It is done! Finally! Second grade dragged on longer than I ever expected for my sweet little girl because…..because of so many reasons and excuses and life events and activities. But. It is finished! And, it feels good. She was a trooper. She was sometimes painfully slow at getting her work done, but she never complained when we did math on hot summer days when she could have been next door playing with her little friend.
However, it is a little bittersweet to be closing the book on second grade. Forever. Here she is working on her very last second grade math assignment. Now those Saxon math books are ready for Ebay…..unless I missed the opportunity to sell as most people probably already have their books for this year. Oh well….
This is the third official grade I am done with forever. I’m very careful these days to not wish any of it away. Not going to wish away the days, hours, weeks or years…..not going to wish away the frustrations, challenges, joy and pain. I am well-aware how quickly the time passes. I am appreciative of the time I am allowed with each of my children. The fact that I am able to homeschool them, legally and financially, is not lost on me. I know what a gift I have, and I intend to enjoy all the moments….the happy ones, as well as the frustrating ones….with all my children.
That being said, I must admit that when the end of Kindergarten was nearing, I was SO relieved. Kindergarten takes little brainwork for me, but it takes oh so much time and energy. My blood sugar drops just thinking about it. There are crafts and projects and manipulatives galore…..cutting, pasting, building, coloring, gluing, glittering, messiness and more messes. I just never got into the whole craft scene. That’s what library story time was for…that’s where they got their craft fixes. I sometimes felt guilty when they would come to me with their sweet little faces and ask why we couldn’t make caterpillars out of egg cartons and display them around the house like so and so, or make houses out of popsicle sticks, or whatever the craft was. I felt guilty, but not guilty enough. Just thinking of the energy I would need to help them make the mess and then clean up the mess and then deal with the aftermath of the clutter…..knowing I could never throw away any of their works of art was simply overwhelming. Maybe I’ll regret it some day. But, so far I haven’t.
I don’t remember too much about the end of first grade. I don’t think I gave it too much introspective thought because I still had second and third grade….two full years ahead to work closely with her. I have thought about it more this year. Probably because my big boys were just this age, and now they are grown….they’ve grown up while I was busy still being Mom to littles, and I almost missed it. So, I’ve thought more about how I will miss second grade. I will miss the innocence of the age and the wonder of learning that occurs during this sweet year. I will miss the ease of the subjects for me to teach. I will miss the laughter and giggles I get to share working one-on-one with a child this age. I have one more grade to work with her the way I do. Then it will be time to teach her more about independent learning, let her learn to learn on her own a little more each year. It will be a little more difficult to allow her this privilege because I don’t have other little ones waiting for my attention. I won’t have to leave her to work through her studies alone. But, I will. I won’t abandon her completely, but I will learn to let go when the time is right. I have seen first hand what an incredible gift that is to the child who must learn without being spoon fed, even if they don’t see it as a gift. It’s not easy for all of them to begin learning independently from me, but they are thankful later when they know how to think and learn and study.
Good-bye, second grade. I’ll miss you.
Third grade starts next week!
What About Socialization? 