When we started our school year back in August, I posted what we were doing for the year (at the end of the post). Now it seems appropriate to give a year-end review to let you know how things went!
First of all, the year took an unexpected turn when I found out I was expecting in mid-September. I found myself exhausted to the core and struggling to stay motivated right from the start. That said, I think things went fairly well for the year in general.
Eliza enjoyed her second year of studying American history through the American Girl books. We spent 6 weeks in each time period, working our way through the civil war era through the 40s. She also developed in her reading comprehension and cursive handwriting. In math, she progressed through her 3rd grade books and into 4th grade.
Judah’s growth this year was such a treat to take part in! He finished his kindergarten and 1st semester math books, learning basic addition, subtraction, place value, money, shapes, etc. (I love Singapore!) He has learned how to read this year. I think my favorite part of homeschooling is teaching my kids to learn to read – it’s just such a blessing to see the world open up to them! He has also developed in his penmanship (his least-favorite part of school so far).
Towards the middle of the year I got the idea to get a couple of preschool workbooks and tear all the pages out, putting them into page protectors and a 3-ring-binder. I got a nice set of washable dry-erase markers and bada-bing! A fun activity for Caleb to do when he wanted to “do school” with his big siblings. He can do the same things over and over, making it cost-efficient for us and fun for him! We focused on “pre-writing” type activities like tracing, mazes, and dot-to-dots.
As far as the year of school goes, technically we’re not even done yet. We had to stop in late April for a little family trip, and never really got going again, thanks to another trip to Colorado and then all the birth/baby preparations. Now that Micah is almost a month old, I’m feeling ready to start back in it again. I’ve decided to shorten our school year (a standard year is 36 weeks; we are going to end up doing around 30 weeks, I think), which was a huge step for me! But I’m happy we decided to do it. Trying to get to 36 weeks was really stressful, and would essentially mean no summer break at all. Anyway, we’re going to try to work through the last of our work over the next couple of weeks, doing just 1-2 subjects a few days a week. It’s like a half-vacation. 🙂
This year has been a interesting juggling act. It’s been a bit overwhelming to me at times, learning to teach 2 children at very different levels, while entertaining a preschooler and toddler, and dealing with the exhaustion of pregnancy to boot. I guess it was a good “warm-up” for next year, which I expect will be even more busy and crazy! Lol…
One of these days, I will do another post to let you all know what we’re doing this next school year, which I am super excited about!
Blessings,
– Judy
