Doomed to happen at the end of each school year, there are homeschool moms who ask if they can condense, postpone or even skip the final weeks of their TOG year plan.  Outside commitments, illness, and moves from Texas to Virginia cause school to seep into the fun of summer. (That last one describes me.) Public schools have the same problem.  The beauty of homeschooling is that the schedule can be flexible so we can finish well.  Even though I am now in the same boat, and I am a bit worn down from our hectic unpredictable schedule of selling a house, moving, househunting, moving into a new house, unpacking, making the house one's own with personal touches, and dealing with paperwork galore, a mom can only get completely worn out!   Nevertheless, I am determined to conquer completion of the school year.

     Completing the school year is a privilege to me.  When I was a student, I rarely got to finish a text book.  In math, I never thoroughly studied fractions or decimals or percents. Higher maths were so complex, I'm not sure what I missed. In history, everything beyond WWII was a blur, as we raced to the end.  Etc, etc, etc.  As a student, I enjoyed learning, but grew increasingly frustrated when we didn't finish the books.  What was the rest of the story? 

     Homeschooling was an opportunity to take advantage of time.  Although my goal has always been to finish the school year by Memorial Day, we are usually finishing in June.  This year in particular, it isn't so bad for my kids, because they have had lots of down time, or mini-vacations, in between their studies.

       While driving to Virginia they saw more snow than they ever saw in their entire life! While house hunting, they learned things like short sales, foreclosures, loans, closing costs, inspections, and walk throughs.  When the inspector met them, he said he can always tell who the homeschoolers are.  Other kids have to have a video device to entertain them. Homeschoolers get involved in the inspection process and ask lots of questions.

     While waiting for the house to close the kids got to take trips to Civil War battlefields, the Marine Corps Museum, Washington DC and Colonial Williamsburg. 

     They did books in between but went full force once we moved into the house. Now they are near completion. They have completed math and science.  They have Tapestry of Grace left to finish.  They are working on that full time, since the other subjects are done, except Latin which is on hiatus. Latin can wait. It is a dead language after all. It will still be the same when we get back to it. It is only a three year program, which we still have time to complete. 

   Last week my kids did 3 weeks of TOG. This week they have 2 more weeks done and I have just written up the plans for the final week, which I hope they can read tomorrow and then we can have Socratic Discussion on Saturday. That leaves literature for both.  My daughter has 10 weeks of literature to do. I might skip a lot of this, but she is in 9th grade and taking Rhetoric.  As much as she has struggled with learning over the years, she is amazingly picking up literary analysis. She wants to become a school teacher for about third grade. Yet because of this gift, I have told her she should consider a degree in language arts.  I'll leave the final decision to her, but I don't think she'd even consider it unless I said something.  She always surprises me with what she picks up in the Classics.  Therefore, it's important to persevere. However I did skip, or actually replace some books. Since she read Uncle Tom's Cabin, I took out Huckleberry Finn and Great Expectations. Looking through the notes, I don't see how they carry the same depth she got with Uncle Tom's Cabin. Besides, we can always listen to those on tape. Because she always enjoys poetry, I kept all the poetry.  My son has a mere stack of literature books to read.  He never minds that! My daughter has 2 weeks of philosophy to do and 5 weeks of government.  Why persevere?  

   Perseverence is more than checking off a list.  My son is in 7th grade and my daughter is in 9th.  They are preparing for college. This is my daughter's last year with Year 3 with me and as it is she is doing dialectic history. Whenever I find European history in the Rhetoric section, I lecture the notes to her so she has some background to fall back on.  A strong foundation is key for success in college, voting, and career.  If she becomes a teacher, she'll use this information. My son wants to attend Patrick Henry College, which has a rigorous school.  He needs to be well prepared.  Then he wants to become a lawyer, join the USAF JAG corps, then become president of the  United States.

