I love doing end of the year wrap ups. It just makes it so official and all we're done-like.
And, we are.
Ansley is no longer a third grader. Christian is no longer in preschool (for the second or third? year in a row).
I'm going to get all detaily (I think it has a nice ring to it, don't you?) because I enjoy going back and looking at the end of each year and reading about it. Heaven knows I can't leave anything up to my memory. That's why I have to document so much. So mostly, this is for me, and if you find it interesting, then we are probably good friends.
(If you would like to see the end of second grade, you can go here.)
This year I stepped out in faith and changed curriculum. In previous years, I liked the all encompassing curriculum in a box so to speak, where it comes with everything and there is no guessing. So for first and second grade, I used A Beka. I finally just got so bored with it, I had to do something different. I've spoken on this before, but it is worth mentioning again: A Beka is a great and SUPER thorough curriculum. It's just geared more for the classroom setting, so it becomes a little repetitive and repetitive and starts to repeat the same things over and over repetitively. Anyway, so this year we used Winter Promise. I went with the Animals and Their Worlds curriculum because my kids love animals, and it seemed like a very engaging and fun program. I had originally purchased Saxon math, but halfway through the year I switched to Teaching Textbooks because ...... well I was in over my head. I'm not a great math teacher. I'm really not even a good one. I'm probably not even a mediocre.....you get the point. I have been VERY happy with Teaching Textbooks and we will use it again next year. This year I used Winter Promise as well for Language Arts, Spelling and Vocabulary (more on that later).
We started off most days reading the devotional Long Story Short, which I highly recommend. It was great in capturing their attention! I'm contemplating an Apologia study for them next year.
This is my new tradition - to take first day and last day of school pictures. I think it will be so cool when Ansley is fifteen and I have this huge collage of photos.....while I'm crying on the couch, of course, because she's fifteen. I can't even imagine.
Christian asked me if he could start Kindergarten tomorrow. Oh, sweet boy.
We really enjoyed the Winter Promise curriculum. It is very fun and engaging, which is what I was hoping for. The kids both loved learning about animals and all sorts of fun and interesting facts. By far their favorite part was the animal chart that we did every week.
We measured both of them and had a square for them on the chart, and then each week as we studied a new animal, they would guess how tall that animal was. They had a blast with this!
We read a LOT. Which I love, of course!
These are all the books we read this year. We read most of them aloud, but sometimes when the noise level was a bit too much, I asked Ansley to read a chapter quietly, then I'd read it and we would discuss. Ansley and I both really enjoy the reading part. Christian would usually quietly play while we read - these books are a bit much for a five year old.
Christian had his own curriculum though, also from Winter Promise. We used Animals and Their Worlds for both of them, just adjusted to the preschool level and the third grade level.
Christian went through the Explode the Code workbooks, and did very well. He is very quick and efficient at his work, so of course he would finish well before Ansley. But he is an eager learner, and I have found that he has picked up so much from listening to me teach Ansley. (For instance, he knows how to multiply because he has heard me explain it to Ansley so many times.)
Christian can write his own name without any help, and he LOVES to draw and write letters and numbers. He is VERY anxious to read, and if I was a better Mama, I would probably work with him on that over the summer. But, I'm not. I need a break! He is eagerly anticipating Kindergarten, because he wants to learn how to read. (This photo is actually from when we were visiting my Grandma, and he was showing her how he could write her name.)
We enjoyed many art projects, notebooking, experiments, and games together.
I did not love the Language Arts curriculum through Winter Promise. I thought it was rather skimpy, and didn't include things like personal reading or improving her writing skills.
For the first time this year, we started Ansley in a co-op through our church. It is an enrichment co-op (as opposed to one where you go two or three days a week and learn all the subjects, then homeschool the remaining days) so we could choose what classes we wanted her to take. Her co-op is on Tuesdays, which really worked out great for our family and for Ansley. The first semester she took art and writing, and the second semester was science and writing. The co-op was from 11 am to 2 pm, and she always looked forward to Tuesdays. It was a great introduction to a classroom environment, learning responsibility, having homework and remembering to bring certain things back the next week.
