So......we did it. We finished our second year of homeschooling!

It's funny though, considering the amount of doubts and anxieties I had at the start of the year, to look back at it and say, "we had a really great year!"

Undoubtedly the three months of travelling and seeing some amazing new places definitely helped the year go a whole lot faster, but I also think that it really balanced out all the book work that we crammed in around the trip.

Their journals of the trip will always be a source of great amusement for all of us!

Through the whole process of homeschooling, I have discovered much about myself as well as the kids.

The most obvious being that as a teacher, I am definitely lacking in the areas of passionate research and dedicated preparation.

Despite this huge (read: massive and essential) shortfall, the children have flourished and I think enjoyed most of the work we have done.

I have also seen Ellie and Harri's individual strengths become obvious - completely different areas - but as everything they do is almost opposite, I am not completely surprised.

Nev has taken over a lot of the homeschooling responsibilities in the last weeks while I have been working, and the kids have loved having a whole new lot of resources and activities, not to mention a fun, patient teacher!

For the last week or so, Nev and Harri have been hard at work on their very first Lego movie, and I think they have a great future (heh heh) - check it out - it's called Why did the Lego man cross the road?

Ellie (with a lot of help from Nev) has written and recorded her very first song - a Christmas song about the joy of being with family and celebrating Jesus birth together.

(Can you tell that I am a little bit proud of my beautiful family? Sorry, didn't mean to rave quite so much)

Next year is a whole other kettle of fish. We have enrolled the kids in a small, local state school.

I have many different emotions when I think about this. The first being "I can't believe I am letting someone else teach my children, I am going to miss them so much" - to actual fears as to what they will have to face throughout their day. 

But I also realise that as they get older and require more stimulus than I can give them
(see obvious faults as mentioned before) that perhaps I am not the best person to teach them either.

This is where I have to put my children completely in God's hands and ask for protection for them and trust Him that He will do it.

I'm not very good at letting go.

But that's one of the main things we parents do for our children. Let them go. Prepare them and then let them go off and experience life, make mistakes, get into trouble, and generally stuff up.

And if they go out, knowing that they have a safe haven at home, parents who love them and support them and are behind them at all times - then they should be alright.

Shouldn't they?

Sigh.