last day of school (2018)

Well… we did it! We made it! We’ve successfully completed a full school year of “official” homeschool. I have a lot of thoughts and emotions about how the year went and what we all learned in the process, but I’m hoping to make that another post, and just keep this one focused on the girls.

They looked so little at the beginning of the year. It doesn’t seem fair that time goes by so quickly. We kicked off our last day with donuts to celebrate (of course), and then headed out for a few “last day” photos.
I thought it’d be fun to do a little year-end interview with each of them. I based my questions off of this list.Kaya’s favorite things:

Subject: “Doing our green book and doing our zoo path!” (Language Arts/learning to read)
Color: “All the colors except black and brown, but my most favorite colors are indigo and turquoise and violet!”
Food: Spaghetti
Book: “That Jesus one, where you can open the little thingies…” (Lift-the-Flap Bible)
Toy: Bootsie (the cat)
Game: Mario Kart and Blokus
TV Show: Blue’s Clues
Indoor activity: “Playing with my cat, and playing with my sisters.”
Outdoor activity: “Getting the pool, put water in it, and then slide down the red slide!”
Best friends: “Mia, Kaelyn, Nella…” (and everyone in her primary class)
When I grow up, I want to be: “A cowgirl because I want to ride horses!”
What makes me happy: “That you guys are my parents!”
What makes me sad: “When we want to play Mario and Daddy says, ‘no’.”
I am really good at: “Drawing. I always stay in the lines. I don’t even go on top of the lines sometimes.”
I love: “Cats! Dogs! Cows! Pigs! Donkeys! Sheep!” (all animals!)

Kaelyn’s favorite things:

Subject: “Doing the color to color in the tiger book!” (color-by-number)
Color: “Pink and Purple!”
Food: Pizza
Book: “The Paw Patrol book!”
Toy: “My toy Skye!” (with the helicopter from Paw Patrol)
Game: Mario Kart
TV Show: Daniel Tiger
Indoor activity: “Play!”
Outdoor activity: “Play with the water table on the deck!”
Best friends:  “Kaya and Nella and new baby!”
When I grow up, I want to be: “A mommy!”
What makes me happy: “Playing with my sisters and mommy!”
What makes me sad: “When Daddy says we can’t play Mario.”
I am really good at: “Writing stuff! But I’m still practicing.”
I love: “Helping mommy feel better.”

And, I absolutely love this picture, because it’s completely real. All while I was taking the older girls’ photos, Nella was walking/crawling around in the grass next to us (you can see the dirt stains on her knees!). She stepped up next to her sisters, made her “cheese” face, and then went off to get even messier. I just feel like this photo completely sums up how it’s been to balance homeschooling with her this year- sometimes she was crazy and in the middle of everything, and other times she was just off doing her own thing.
I’m so proud of Kaya and Kaelyn and all that they’ve accomplished this year. They’ve both reached major milestones: learning to read, add, and subtract (Kaya), and recognizing the alphabet, writing letters and numbers, and practicing counting (Kaelyn). I’m so grateful that we’ve had this opportunity to learn and grow together.

On to first grade for Kaya, and a final year of preschool for Kaelyn! But for now, Happy Summer!