Thoughts on Homeschooling

3rd grade is a big year. The amount of material covered really increases in this grade and by God's grace we are almost finished! I am meeting with an evaluator at the end of this month (a teacher friend of mine from church), and I am working hard to organize Madison's portfolio, reading list and log so that I can turn it in at the end of June to our school district. This will also be the time I need to submit objectives for next year. According to PA law we need to submit all this info in the 3rd grade. It's a little scary but good because I can make sure Madison is getting all that she needs to learn and learn well. As I look back on the school year, my heart is filled with gratefullness! The fact that I can watch them learn their math & reading & history along side them is just so great! I am learning right along with them! I have had so many great talks with them, laughed and cried, asked for forgiveness and forgiven. I have watched them listen intently when daddy reads them a good book in an always funny & engaging accent. We marveled at God's creation of strange plants & animals, learned about great American presidents, and how to write poetry. We grew radishes, played indians and watched "Life" on TV together. Not only that but seeing Madison excel in math and do amazingly well on her IOWA test was so encouraging to me, a mom, who hated school & once not long ago, thought Ohio was in Canada :)! Watching Adrienne slowly grasp phonics and gain a new interest in language was an answered prayer. And seeing Matthew's wide eyes as we read a book about animals and hear him ask inquisitive questions just made me smile. So when people ask how long I will homeschool, I often say "we take it year by year". I believe that God will reveal to us when it's time to put them in school....but for right now, why stop a really good thing?