last day of school

2025-26 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

That’s a wrap on the 2025-26 school year!

We spent the week tying up loose ends. Chickadee finished her massive algebra review. She also finished the final chapter in science. In history we read about independence in Africa and Nelson Mandela. We wrapped up our study of more modern history with one of my favorite 8th grade activities…a study of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” I gave her one last surprise writing assignment…she wrote a short essay about Simone Biles. We finished The Phantom Tollbooth. And we even squeezed in a visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden!

Our last recipe for the year came from a new book that followed our theme…The Official American Girl Cookbook, which is a new publication just in time for their 40th anniversary. We made Pac-Manicotti, a recipe inspired by Courtney, the doll that most closely represents the time in which I grew up!

And we celebrated the end of a successful school year with a treat at Dutch Bros!

This has been a different and busy school year, and we’re ready for a break…but there are plenty of opportunities for learning this summer before Chickadee begins high school!

K to 8

It’s become something of a tradition for me to post a gallery of the first days of school from kindergarten through 8th grade on the last day of each child’s 8th grade year. So, for the last time, here’s a look back at Chickadee from K to 8:

And a bonus picture of her today on her last day of 8th grade:

On to high school!

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

You’ve already seen Ladybug’s graduation photos, but I waited until today for the final wrap-up of the 2024-25 school year because I had one more very special outing planned for Ladybug:

The rest of the week was just finishing everything up…Ladybug was ecstatic to be done with Jane Eyre and her term paper, plus she finished American Nations and our mad dash through poetry. Chickadee also finished her final paper and history project, plus wrapped up pre-algebra, and now I never have to teach it again!

We also did a few of our favorite things one last time…took a really long walk, visited the library, and played tennis.

And our favorite last-day-of-school activity…building some new Lego sets! We went with a floral theme this time…they’ll make excellent decorations for our school room (or any other place in the house that needs a bit of brightening), and there’s a fourth piece in the set that Chickadee will build on the first day of her eighth grade year!

That’s a wrap on my 17th year of homeschooling…up next, my first year ever with only one student in my school!

2023-24 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

We finished the final chapter of the 2023-24 school year!

Ladybug wrapped up a few final things this week. She read about magnetism in physics. In history, she read about Joan of Arc, Henry VII, and the fall of Constantinople. She read some literary selections from the Restoration and Neoclassical Age, including Phillis Wheatley’s “To S.M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Work.”

Chickadee finished her math curriculum by learning how to calculate simple interest with i=prt. She completed her final writing assignment about African and Asian elephants and their habitats. She also completed her grammar review for the year. We read about Paul’s missionary journeys and trip to Rome.

We had one final field trip for the 2023-24 school year…we attended the final History Exploration Day for the year at the Missouri History Museum, which focused on recreation, which is both a fun and serious topic, as we looked not only at how people enjoyed recreation in the past, but also who wasn’t welcome at various locations.

And one last fun activity before the end:

On to the summer…there’s a lot we’re looking forward to, including the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games!

Graduation Day!

The last two years just flew by, and today, Turkey and Bunny received their Associate’s degrees…Turkey an Associate in Science, and Bunny an Associate in Arts!

I enjoyed getting a look at the class banner while we were there:

It was a very nice ceremony…in addition to being on the Dean’s List all four semesters (they received a special blue tassel for that) and members of Phi Theta Kappa (the gold tassel, cord, and stole), not to mention Turkey’s Outstanding Math Student award for the 2022-23 school year, they were recognized for having a perfect 4.0 GPA, something less than 10% of the graduates accomplished. They have kept pace with each other from the very beginning!

We are all so proud!

Two weeks from today, I’ll be celebrating with the two of the them at Disneyland!

2022-23 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

That’s it for the 2022-23 school year! This was a pretty light week, focused on wrapping things up. Ladybug and Chickadee took their final tests and finished what they needed to in various books. We also had one last field trip…a visit to Grant’s Farm for Maifest. I thought this was a great way to end the year, especially since our Christmas School was focused on learning about Christmas in Germany, and Chickadee has so diligently studied German with Duolingo this year.

