End of the School Year

We've been on summer vacation for a few weeks now which is always a welcome break! But there are a few things I want to document for the end of our school year.

Laura began learning to read and write this year! She loves school! It is so fun to have her for a student. It is strange to have such a "grown up" person as the "baby" in the family. No more preschooler around.

Laura loved her spring Sunday school class! Here she is with some of her classmates in their Pharaoh headpieces!

Rachel completed her first year of high school and is so excited not to be a freshman anymore! Tennis was a great sport choice for the spring. She had wonderful coaches who were so helpful, kind, and self-sacrificing. Rachel is looking forward to the next school year and to continuing on with her golf and tennis sports.

Rachel also plays violin in the school orchestra. They have three concerts a year.

Here she is at the spring concert:

Tennis awards banquet:

The spring piano recital marks another year of music lessons.

The four older children have been taking lessons this past year.

This was Andrew's last recital as he is no longer going to pursue piano. But, Laura is going to take his place! She can't wait!

Our favorite is always the final song with all the students playing with their teacher.

Another of Laura's big accomplishments for the year was learning to knit. She is SO excited that she can do this on her own. :)

James continues to spend most of his free time making leather creations, various pieces of armor from cardboard, leather, wood, etc., or drawing:

This is his patchwork cape:

Our last day of school adventure was a trip to Terre Haute for a picnic and then a visit to the CANDLES Holocaust museum.

It was the perfect way to end our studies of World War II. The highlight of the visit was listening to Eva Kor tell her experiences of surviving Auschwitz and Dr. Mendele's twin experiments.

We could hardly believe the kids sat with rapt attention for two hours listening! It is such a gripping story.

Andrew completed 7th grade using Connections Academy -- an online school which he does at home. He enjoyed the year very much. His last day of school was marked by getting a soda at the gas station while running errands with me. (It was the best we could do!!!)

We had three different ending dates for school for our three different methods of schooling. Rachel finished last. She was treated to her favorite drink: a Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino.

The other educational pursuit of the spring has been soccer -- the four youngest kids participating! They all love it!

This boy is heading into 6th grade this coming year -- that means Middle School!

This was Laura's first year for soccer and she LOVES it!!! I'm still a little worried watching her run around in the heat. She is very determined and refuses to rest.

So I guess we'll have a lot of years of soccer ahead of us! And it is a joy to see that she is able to handle this amount of activity.

Now I see that we have only six weeks left until all this school stuff starts over again for another year! Phew! For all the work that it is, I am so grateful for the variety of schooling options we have and for how things are working out. I do love spending time with the kids around their studies (wouldn't it be ideal to have a cook and housekeeper to do everything else?).