The End is Near

What a wonderful experience we have had in public school! As wonderful as it was, I'm so excited about getting my girl home for good (for a few more years anyway)! This semester in 'real school' has served exactly the purpose I believed it would, and I believe she is ready to come back home and rock it like I always knew she could. She had wonderful teachers who pour their hearts into the students they teach. GOD BLESS TEACHERS! We were blessed to have two of the very best.

Lorelai with her home room teacher.

Lorelai's math and science teacher.

The other day we were talking about her STAAR test scores. I told her she was so smart and for the first time ever she replied, "I really am!" I have told her that since she was a babe, but for the love of all that is good I could not make her believe it. In the classroom she was forced to do hard things, and her hard work paid off. She made A/B Honor Roll, passed all of the STAAR test (with advanced in reading), and got in the top 5 for the year in the whole 4th grade in AR points even though she was only there one semester!

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

She adjusted so well and exceeded my expectations by a long shot. I knew she was smart, but she had slowly fallen behind in the last two years. That's why we made the decision in the first place. It was scary putting her in public school though. I had no idea how she'd measure up in her class. I didn't want to be judged for being a bad mom, and I didn't want homeschooling to get another bad rap because of me. In other words, I was prepared for the worst. I was prepared and I was willing to do whatever it took because I felt like it was for the best in the long run, and thankfully I turned out to be right for once.

For me, it has been a huge encouragement as well. I have doubted my ability to teach and mother at the same time since day one. This experience has given me confidence. I failed in a lot of ways in the past, but she proved to me that she will succeed despite my shortcomings. You would think this would make me relax and let my guard down, but instead, it pushes me to be better while taking the stress out at the same time. While one of my goals is definitely to provide a quality education for all of my children, that is not the most important thing. What they learn at home (or would have learned in public school) will equip them to learn anything they have a desire to learn for the rest of their lives, and the memories we will make together will last a lifetime.

I missed her. Having them all at home feels right. It is challenging, but so was public school. There was homework to complete and folders to sign. There were fundraisers to participate in and lunches to pack. There were meetings to attend and forms to fill out. We were slaves to the clock and were constantly comparing schedules. All that is about to change though because tomorrow is the last day of school, and I am so ready!