Wrapping Up First Grade

Grace is wrapping up first grade.  Seriously.  We will be posting our end of the year picture soon.  It seems like it went really fast!  She has done a great job and I'm predicting will be my easiest to school, however I'm hoping I get a couple more easy ones!  She is at the point now where she needs a little direction but since she reads so well can work pretty independently.  It is a beautiful thing.  Depending on the lessons I do science and history with her, but not always.  She is big. 

I would say this year in homeschooling has cost less than $100.  We purchased a reading book through her schooling program so that she was not reading online all the time.  We also purchased a math curriculum that was right around $60 for first through third grade.  Since we'll finish about halfway through that (smarty pants) that's about $30 for this year's program.  Our other "big" expense was printing her math and spelling/grammer/practice workbooks.  We have a commercial copier so the main expense was paper but it does add up.  Fortunately we got wise halfway through the year and put them in page protectors.  She does all those worksheets with a dry erase marker so we won't have to reprint for Abi (or the boys if the pages survive that long!)  Other than that just some basic school supplies - glue, pencils, tape, file folders, etc.  Again, for how much curriculum can cost we had a pretty inexpensive year!

I have re-learned the value of the library this year.  She has been doing quite a few unit studies so if I plan ahead I can request books that go with them and have a pile of "fun reading" that happens to line up with what she is learning.  It's been going really well so far!  We currently have a pile of cow books she is reading...and although cows are apparently boring, the promise of a visit to Young's Dairy is keeping her going!

I'm thrilled with this year and can't wait to get her started on her second grade curriculum.  Patience, I know.  We will be jumping right into second grade stuff when she finished this year's work so that we can take a chunk of time off in August.  We will probably go to three days a week over the summer though. 

I love how this year has gone.  I love getting to see her learn and think.  But most, I love that I get her heart so consistently and get to teach and guide her through the hard things.