The Harvest

My Dear Readers,

I’m so sorry I never posted yesterday!  I was supposed to post about school stuff: where we are, how I am going to finish up the year…  Then yesterday went crazy, as work days are likely to do, and I never posted, though I was thinking about it. 

A reaping of that sown: greens to cook, greens for a fresh salad, greens for an infusion.

On Sunday evening I spent some time thinking about this school year:  about Ambleside Online, Five in a Row, how much time we’ve spent in co-ops and on fieldtrips, where we are in our Saxon math text, and where we are in our writing and grammar.  I say “we” because even thought it’s Michaela’s education, at this point I am totally responsible for putting her lessons together and making sure she follows through.

As I wondered about writing out yet more lessons, I could not get off my mind that, very simply, “you reap what you sow.” 

I had everything I needed right at my fingertips to do a full year of Ambleside and yet we have persisted in reading only a few of the selections on the year’s list of books.  We have focused on only one artist: Raphael.  But I’m not going to cry over things not accomplished. 

On the other hand, we have been 100% involved in our Five In A Row homeschool support group, including a co-op that split off to study Volume 4, and our lives have been so enriched with friendship, hands-on learning, review, and time outdoors and in others’ homes, the result has been beyond my expectations.  But I am not going to be over-confident regarding things we did accomplish. 

The summation of this is that we are not yet where I had hoped we’d be in the math book and yet we are still inspired to learn, and here it is May!  I think it has been a successful year. 

It is clear to me that we are reaping what we have sown through the year.  There’s a harvest to everything.  Perhaps we’ve a table covered in too many sweet fruits and not enough vitamin-rich vegetables, and yet, at least for now, we are doing well with what we’ve harvested.   It’s clear to me though that there are some lessons I need to take from this and that we need to be wise with the time left in this school year and even this summer.

We have three more outings with our homeschool group and the year will be done in that sense.  Otherwise, we are focusing only on math and writing during our days, and our evening/bedtime/independent reading will be purely the bible and the few books from Ambleside Year 5 that we want to finish but have not yet.  Michaela will be required to name all of the paintings by Raphael that we have studied.  Her end-of-year testing is already set up to be done with an indepedent testing service in the second half of June.  Then we’ll break, except for math.

I feel like I’m tying up loose ends and that I have learned so much.  As far as I know, next year we will be using Ambleside Year 6, Beyond Five In A Row, our Saxon math, and other things yet to be determined.  (Must wait until after the NC Homeschool Conference!)

While we’re at it, do expect a final Ambleside post before the school year is out.

I’ll leave you with a bunny picture.  Trying to crawl up out of my hand and look at the world, this little bunny does have ears!  If you’ll remember, Coco sometimes looked like she had no ears, or only one ear.  Like mama, like baby.

A good reminder:  You reap what you sow.