We ended the year the way we began…with a Disney-themed Lego set. This one is an art set of Minnie Mouse that is a companion to the piece we built back in August, and they actually connect to make one large picture!

In some ways, I don’t feel like I put in as much effort as I should have this my 15th year of homeschooling. It was a complicated year, schedule-wise, and I felt stretched pretty thin. I’m already looking forward to all of the things we’ll be doing next year, though, and hopefully I’ll make up for the lack of energy I had this year!

2021-22 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

And just like that, the 2021-22 school year has come to an end! The week was mostly spending time outdoors (our daily walk is now at about four miles, even in the unpleasant heat we’ve been having!) and wrapping things up.

Ladybug took her final geometry exam (and got an “A”!). She finished the chapter on mammals in biology by reading about learned and innate behaviors, and various forms of conditioning. She also finished her astronomy course by learning about celestial navigation…she even used Google Earth to find the approximate coordinates of our house! We finished her study of religious writings by reading about the Book of Mormon. She read about Constantine in history. To conclude our study of Henry V, we watched The Hollow Crown, episode four.

Chickadee also finished up math by reviewing equations, fractions, and how to cross multiply and divide. We read about sponges in science (we do still have one field trip left related to her study of aquatic animals…stay tuned!). She reviewed all of the parts of speech she’s learned by diagramming some fairly long sentences. We wrapped up our study of US geography by learning about Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington D.C.

As always, we built a Lego set to celebrate the last day of school (and since Turkey and Bunny were home at an unusual time due to their finals schedule, they were able to lend a hand):

This was a different year for all of us, and it took some getting used to. I’m really glad we did some very different things this year instead of trying to force things to be “normal” (reading Little Women, especially outside under our tree when the weather was nice, and cooking together were my favorite moments of the school year), and even though things felt strange a lot of the time, as always, I’m sad to see the school year end!

2020-21 School Year–Week Thirty-Four

Hymn of the Week–“Go, My Children, with My Blessing” (Lutheran Service Book #922)

This is the final wrap-up for the 2020-21 school year!

On Sunday, we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden…not really a field trip, but we’ve gone so few places in the last 15 months, I thought it deserved a mention.

As for the school week, we just worked on finishing everything up. Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug submitted their final final papers…I was very impressed with the wide range of topics they chose (Turkey looked at the character of Frank Burns from M*A*S*H and why he’s no longer a caricature and thus no longer funny, Bunny wrote about whether Benedict Arnold was a hero or villain, and Ladybug discussed major events of WWII). Moose finished up his year of distance learning…it certainly wasn’t an easy way to experience his first year of high school, but he did a great job! Turkey, Bunny Ladybug, and Chickadee all finished their final science chapters. Ladybug and Chickadee were also excited to take a look at the crystals they’ve been growing:

And then the day I’ve been dreading all year…Turkey’s and Bunny’s graduation day. I’m so proud of them, but I can’t believe I’m losing half of my students at once!

As always, we ended the year with a Lego set…this time, the Medieval Blacksmith. It’s a really cool set…I especially love the color scheme!

One last time…my students:

This year has been, at times, impossibly difficult, and I wasn’t always sure how we’d make it through. Now that it’s over, though, I find that I’m sad to see it go. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime situation, with all five children learning at home all year. While I hope never to live through a pandemic again, we definitely made a lot of memories, and there are things I will definitely miss.

To end the school year, I will leave you with some wise thoughts from Wade:

K to 8

Today, Ladybug graduates from eighth grade! Here’s a look back at every first day of school she’s had, from kindergarten through 8th grade:

And a last day of 8th grade picture, too:

On to high school!

The First Day of School…and the Last

I don’t always have photos taken of me with my students on the first or last day of school in any given year, but as it turns out, I did have a photo of Turkey, Bunny, and I from our very first day of homeschooling way back in September 2008, and I made sure to take another today to commemorate Turkey’s and Bunny’s high school graduation.

I guess the experiment we decided to try for one year turned out ok!