A Year of Growth 2012

As the year comes to an end and we are moving forward to a new year I wanted to take a look back on all the growth that has taken place in our home. You can go here to see what other TOS Crew Members are sharing about this past year. I suggest taking some time to go check out these other bloggers, what a great way of finding new families to share our homeschool journey with.

We started the year out pondering if homeschooling an only child truly was in Selena’s best interest or if we should try the public school. We prayed about this daily and really did not have any definite answers. Through all this we also faced many challenges as we watched Selena’s brother removed from his parents and placed into foster care. We had the hard decision to make as to if we would take him, but decided in everyone’s best interest especially his we would instead begin the journey of interviewing prospective foster/adopt families to find a perfect fit for everyone. God was good in the blessings of providing a very lovely family, who has been been attending to all of his special needs, while very open to keeping us in the picture. The relationship we are forming with them has been a blessing all the way around, one that nobody could have planned, but God himself.

Selena tried her hand at T-Ball this past Spring. We were very proud of how hard she practiced her batting, throwing, and catching. She wanted to be out practicing every single day. It was fun to watch how quickly she took to the game and how quick the skills developed. By the end of the season she was one of the better batters on the team, actually hitting the ball into the outfield. She still needs to work on her catching, but let me tell you she has quite an arm on her and can really throw the ball. She found her position that she likes best, probably because it is one of the busier positions on the field.

We enjoyed a warm dry summer and had so much fun spending as much time as possible outside exploring our new home. Since we moved last year, this was really the first full Summer we had to see everything our new home offered. Besides exploring and playing, Selena also enjoyed being right at our side weeding the flower beds and cleaning up the yard. She had so much fun though finding all sorts of habitats for all the different critters we found making their homes in our back yard.

We finally decided to give the public school a try and preparations began to be made for the first day of school. It wasn’t long though that we discovered that this truly was not the environment for Selena and we knew we finally had our answer, that homeschooling was the way we would go. Through her short time in the classroom though Selena was able to make some connections with a couple of girls her age and are now working on forming some first friendships.

Selena has become more confident with her abilities this past year, from reading to writing. It has been fun to even watch the physical changes that have taken place, loosing the little girl appearance and blossoming into a young girl. Loosing her first teeth to expressing her interests and feelings in a much more mature manner.

We look forward to what 2013 will hold for us, as well as sharing it all with you.