24-25 Last Day of School for ALL of us!

We actually finished school on time at the end of May! Hurrah!

What a blessed school year. Though we have always enjoyed the friends we do “out” school with, this year has been exceptional. There is just nothing that compares to doing school with your church family.

Recently my mom shared the hymn called Here Am I, Send Me. This stanza stuck out to me:

It struck me that those last two lines–You may lead the little children to the Savior’s waiting arms–is a desire that the Lord has put into my heart from a very young age. I’ve always loved to teach children, but teaching and leading a school with Brian centered around our church family has far surpassed any teaching joy I’ve yet experienced. It feels like this is just what we, together, as a marriage team, were made for. And it’s not just leading the little children to the Savior; it’s also helping cast vision for parents to lead their own children to the King. Every other month I met with the moms and every other month Brian met with the dads. We got to encourage, exhort, and challenge our friends as they endeavor to raise and educate their children unto the Lord. I think the world, and often the church, underestimate the power of “letting the little children come” to Jesus (Matthew 19:14), but we firmly believe that this endeavor should be one of the most important values of the home and church.

Via Bona Academy was far more fruitful than any of us had anticipated. Interdependence is a beautiful thing. Somehow our love for the children in our church grew exponentially. Somehow our own children matured and grew through serving the littler ones. Somehow our children’s friendships deepened even more with their peers. And through it all, I know my love for the Lord grew–and we hope that each child and parent involved in Via Bona grew in their love for the Lord as well. Because, of course, that is ultimate goal of education: to know Christ.

The foundation of our days together at Via Bona centered around speaking and committing to memory many good, true, and beautiful words. I would often encourage my fellow moms with the thought, “If your children end up in prison for standing firm in the gospel, do they have enough of the Word memorized to sustain them? Do they have enough hymns memorized to rejoice in the Lord each day?” Thus we started the day with a two-page catechism, reminding all of us why we were joining together. Then the kids recited the New England Primer from 1727, mostly because we were studying early modern American history. And then we launched into memory work, which consisted of:

• Bible work: We centered this around the Book of the Twelve, or the Minor Prophets, as that is what our pastor has been preaching through. By the end of the year, the students could name the minor prophets as well as one key idea and one picture that encompassed each book in the Book of the Twelve.
• Scripture memory: We also centered this around the Book of the Twelve. Each child memorized at least one and up to 27 verses from each minor prophet.
• 6 different hymns
• 8 poems written by William Carlos Williams; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and Lewis Carroll
• 11 Latin phrases
• 17 grammar definitions and examples
• 7 songs about nature
• 3 songs about American history
• 4-5 geography songs

In addition to all of that, I compiled some challenges, which consisted of

• 3 longer poems from each poet
• 3 speech excerpts from American History
• All 47 presidents of the United States, including a fact about each one
• All of Micah chapter 7

I made “Memory Passports” for each child, and once he or she could recite memory work perfectly, I would give a stamp for that particular piece. It was definitely a hefty amount of memory work and children needed to be very self-motivated to give up a few minutes of their recess to recite memory to me. I will say that every single mom started the year out very skeptical that her children could learn that much memory work, and every single mom ended the year by commenting on how amazed she was at how much even her little children could retain. So although they all did VERY well, there were 6 students who received a stamp for every single piece of memory work AND all of the challenges. At the End-of-Year Performance, we printed out all of this memory work and held it up for people to see. The audible gasps confirmed the disbelief that our minds are capable of memorizing such a vast amount of information by practicing just 15 minutes a day. I also know that memorizing in community is, indeed, a powerful tool.

Each of these children standing up received a beautiful, timeless book for their hard work in memorizing all of the memory work. In addition, we are taking them all out for delicious burgers and high quality milkshakes for also memorizing all of the Challenge work. Bravo.

Here is most of the crew in their patriotic red, white, and blue, minus one child who couldn’t be at the End-of-Year Performance.

Then, of course, we had our all-church end of school picnic and the kids both played in the May recital.

So…as far as our four remaining days at home each week… We had a very productive and fruitful year. A few highlights are that we continued, and made huge progress in, our Latin studies. Elliott and Selah also dove into beginning Greek. They took an introductory course in Logic with their dad as their teacher. We studied three different composers, three different artists, and three different poets. The kids did an excellent job with math, writing, grammar, geography, and history. We enjoyed many, many books together including Pilgrim’s Progress and, wait for it…The Princess Bride. (Note: I’m not a fan of William Goldman’s lack of moral character, but I do think the story of The Princess Bride is brilliant. So I read the book aloud to the kids, skipping over Goldman’s personal stories of infidelity and passivity as a father. I always feel like I have to give that disclaimer before recommending the book.) I’ve already checked the movie out from the library, and it is on our list this week to watch it. It will be the kids’ first time and I cannot wait to watch it with them!

Elliott continues to grow as an entrepreneur. He pored through many books about chickens and is learning how to raise them. Last year he sent 150 letters to our neighbors advertising his lawn business. This year he sent out 927 postcards to all four surrounding neighborhoods and has picked up many new clients. If you would like to see his postcard, you should ask him to send you one because *it’s awesome.* (He may or may not have had a little help from his mama…)

Selah has grown in her musical abilities tremendously this year, both in singing and piano playing. For the Via Bona End-of-Year performance she played “This is My Father’s World,” while everyone in the audience sang along. It was her first time playing while people sang, rather than just for a recital. She’s going to start working on a hymn once a month to play at the beginning of our prayer meeting on Wednesday nights to keep working this skill. Her sewing skills are also improving and she has made some beautiful items.

Well, adios to our 2024-25 school year! Thanks for journeying along with us! Until next time!