Wildwood Academy, established . . . uh, I’m bad with numbers
A few of our school supplies have not yet arrived in brown cardboard boxes at our door.
However, we have officially begun the 2012-2013 school year.
(I never have liked the fact that we tag on the next year’s date with this year’s date when we describe the school year. It makes the current year seem to go by so quickly. Why didn’t the inventor of the school year calendar just have school run from February to November or something? Anything more chronologically appealing than mashing two perfectly good years into one.)
Like every parent out there, I am still in shock that I have a senior in high school (who did not participate in this year’s photo), a fourth grader, a third grader and a second grader.
I can never seem to wrap my brain around the rapidity with which these children grow.
Daily overwhelming, it is.
I am excited about this academic year though.
Maybe more so than I have been about any other school year.
(Well, Riley’s fifth grade year was a pretty magical one for us too. It was the year of Laura Ingalls Wilder, using the Prairie Primer as our curriculum and making a western journey to visit all of Laura’s stomping grounds.)
This year I have increasingly independent students. I think their current grades are sweet and fun to teach. I am wildly optimistic about a group co-op our family has formed with three pretty terrific homeschooling families. I still have Shelby to tutor math until December. I’m branching out into a little bit of Classical Writing with London. (I’m still fully embracing my pal Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online.)
All in all, it’s busy and all-day-time-consuming, but it’s good.
Really good.
7 Comments
Rachel
I have been praying about/researching homeschooling, my kiddo will be three in January, and I honestly thought about starting school in January and going "year round." I like the Charlotte Mason early beginners track, and I thought why not follow it with N's real-age…
LaceyKeigley
Oh – you have been on my mind. I was dealing with loads of chicken this weekend and thought of you and meant to log onto your blog and tell you and I just forget to ever sit down at the computer and follow through.
We did a bit of "year-round" school this summer with math and reading. Honestly, the way I really view education as a lifestyle makes school all the time more of the real goal anyway.
Gretchen
So is Piper still preschool………I could not believe my eyes that Bailey was in Kindergarten, when I saw Beth's photos yesterday………..that is plain crazy! So I knew those two were close in age……….but I forget Pipers date of birth is it in August? Alright, enjoy your days!!! 🙂
LaceyKeigley
Piper is still preschool. She and Baylee are just a few weeks apart but we are waiting for kindergarten for Pip.
I just didn't want to send a 17 year old to college. You know? 🙂
Gretchen
Wise choice!!! 🙂
Mandy
I know this is not the main point of your post today, but the answer to why the school year runs between two calendar years has an answer. The school year was set in such away a really long time ago to work around crop harvesting and the weather. Families needed their kids home in the late spring and summer to harvest crops. And in the winter it was too difficult for children to walk to school for miles in harsh winter conditions.
LaceyKeigley
I think I vaguely knew that.
I still think they could have called January first grade and let it last until December, regardless of the breaks.
Ahh – farm kids – always messing up everything for everyone.