one definitely takes the cake. Even though none of it was like we'd imagined it would be, the kids adjusted with so much grace, and they never complained. I worried at the beginning of the year that it would be difficult for them, but it really wasn't. I know that's because the Lord prepared their hearts and went ahead of them to smooth the way.
Hannah Kate actually finished her classes about three weeks ago. Over achiever. She gets it honest. (Although I learned a new word from my teenagers on the way home from church tonight. Try Hard. They were trying to explain to me what a "try hard" is, and I still don't think I quite understand. Seems to me like it's synonymous with an over achiever, but I've been told it's not.). Anyway.
Ellie finished on Monday. I have to admit the last two weeks of homeschooling her had me stepping off the struggle bus every morning. It wasn't her. It was me. She, too, could've been finished a few weeks ago, but I spent every Tuesday and Wednesday mornings leading our virtual BSF class, and we had to stop early every afternoon for me to hit the carpool line for Mason. So we lost a lot of time throughout the year. I am just so very thankful that we made it through, and we are done.
Mason's last day was yesterday. His school implemented a university model for scheduling this year, and two of his classes were online all year. He began the year on a hybrid schedule with two days on campus and three days virtual. Mid-October he was on campus everyday. After Thanksgiving he was full-time virtual until mid-January. I really think that was the hardest point of the entire year. Having all three kids at home and working around virtual and online schedules, both synchronous and asynchronous, was just a challenge and, quite honestly, exhausting. Then he was back on a hybrid schedule for a couple of weeks. By February he was finally back on campus everyday, and he stayed there until he finished. He missed seven days of school within the first month because of hurricanes. He missed three days of school last week because of excessive rain and flooding. So a total of ten days were missed because of weather related events. It was quite a year.
I really don't know what to say about this school year. I knew it would be hard, and it was. But it was also better than I expected it to be. Honestly, I'm glad it's over. We all are. I feel like we've had a lot of new beginnings with schooling, none moreso than this year. But we'll have another new beginning come August. In the meantime, I think we're going to enjoy this summer more than usual. And I'm here for it!
So, to celebrate, we went for a treat yesterday. Bonjour is a dessert shop specializing in French pastries. The kids got big, fancy milkshakes, and I got a crepe. It was a sweet way to say "see ya later" 10th, 7th and 3rd grades and "bonjour" to 11th, 8th and 4th grades!
