End of the School-Year...

Its that time of year...  when every mom (whether homeschooling or not) is slowly reaching melt down.  Its been a long hard year and lets face it, we're at the end of our rope.  I loved Jen's post expressing her end-of-the-school-year-angst.  She said: We are limping, limping across the finish line, folks.  I totally agree!  I have been counting down the days until we can say "summertime is here"!

We started the school year using (and liking) Heart of Dakota.  But by Christmas break Nate and I were both a little bored.  We have been supplementing through the spring semester and doing a lot of "unschooling" things.  I have researched and settled on a curriculum that we've been trying out for next year.  We are going to be using Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool.  Basically its one mom's attempt at putting her children’s school assignments online.  She uses almost exclusively free online resources. She is sharing it to make it available to other families as well. While it helped her family's school days run very smoothly, the grander goal is to help other families, especially anyone feeling like they couldn’t homeschool because of time or money pressures. 

Joe completed his kindergarten life skills class. He has made some really good progress this year, especially gaining strength in his legs and getting better at walking with his walker.  I have really appreciated the efforts his teacher has made to include and challenge Joe in her class. Yay for being in Miss Sarah's class again next year!

Christine was approved for CSHCS to help supplement her medical and therapy expenses.  She adjusted well to the MWF developmental preschool for the last month of the school year.  All the therapists and teachers love her.  I mean, how could they not?  She is the cutest!

We're looking forward to having a laid back summer.  I feel like our life is so scheduled sometimes... all the drop-offs and pick-ups, the therapies and doctor's appointments...  summer will be a refreshing slower pace.  But frankly, I am glad that our school system is on a modified calendar and summer break is only June and July.  To be completely honest, its difficult to have all my kids all the time.  I hate to pull the special needs card but I'll do it.  It is seriously hard to have two kids who require so much from me.  I'll miss the bit of a break I get from having Joe in school.  It makes outings more challenging when I'm juggling Joe and Christine on top of all the other stuff life throws at me...  but the break from routine is good for all of us and we have some fun things planned this summer that will help pass the time on the long summer days.