Last Day of School!!

We finished all of our course work today, so that makes today the last day of school!  We finished one day early!  YIPPEE!!  When I taught public school at the junior high level, I always contended that we ought not tell the students when the last day of school would be.  We should just finish the course work and then tell them not to come back the next day.  It would have been SO much saner.

I was never able to work myself high enough in the ranks of public education to effect change in this arena, but here in BangsundLand, I AM THE QUEEN!  So, today when I realized that we were going to finish one day early, I officially declared it our last day.  It's good to be queen.

I would like to add that Luke did exceptionally well on his "finals."  His cumulative poem review this week was outstanding.  He memorized all of the required poems, including a three stanza masterpiece entitled Mr. Nobody.  Today he aced his final grammar review, remembering the definitions for nouns, pronouns, verbs, and the four types of sentences, giving me examples of each.  And we actually finished The Story of the World, Volume 2 in its entirety this morning.  This was particularly sweet for me because last year we weren't quite able to finish Volume 1.  I knew we would be repeating that time period in another two years, so I didn't kick myself too hard.  But finishing is pretty stinkin' sweet.

I was on the phone with my buddy Holly and shared with her how faithful the Lord Jesus Christ has been.  This year, of all years, we have had our most "successful" ending to our home schooling year.  That's crazy!!  I worked part-time this year as a children's pastor while also serving as a Children's Leader for BSF.  Our home schooling ventures should have been abysmal at best.  But that was not the Lord's plan.  He called us to this home schooling adventure, thus He is the one who makes it succeed.  We finished everything for the first time ever.  How great is our God?!?  I give Him all the glory for all He has done, from helping me find great curriculum to giving my seven year old a heart that wanted to do school.  I am grateful to Jesus Christ for His saving grace, His faithful provision, and His abundant love through all of this.

And now, the pictures.  :-)

 Paul with Coach Tim and Coach Adam after the Upwards Award Ceremony on Tuesday this week.

 Luke with Coach Tammy - can you tell these two love each other? :-)

At the end of each school year, I let each boy pick their favorite titles from the year.  It was impossible to narrow it to just three or four like last year.  Each boy ended up with six.  I had to let Luke add a seventh.  Pretty soon, they won't all fit in the pictures.

Paul chose No Children, No Pets, Dinosaurs Unleashed, The Family Under the Bridge, Little House in the Big Woods, Capyboppy, and Here's a Penny.  He has excellent taste.  All of these titles are delightful and I recommend any of them for all ages.

Luke's titles were similar to Paul's, with the addition of The Usborne Book of Knowledge.  I love having a curriculum that gives these boys so many favorites each year.  We are blessed.

To continue with the celebration, the boys and I opened up a Kiwi Crate that had a secret agent theme.  It was pretty fabulous.  Here are some pics of that goodness.

They made the periscopes first and they were pretty cool.  But the disguises made for awesome pictures.

 Agent Alpha reporting for duty

Agent Omega deep undercover.

They came up with their code names and numbers all by themselves.  I love it.

With school finished for the year, I will continue to prepare for my trip to New York on Sunday to spend time with my sister and her fabulous family.  Look for blog posts from the east in the coming week.