This time of year I always seem to be in a mad race to finish up the school year, after all, we only have about 10 weeks until we hit the road for Maine to spend an idyllic summer on the farm. But it is good to look back over the last 7 months and examine what went well and what subjects we could improve on next year. All in all, the children learned a great deal, especially about biology with our home-grown lessons in fetal and infant development!
Will's writing has improved and his vocabulary and spelling have been outstanding. This is the last year he has in handwriting and his math skills have dramatically improved, so I think he will start Seton's 6th grade next year with only a small tweak or two; Apologia's science book instead of the standard text and continue Story of the World in the evening after prayers.
Mary has rebounded remarkably after switching to Singapore Math, finishing 2 levels and currently 1/2 through the next. While she wants to go on to Saxon Math next year I think we will stick with this program next year. Her reading and vocabulary work is wonderful, but she can't spell anything and cries every time I ask her to write a paragraph. The 10 words a week drill and quiz method is just not working so I investigated other programs and much to her delight, I ordered All About Spelling, a phonetic-based spelling program that many homeschool moms rave about. I also stumbled across a book titled Any Child Can Write at the library and finding a gold mine of lessons and tips ordered it on Amazon. We will be incorporating both of these into our lessons immediately, not waiting until fall to have her filling her notebooks with creative and descriptive stories. So, Mary will continue her all-over-the-spectrum homeschool next year, beginning again in spelling, starting 3B level in math, 6th grade art, and 5th grade in everything else.
Maggie has almost finished all her 1st grade work, with only math and spelling left each day. We started on the CAT this week and I found that her reading skills have dropped since she finished her last Faith and Freedom reader last month so I put the 2nd grade reader in her stack which she can reread in September. I don't think we will change anything for next year, but I have to remember that she would be starting 1st grade this fall if she went to public school and not to push her beyond what she can handle.
In addition to the 3 older children, Charlie will be starting K this year. Hopefully I can convince Mary to be my assistant in teaching him phonics and numbers. That only leaves Timmy and Julia Ellen as my "preschoolers." I realize that one fall morning in the distant future (2014) we will have 6 homeschoolers: Will in 11th grade, Mary in 10th, Maggie in 7th, Charlie in 5th, Timmy in 3rd, and Julia Ellen will start her very first day of Kindergarten.
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I am trying not to think about the future LOL! It's hard enough getting 3 children's schooling done, I can't imagine adding in 3 more! In 4 years, I will have a senior in high school (which means lots of forms for college applications!), a 10th grader, a 5th grader, two 3rd graders, and one in K!!! See, that's why I don't think about the future!
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