End of the School Year Recap: 2020-2021

On Friday, June 11th, we closed the books on our 5th year of homeschooling. I felt like I was limping to the finish line last week desperately ready to call this year DONE! 

We started out the year with excitement and zeal! As a matter of fact, my kids were so excited to begin the school year that we ended up starting a few weeks early. This year we joined the Charlotte Mason Education Center (CMEC) and as suggested by many fellow CMEC moms, we did a short “preview” week where I spent some time going over each of the books with my kids. It was a great way to get excited about the year to come.

So, we began our school year mid August with a student in Form 1, Form 2, and Kinderleben, and a toddler fulfilling the role of “class clown.” And in true homeschooler fashion, I wrote the wrong grade on my Form 1 child’s sign and I didn’t notice till spring. So his school sign reads 3rd grade instead of 2nd. What’s that joke about homeschoolers not knowing what grade they’re in? I guess it’s true for homeschool moms too. OOPS!

The first 6 weeks of Term 1 were great. We settled into a routine using a timetable for the first time, I was keeping a mother’s logbook and was even making time to pre-read as much as possible. However, it wasn’t long before Term 1 was disrupted when we faced Eric’s diagnosis, near death and slow recovery from “the virus that will not be named.” The providential blessing was that we had started the school year 2 weeks early because my kids begged me to. So even after Eric’s 11 day’s at home sick and 8 day hospital stay we still managed to finish Term 1 only a week later than planned just after sending Eric back to work. We then took a much needed break and celebrated the holidays with great joy and much gratitude for the mercy God has shown our family.

We spent Christmas break turning our formal dining room into our school room. We purchased the older kids new desks and rearranged our formal living room to provide Montessori style work shelves for the Kinderleben student and toddler. With a new classroom and Covid behind us we were ready to face Term 2 and 3 in the new year!

But, 6 weeks into our 2nd Term we discovered a leak in our kitchen which turned into a massive kitchen remodel and floors being replaced throughout the whole downstairs. Almost every room on our first floor was turned upside down for the rest of the school year. We went 6 weeks with no laundry room, a month or so without a kitchen and about 2 months having to do school wherever we could find a space. The remodel lasted the rest of the school year. We homeschooled in a construction zone from late February through the last few weeks of school, about 3.5 months. 

We had to work around noisy, dusty contractor days. We had to take frequent breaks and unplanned pauses to allow workers into our home. And we even went a few weeks with no useable kitchen and ate way too much fast food.

It was a wild ride. We homeschooled on the porch, in the back yard, on the couch, in our bedrooms…wherever we could find a space and enough quiet. We also took lots of unscheduled days off. But no matter what, we just kept going, picking up where we left off each day. I adopted the mindset that my kids deserved to continue their education even if we were in the midst of chaos at home. And they were troopers, taking each step of the renovation in stride and working even in some of the most challenging circumstances.

I’m so proud to say we made it! We finished! This year has been a doozy for sure. But we are done! 

We are so grateful for our curriculum with the CMEC and how easy it made it to continue schooling even in the midst of everything we were dealing with. Here are a few pics of my kids favorite books from this past year! They were a delight and I’m so glad my kids enjoyed the work we did together!