Beginning To Close Out The School Year...

Our homeschooling year is drawing to a close.  We should be done by the end of April!  We usually begin earlier in the summer so that we can finish a month early and enjoy the spring weather before summer hits full force!! 

As the year closes, we begin to look forward and plan for the new year coming.  Next year will be different in many ways.  We are working to have a simpler lifestyle and this will have an impact on our schooling.  Due to the move, we have new opportunities such as 4H, farm sciences, etc.  And the biggest difference is that our oldest daughter will go off to college.

As a homeschooling mom, seeing her succeed by not only getting into all of her colleges of choice, but getting many scholarships, makes my heart happy.  I am happy for her, that she is entering a new stage in her life!  And I must admit that I feel a bit of happy relief for myself!  No!  Not relief she is going away, but relief in our homeschooling success.

As a homeschooling mom, my goal has always been to equip my girls for whatever the Lord has planned for them.  For some of them, that will include college.  For others it might be marriage, vocational school, starting their own business, mission work....who knows??!!  But I did not want to limit them because of choices I made such as laziness on my part, not enough research, slacking off, over using the computer, etc. 

Though my husband and I have known that we were educating in the manner that the Lord called us to, there was always that thought in the back of my mind wondering if I could be messing it up....messing her education up.

Now, I don't need the SAT or a college admittance officer to tell me that my child is adequately educated, but it is still nice to hear it!! 

So as I look back over the last year, I am pleased with the outcome and all that we have learned.  I am also trying to absorb every second of it knowing that next year will be so very different.

Looking toward next year, I can rest in the fact that my oldest daughter will be doing what the Lord called her to and that her daddy and I did our job to prepare her.  I can also rest in the fact that we will be walking down the Lord's path with our three daughters still schooling at home. 

But...who is going to prepare me for having my baby girl leave the nest?  I know that the Lord will be there to guide me and lead me on this new journey, but I have to admit, I am in no hurry to get there!!!