Back to Homeschool

Aaahhhh...

That is the contented sigh of a mama who is happy to be back in the homeschooling groove. Oh, our summer break was refreshing indeed. I enjoyed some slow, quiet mornings. We were able to restore order to some neglected corners of our house. Bekah’s bedroom got a makeover. We celebrated a few birthdays too.

We never took a vacation from learning, just from our “formal” studies. Kati took a cake decorating class and a nature photography class. She volunteered at our local library. Both girls read all summer long, and we managed to complete a few family read-alouds. Summer was also a time for nature discoveries as we became acquainted with a striped skink (skinks?) that lived on our back porch, a black and yellow argiope, and the caterpillars in the herb garden, and we collected shells and played with sand crabs at the seashore.

Nevertheless, I am glad to be back to routine and rhythm. The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs at an earlier hour. Hot tea with our morning readings. Practicing our poetry recitations. Learning new hymns and their stories. Delving into history as we hunker down on the sofa to read from “living books.” Each day different, yet a pattern of sameness that is restful.

And so I have begun the nineteenth year of teaching my children at home. If you are feeling sorry for me that I have been homeschooling all of these years—and still have years to go (some have expressed their sympathy)—please don’t! I wouldn’t trade these years.

"After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."

Life at Green Gables was full of just such days, for Anne's adventures and misadventures, like those of other people, did not all happen at once, but were sprinkled over the year, with long stretches of harmless, happy days between, filled with work and dreams and laughter and lessons.

~ from Anne of Avonlea