I can not believe it’s almost the end of the year.  Time goes by so quickly that it astounds me.  I want to grab it, hold it, make it slow down.  How can it be I am about to have a 17 year old?

As far as “Let’s do all of our subjects and check the boxes” this 1st semester of 11th grade has been a bit of a fail.  Yes there was US History, Forensics, American Literature, Child Psychology, writing and a few other things done but definitely not a semester’s worth.

And I could choose to freak out about that.  But I am not.  Because the things that were done were magnificent.

Keilee is completely running 2 businesses.  Very successful businesses.

Her Princess group, which she started at the end of July, is flourishing.  She has had at least 3-5 events a month, some months much more.  She has had photo shoots with each Princess to get the exact pictures she wants.  She edits each picture taken.  She has designed and ordered business cards.  She has participated in countless volunteer opportunities.  She has made many, many little girl’s birthday dreams come true by appearing as a Princess.  She coordinates with the Mom’s for birthday parties giving them information.  She makes Happy Birthday videos and edits and sends them to people all over the world.  She made Elf videos as “Holly The Elf” for Christmas.  She talks on the phone to businesses setting up events. She coordinated everything for her group to participate in the Christmas parade. She runs all the social media on Facebook and Instagram for the group.

Her Keilee’s Kreations has been a huge commitment, especially the last 2 months.  She has had over 30 orders due for Christmas.  She comes up with ideas, crochets, posts on Instagram, takes orders, generates invoices, packages and mails every order with special touches.

She is the youngest member on the Steering Committee for our city.  They have monthly meetings and do things in the community.  She successfully headed a table with citizens of our town to discuss issues, concerns and ideas to make our town better.

She was asked to speak in Birmingham at the “Women Who Shaped Alabama” conference for the “Modern Trailblazers” portion.  She talked about running businesses as a 16 year old. She was the youngest person to speak by quite a bit.

She made a video for a Southern Girls Project and won the contest they were hosting.  She then was asked to take over al.com’s Snapchat and then the Snapchat and Instagram for re.belle who is the ones who sponsored the contest.

She does Bringing Smart Back which is her educational Instagram and Facebook accounts.  She did decide to cut back on the number of YouTube videos she does but she is doing a Children’s Book Club now with plans to continue.  She finds the books, finds crafts, experiments and activities to go along with each book and post about them. She also posts other things each week.

She leads kid’s church each Sunday.  She learns a script each week to perform on stage.  She also leads a small group of 4th-5th grade girls.

So yes, her 1st Semester of 11th grade probably looks nothing like the kids in the public school down the street.  But she is rocking this year.

So, if your kids do things differently, learn outside of that “box” everyone always talks about, gets excited about something besides Algebra or Science, that’s OK.  It’s actually more than OK because honestly how many times since high school or college have you gotten excited over Algebra?

Isn’t that the reason we started this journey in the first place?  To allow our kids to experience more?  More joy, more learning, more real life, more of all the things that will make their lives lovely.

Merry Christmas from us both!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“I am convinced that the best learning takes place when the learner takes charge.” ~ Seymour Papert

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there’s love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” —Ella Fitzgerald

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” —Farrah Gray

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