Sky Scrapers and Home School's End

Yesterday at out home school co-op, the kids completed a unit taught by my dear friend Lisa (pictured here with all the co-op kids) on skyscrapers. They were each assigned a Shanghai tower to research and then draw, at a scale of 20 feet to 1 centimeter. Yesterday they presented to each other what they had learned, and then all posed for this picture with their drawings. If you've been to Shanghai or seen any photos, you might even recognize a couple of these structures! Madelyn's tower is the King Tower, located just a block from where we live here in Jinqiao.

Madelyn and I are coming down to the last few weeks of home schooling, so taking this photo of our co-op friends yesterday was bittersweet. She will be starting at Concordia for the last quarter of this school year, beginning April 6th. It's been an interesting road with her, to know what is the right fit for her education, and God has been so gracious to give us these last couple years together at home, just the two of us. She is incredibly excited to start school, but apprehensive at the same time. "Do you think my teacher will like me?" has been asked on several ocassions. Scott's answer has been, "Of course she will like you! How could she not? But maybe not quite as much as your current teacher does." :-)

Boy, do I ever. I'm going to miss this girl like crazy. I am so thankful for God's clear direction for us, for the timing and situations for our children's learning. I'm also excited to begin a new stage in my own life. A year ago the thought of not home schooling, which has been my life for nearly the past eleven years, would have been really sad and overwhelming. But now I feel like I'm ready to do new things. I'm not sure what they will be, but I look forward to exploring the options.