Hello and happy Friday! Today is going to be 80 degrees and sunny, just another sign that the season is changing. Spring fever has hit us and we are in the process of finishing up our year. We are transitioning into review mode, to then be followed by SUMMER mode.
Our end of year test is on the books for early May. We do the Woodcock Johnson and Elizabeth, the woman that proctors the exam, is a wealth of information so I always look forward to picking her brain for resources and recommendations after the test.
Review mode for us looks like tying up loose ends of projects/papers the girls have been working on, then reviewing concepts we’ve worked on through the year. I also bought Summer Bridge Workbooks for both girls. These are great because they offer a fun switching of gears, help us review things we’ve learned and provide an opportunity for me to see any obvious gaps we might have missed. We do these together so we can dig into any confusing subjects or concepts. They also are portable and succinct, so we can take them with us on the go.
Once our testing is done, we will have a few weeks of FUN! We are going to the beach, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a trip with David’s side of the family to Palmetto Bluff. From there, we’ll transition into summer mode where we’ll continue with math, reading, and reading aloud together through summer.
To back up just a bit for a moment, I like to reflect on what worked and what didn’t over the past school year.
A quick summary of reflection… I am super pleased with our math progress. Nicole has been such a blessing. The kids enjoy her lessons, understand her lessons, and are remembering concepts. They are flying through the math sections of the Summer Bridge Workbooks with ease, which brings such peace to me in a subject that once created such angst.
Hailey is rocking her IEW writing. She seems to have structured writing down so I want to look into opportunities to give her more experience with creative writing (which she loves) and research type papers (yawn). I slacked off a bit on checking her Fix It Grammar, and found a few holes that I’ve started to address. Whoops; my bad.
We focused more on All About Reading for Kaitlyn and that’s been AWESOME for her confidence and enjoyment with reading. We didn’t get to do too much of the IEW themed unit because of that, so I plan to pick it back up in the new school year. The few lessons we did do, she really enjoyed, so we’re looking forward to that.
We completed the first third of US Geography, which was enjoyable, but then fell off of it in favor of US Government. That was a great decision, as teaching government during an election year really helps the kids understand the structure of the electoral process and how our government was formed and is supposed to function.
Next school year I plan to get more concrete with science. Up until now it’s been all interest led, co-op, and Mystery Science. It has served us well as a foundation and I think we’ll have fun with some deeper dives now. I will also begin to educate myself on how to homeschool high school next year. Hailey is only going into 7th, but I’d like to have a firm understanding on how to structure and implement it before we get to that point.
Overall I’m ending this 6th and 4th grade year feeling that their knowledge base is really balanced. We take a whole picture approach to education and I am pleased with the balance we currently have between book-based learning, social and emotional growth (this will take a step forward with a sleep away camp this summer that we are excited and feel they are ready for), and life skills. They are happy and thriving and I’m just so grateful for this experience. Still… summer schedule, we are ready and coming for you!
