School year 2015-2016

Since I am so far behind in blogging, I can recap the whole school year in one post. We started in July and officially ended in April. 

We didn't get a teacher this year so it was my job for the year. We (I) started the year with some fear but it ended up going well overall. 

Silas was willing to take the teaching position from me. I considered it but wasn't too sure how much we'd actually accomplish with him leading. :)

Especially when his teaching tactics are a bit silly. 

We managed to be smiling on our first morning of school. I told the boys that the theme for the year was grace. We were going to have to be willing to give and receive it and be patient with one other as we went forward.

Hard at work, mostly

In history we started learning about Native Americans so we made some fried bread one day. We also made some masks and tried blowing paint as that was representative of some form of Native American art that I knew at the time but have since forgotten.

We also tried a log house model that failed. I think Kenan said something to the effect of, "At least we did a good job at failing."

Bella, our monkey, tried to get into class some days. How cool is it that they can say they went to school with a monkey looking in the window?

We tried some art projects as well. This was printing with ink.

The highlight of the year was all the experiments we did with science. There was something to do almost every day. I'm not sure how another program will ever live up to the one we did, but it was a lot of fun.

And, yes, there was no shirt requirement for school. :)

We learned 50 verses together this year. I was really impressed with how the boys did, so much so that I told him I may up the requirement next year. :)

We also did a Christmas play and there was a fun little Rube Golberg experiment we did but I can't seem to find pictures of either.

We ended the year all smiling. :) This was our last day of school in Mali. We have finished up a little more in the US and ended with Dawson having an appendicitis (more on that to come). 

I can say that I'm very thankful for this year. It was super hard, one of the hardest yet for me, but it was good. I loved knowing what the boys were learning and being able to talk to them about school throughout the day. They are bright boys and were willing (for the most part) to listen and do what I asked. I will treasure this year. I don't really want to do it again, as it pulls me from the medical work, but it was a special gift for this year. I think the boys learned a lot and I know I learned a ton and was challenged in new ways. It showed me a lot about myself and my continual need of grace and His strength and wisdom.