Wrapping Up Last School Year

I have a confession: We started our 2011/2012 school year, which marks our 11th year homeschooling, before we wrapped up last year. In my defense, we started earlier than I was planning and much earlier than we ever have, but I was also procrastinating. Our shelves had become a landing place for every book, notebook, boyscout manual, and potential teaching tool that I ran across this summer so sifting through that hot mess was not something I was looking forward to. Finally, I just called our assessor and made the appointment. I knew with a deadline of sorts, I'd get it done ;)

And I did! We lugged all our stuff out to our assessor's house last week. Now we can finally put last year's work away and move ahead with this year!

Mary is so sweet. She been doing our yearly assessments since the beginning and the kids just love her! She use to come to our house, but last year she needed us to come to her. The kids had such a great time at her house, we decided to do it that way again this year. Here's why:

 Mary has ducks! She doesn't just have ducks; she rescues ducks! Our kids love to see who she has staying with her :)

 This beautiful girl was abandoned at a park. you can tell she was someone's pet because she is still so tame.

 The gorgeous guy following her is her boyfriend ;)

 He has the most beautiful feathers. This photo doesn't capture the iridescent quality or the stunning shade of blue on some of the tips of his feathers.

 In the background, you can see the pond that Mary's house backs up to. Last year, one of her ducks went out for a swim and was attacked by a turtle. After that, she 's been concerned about letting them out there, so she built them their own "pond" with a swimming pool liner. Genius! They love their little "pond".

It was a sweet visit and the kids received lots of praise and encouraging words from Mary for the work they did last year. Now on to the next, our 11th, school year!