This Year Was The Worst.... Hopefully

We are officially done with our first year of home schooling and it was the WORST….. or at least I hope it was. I’ve had several moms try and comfort me this year by saying “Don’t worry, the first year is always the worst.” I am holding these women accountable if that statement doesn’t turn out to be true.
I feel like I can safely say that I didn’t completely screw up my daughters’ education this year. Neither of the girls seem to be worse for wear and learning has definitely occurred. They haven’t especially loved the no sick days (granted if they had been terribly sick I wouldn’t have made them do school, but they were never that far gone), or the lack of snow days (not that there has been much snow but Alabama is very similar to South Carolina in the fact that if there’s even a single flurry almost everything shuts down), or the snooze-fest lessons because sometimes creativity failed me (there were days that I was doing good just to get through what we needed to do); but they didn’t seem to mind the sleeping late (mostly for my benefit, I am NOT a morning person), not starting school until 9:30 (to be honest that start time would be on a good day), and the ability to travel (although they weren’t always happy that school followed them wherever they went).
Waking up on the last day of school this year was very different from years past, instead of that emotional “My babies are growing up” feeling that I got at every awards day ceremony and final classroom hugs and goodbyes, I woke thinking “Thank you Lord nobody killed each other this year !!” Although there are a few added grey hairs and possibly a few years shaved off my life, I still feel an immense amount of accomplishment that we all actually survived.
I am very proud of my girls, they have endured a lot this year between moving and home schooling and they have faced it all like champs. I pushed them to their limits daily and they worked hard and came out victorious. They are both crazy good mathematicians and have grown a lot in their reading abilities, but the most important thing to me is that their characters rock. There have been multiple occasions this year that my heart has swelled with pride as I’ve watched them work through hard situations without whining or trying to take the easy route, and they’ve handled difficulties with friends with grace and kindness. I had no awards to give to them today (our printer decided to go on the fritz the last week of school) but if I could I would've give them both the Citizenship award. They have grown in academics, yes, but they are growing into good people with big hearts which, to me, is the biggest accomplishment they can achieve.
I made cupcakes for the girls for their end of the year celebration and we toasted them to all that we’ve accomplished this year. Looking ahead to next year I’m excited for the changes I’ve made to their curriculum that I believe will enable us to have more fun with learning. I am hopeful that I will be a little more together and grow in my teaching effectiveness. For now though……… LET’S ENJOY THE FREEDOM OF SUMMER!!!!