     If I were to skip the last unit of Year 3, they'd miss out on the era of 1876-1900.  That's immigration, labor unions, Andrew Carnegie, Teddy Roosevelt, American Imperialism, Hawaii, and the Spanish American War.  All of this is going to build and lead in to our next era of study when we move to Year 4.  We are now sensing the foreshadowing of WWI. When I was in school I learned WWI started because Archduke Ferdinand was shot. Although true, it goes deeper than that.  Historically, it goes back in time, to countries that didn't get along with each other. Why didn't they get along? Study TOG Years 1-3! =)   

     When we did year 1, we finished the end of June.  I know a lot of moms who want to condense or skip the final weeks of year 1, which is Ancient Rome, ready to start the summer.  I've heard a lot of moms say that 9 weeks of Ancient Rome were not important. Hmmmm, I don't know about that. Although 9 weeks is long, it is also meaty.  Ancient Rome is exceedingly full of history.  It's the basis of our government today. Ancient Rome is the story of Romulus and Remus, power hungry Caesars, a humble Cincinnatus, persecuted Christians, and then the split of the Roman Empire.  It sets the stage to understand the drama of the Middle Ages, which unfolds in Year 2 Unit 1.    

     I am already predicting the fizzle for the end of year 4, which takes us into the present after the Cold War.  Since we live in this era, we may think it easy material to skip. However this will be the perfect opportunity to reflect on 4 years of studying World History from the beginning of time, and apply lessons learned to the  present. As Patrick Henry says, history repeats itself.  He also says we can predict the future by looking back at the past.  I'm already scheming how we'll play this out in our final unit celebration.

         However, the end of year unit that most saddens me that gets skipped, is year 2 unit 4, which covers the 18th century when the French and Indian War and the American Revolution were fought, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights were written, and we had our first president of the United States of America.  This is pivotal in World History. If end of year units must be skipped or condensed, I plead that it only be done with Years 1, 3 and 4. The end of Year 2 though is essential to understanding history today. Everything before year 2 unit 4 leads up to our government's founding.

     James Madison poured himself into a wealth of books, studying the governments of yore studying their strengths and weaknesses. He immersed himself into the arguments of philosphers who made the case for the freedom of man. Compiling the strengths, he organized the plan for government he felt would be the most balanced that would not only represent the people, but also have to answer to the people.  This is the plan that was presented and slightly modified at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, giving us a "government of the people, by the people, for the people."

    I strongly believe that of all the eras of history, the 18th century is pivotal.  Yet it's difficult to skip any of history.  It creates gaps, which interrupts the flow, causing the rest of the story to not quite make sense.

     Understandably though, there are times that something must be done about the end of year fizzle.  Although other homeschoolers certainly have the freedom to decide what to do with the fizzle, if they ask for my advice, I usually recommend stacking up the books and letting the kids read, read, read.  After all, isn't that part of what summer is all about, reading and swimming pools?  It was for me growing up. Skip the discussions.  Have a Bookworm Cafe during lunch. Talk about what was fascinating. Enjoy. When the next year is picked up in full force, and something from the previous unit is referenced, the kids will say, "Oh I remember reading that!"  A historic connection can then be made. However, if at all possible, I do recommend trying to do the discussions with the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights.  I am working hard to restrain myself here, because the American Revolution and events leading up to it is my favorite period in history.  To skip the biographies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Lafayette...(the list could go on and on) would be a sorrowful loss. We purposely spent extra time on this unit, because it was so fascinating we didn't want to miss anything. Also it was great preparation for our summer vacation to Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Washington DC, Montpelier and Monticello.       

     My kids are motivated to finish well. As previously mentioned, they had lots of down time during the move. We continue to take breaks. We've had several get togethers with friends in the last week. We have our hotel booked for an exciting upcoming event at Colonial Williamsburg. I'd take my kids to the pool but something I have learned about Virginia, is that it rains a lot here!  Instead we are enjoying walks and bike rides between raindrops, feeling the cool breeze, enjoying the tall green trees, looking at the newest beautiful flowers to grace the area, while listening to the woodpecker peck in the distance.  We are not deprived by not yet being done with school.  When the end of the school year threatens to cause us to fizzle, we remember that it is a privilege to be able to finish well.