{iPhone Rewind} :: May

The end is in sight! We have our evaluations, and then we will be wrapping up our school year. We are all ready for summer!

She does ;)

Perfect way to wrap up our time with Mr. Jesse before he moved to Hawaii!

Watching basketball with Daddy :)

We had our women's spring fellowship brunch to wrap up our year; I'm so thankful for all the Lord has done in and through our women!

The original piano we had was unrepairable. But our sweet neighbors were looking to pass on their piano, so we were so excited to inherit it! So thankful for the kindness of friends and neighbors who are willing to help move pianos across cul-de-sacs in the rain :)

This guy decided he was brave and big enough to sit in the exam chair all by himself. Which is fine. That's fine. I'm fine. But can someone tell me WHY HE LOOKS SO BIG??!!?

I sure do love them

This little guy has come to visit and hang out on our back patio

Our CBC Women went on a hike! It was such a great morning on the Union Mill and Bull Run Occoquan Trail :)

Eli made another game, and he was so excited to explain it to us :)

We had a church picnic, and the Fairfax County Fire Department brought a truck to spray the kids!

Picasso Tiles, race cars, and imaginations...

Strawberry Picking

It has become tradition to head to Wegmeyer Farms to pick strawberries to officially kick off the summer! We weren't quite sure if we were going to make it this year, but the timing worked out just perfectly for us to squeeze in a trip, and we were able to pick some really great strawberries!

We have come pretty far in our strawberry-picking skills from that very first summer. We can pick them much faster, and we can much more readily identify the good ones. We didn't come home with any duds this year! The only thing we will still need to work on is thoroughly combing the row to harvest the good berries before moving on...but there's always next year! :)

Unfortunately, we haven't had any time to make anything yummy with our strawberry haul this year. Instead, we have just been enjoying them as is all week. But there hasn't been a single complaint, so I think it was still worth it to fill our tummies with yummy strawberries!

Last Day of School!

We wrapped up a little early this year {we worked really hard!}, and now we have officially have 2 second graders and a first grader!

Eli did so well this year. He worked hard, improving his language arts skills and making great progress in handwriting and reading. Math is definitely his strength; he grasped the concepts so quickly, and often walked around the house spouting off math equations. He also really loved history and human body science this year!

Maddie also made great progress this year, making huge strides in her reading and is showing great overall fluency. She excelled at spelling and handwriting, often writing little notes for us! Math was not her favorite subject this year, but she persevered, and I am so proud that she didn't give up. She also really loved history and animal science this year!

I am so proud of my Aiden! This kid was technically in Kindergarten, but he had no problem keeping up with his 1st grade siblings! He caused more jealousy because he got to take more breaks than they did, but he also didn't want to be left out of too many things either haha. He hung in there for most of 1st grade math and language arts, and he did history and science right alongside Eli and Maddie. His reading is coming along really well, and he's looking forward to 1st grade {with a little of 2nd grade work sprinkled in!}

This was the first year that I have to show proof of progress for Eli and Maddie. In Virginia, we have the option to test or do an evaluation, and I chose an evaluation. I wasn't quite sure they would be ready for a standardized test yet, based on their current reading levels {thought now that we have made it to the end of the year, I think we might have been ok}. But I also think that spending an entire week on testing is just unnecessary at this age, and we will have plenty of time for it in the future. 

For the evaluation, we had to obtain a letter from a licensed teacher or someone with a Master's degree or higher in an academic discipline. The letter must state the child's educational growth and progress over the academic year. I chose an outside evaluator {someone we didn't know}, a former public school teacher turned homeschool mom/entrepreneur who now offers evaluations, tutoring, educational resources. I submitted a portfolio for each kid ahead of time, that basically showed samples of Eli and Maddie's work throughout the year, our curriculum list, extracurricular activities, etc. And then we had a zoom call to discuss their progress! Eli and Maddie did great; they answered her questions, did a fantastic job reading her a book of their choice, and sharing a few projects with her. 

We got our official letters, finished up our last few days of school, and now we are looking forward to our summer! We actually have some school things planned for the summer {gotta keep up our reading and math skills!}...but we will be taking about a month off, and our summer work will be light. There will still be plenty of time for summer fun! :)

Mother's Day 2024

For Mother's Day this year, my sweet kiddos surprised me with some beautiful flowers and chocolate cake from Sam's! {Which if you know, Sam's only sells the giant chocolate cakes for special occasions now, so it was a huge treat to see them walk through the door with it haha}

When I woke up on Mother's Day, I got a round of sweet hugs, and Maddie told me, "you are the best mother." They had each made me a card, so I got to hear them tell me all about what they had drawn, and it honestly was the best gift. They were all excited to tell me about their artwork and stickers, and show me what they had written, so proud of what they had made for me.

After church, I was able to come home and take a nap, and then watch the kids play soccer outside while I called my mom and chatted with her. It was a pretty laid back day, and I'm glad I got to spend it with my favorite people :)