Year End Review

The school year is coming to a close and you may be feeling like it is a bittersweet time as you say goodbye to all of the characters that you have come to know and love throughout the year. So, how can we take all that we have learned and celebrate all of the knowledge and growth that we have gained over the year?

One of the most beautiful ways that we can celebrate these things is through encouraging narration though laying a feast. This can be a time of encouragement not only for our children but also for ourselves as we see the harvest of our planting and investing in our children over the course of the year.

When we look back over the year it is easy to see all of the time spent redirecting, habit training, tidying our homes, meal planning, sibling squabbles, running errands, tending to toddlers, and questioning if we have accomplished anything at all. Living life itself can seem to take over the day to day but walking through life together and working out the nitty-gritty is where real-life learning really begins. It is where we learn compassion, to serve others, to apologize and repent, to fail and to try again, to see the beauty, and to live our life well. It is in the difficult moments that we can more clearly see our need for a Savior and our need to pray throughout our days.

So, as our school year comes to an end and we return our books to the shelves we wish that we could read just a bit longer and adventure a bit further together. We can facilitate this desire by meeting together at the close of our year to reminisce of all that we have observed through end-year reviews and, as home educators, see all that our children have learned over the course of the year. As a homeschooler implementing a Charlotte Mason education, I am not simply looking for facts and dates memorized by my children. I want them to tell me their favorite book that we read this year and for them to narrate to me what they loved about that particular story. I want to see their eyes light up when they tell me about their favorite character and what they admire about them. I want to know what their favorite painting was and why they find it to be beautiful. I want to hear what their favorite thing was from our year and even the things that they did not enjoy as much. I want to know what they would like to study next year and how I can help to feed their love of lifelong learning.

Here is what I have learned.

My children found value and admiration in the characters that we welcomed into our home this year because they saw that they were: patient, hard-working, took initiative, were strong, kind, generous, brave, good providers, and they worked together to help their families,

I learned that their favorite things that we focused on this year were notebooking, researching and writing reports about people and places, baking recipes together, painting, read-alouds, and coming together each morning for our morning collective and Bible time.

A standardized test would have never painted the picture in my mind of how truly successful this school year has been. How, even on the difficult days, they were finding solace in our time gathered around our dining room table adventuring through picture and chapter books taking us on adventures across the prairies and throughout the U.S. They found value and connection in learning that they will always remember unlike facts and dates memorized to simply pass a test that would soon be forgotten.

I realized that they are learning and thriving, learning to have compassion and finding value in noble character, reading good living books, appreciating and enjoying fine art, sketching, painting, and notebooking. They have developed a love for cooking and baking with each other and sharing what they have made together and with others. They enjoy coming to gather around the table as a family and to be in God’s Word together. They also enjoy helping family and neighbors, holding and playing with babies, and helping to care for elderly relatives. THIS is a living education and I am so grateful that we have been called to this place for such a time as this.

All of this and more can be found in The Playful Pioneers or any of our early elementary curriculums.