And just like that I’m only a home school teacher to 50% of my offspring. The girls and I ended our school year with a solid limp/halting meander across the finish line, but you know what? That’s fine by me…we made it. It was kind of a year and I’m proud of us. Naomi has finished her home schooling career and will be heading to 8th grade at the same charter school as Garyn next year. Her language arts and social studies test scores put her at at college level and a few grade levels ahead in math. She can do math, it’s just who really cares if it’s 73 degrees in that angle or 76? I mean they basically look the same. Oh Nays. Teachers and tests care, that’s who. The point is that she’s ready and deep down in my guts, I’m ok with that. I’m going to miss her like crazy, I am anxious about what the dynamic of Corra and Layna will be like without her, and I have all the usual concerns about if I was fill-in-the-blank enough. We will sort all that out, though. The bottom line is that Corra made it to being an independent reader (loves it!) and is showing the same love and aptitude for violin as Naomi. She even reads to Layna regularly before bed. She dances while she practices violin. Naomi continues to shine in violin and is a brilliant storyteller. Her mind continues to surprise and delight me and she has as a firm a grip as a 12almost13 year old can have on who she is. Layna is speaking much more clearly and her feistiness kills me sometimes (today she was browsing Netflix without permission because “I need to see all my options, Mom!”). She is on her way to reading and that makes me cry such happy tears.
Not that I have anything to do with this at all, but Garyn is on track to be Valedictorian and still loving school and learning. Highschool hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for life and building and legos and 3D printing one bit. He added tech crew and paintball to his list of loves this year and can’t wait to get to BYU’s engineering building and all its treasures.

So while we didn’t sprint or even cross the finish line the way my expectations of myself said we should have…we made it. And that, I remind myself, is more than enough.

The stores only had Memorial Day flowers, but no one cared. They were Corra’s first and she couldn’t stop talking about those flowers before or after she got them. Naomi played a song from a video game Garyn likes and Corra played “I am a Child of God.” Naomi is almost to the end of the line on the most advanced end. Corra is just pleased with how far she’s come in 4 months. We will be taking the June and July off, however, which will be a welcome break for everyone.
Now, on to our last field trip and last day of school!

Naomi and Corra both now want llamas. The best part was “kissing”/feeding a giraffe named Titus. The almost best part was my girls having those weird ice cream dots for the first time and declaring them delicious. Naomi also started scheming on how one could make them at home.

Now we embrace swimming and boredom inbetween all the crazy fun summer we have planned. And I slowly let go of my Nay’s educational endeavors and gear up for much more hands-off support role. Glad I have a few months to do that.