Ansley has beautiful cursive handwriting. (A Beka teaches cursive early; you can read why here. I am a big believer in this!) I should add, Ansley has beautiful cursive handwriting when she wants to. She can be sloppy, but when I make her re-do something, it is very neat. This is an assignment from her writing class where she had to write a letter to the upcoming class.
Today was Ansley's last co-op class, which coincided perfectly since our last day of school at home was yesterday. I made these teacher's gifts for Ansley's two teachers.
I love the way they turned out. If I ever sent my kids to public school, it would only be so I could have an excuse to make lots of teacher's gifts. So fun! Ansley wrote a sweet note to each of them, and we tucked it in the back of the berry basket. But, keeping them this way made it a little difficult to transport.....
...so I wrapped them up in plastic so they would be a little easier to hand off.
Ansley's co-op has gone so, so well and I'm so pleased with how her year there went. This morning her writing teacher did a little presentation of all their hard work this year, which was very cute!
This is the writing class with Mrs. Crooks in the middle.
And Ansley beside her writing display. She had some really cute stories and illustrations!
I have learned over the years, sometimes the hard way, that when things aren't working, they must change. I have also learned that when things are going well and really working out, then keep at it. I feel after my four years experience in homeschooling that there isn't one curriculum out there that I am going to love everything about. Next year, we will be doing a different curriculum for each subject, and I am excited about it! I know, it's strange to be so thrilled to be done with a year and get a break, yet so looking forward to the new school year. I suppose that it always the homeschoolers dilemma, huh?
The bummer about switching curriculums halfway through the year is that Ansley still has three weeks left of Math. She is not happy about it, but I'm working on some incentive programs for her to get it finished. I can't just stop and call it done - I take the no curriculum left behind approach. When we finish what we were supposed to finish for the year, then we are done. We are not done just because the calendar says we should be. Ansley will also be working on her multiplication tables this summer, with some incentives as well.
I did an end of the year review with some questions for the kids (thanks to my sweet friend Alison for the great idea!), which is where I learned that the animal chart was their favorite part of the year. If Ansley could, she would get rid of math in a heartbeat. (Oh how I can relate. Can we just rid math from the world?) Her favorite subjects are reading and writing. She would like to learn more about the stars and planets. Christian's favorite subject is math. He doesn't have a least favorite (Ansley says I need to add 'yet'.) He would also love to learn about the stars.
For this Mama, some summer lovin' is in order. Oh how I love relaxing days, swimming, playing, running, reading.....ahhh it does my heart good.
But my mind is never far from what I will be teaching my kids, and looking to the next year. For the next school year, we have the co-op again to look forward to, where Ansley will be taking three classes and.....Christian will be taking one! I can't wait to see how he does - it will be his first experience with a classroom outside the home, but it will be his second love (I'm his first, of course)....an art class. We will be doing Winter Promise again, using their Children Around the World program (which I am super excited about!). Ansley will be learning about Astronomy from Apologia, Language Arts with A Beka and math is Teaching Textbooks. Christian's Kindergarten curriculum will be all A Beka. I know what I said earlier about A Beka, but I do believe that it gives a good, solid foundation for learning, and I will be adding to it to appeal to what he loves to do as well. I can also branch out when he gets older. We will also include him in the Astronomy study as well.
I love teaching my kids. I love having them home with me, because these days go by SO fast, and I know they would go by so much faster if they were gone most of the day. Of course there are days when I'm ready to throw in the towel, but I have to focus on what God has called me to do. And I know that this is what I am meant to do. My main struggle these days is having a one year old. And a fiesty one year old at that. She can be very disruptive to our days, and it's possible that next year, I will have to sell her. Oh, I kid! It's possible that next year, we may have to do some of our more focused learning in the afternoon when she is napping. But I know this is just a season, and it too will pass quickly.
But for now, here's to a fun summer!
Congratulations to you and your students on another terrific home education year. I always enjoy reading about what's going on in the Greiner homeschool. Thanks for always encouraging me as a homeschooling mom. I'm glad that the new this year went well with changes in curriculum and Ansley's co-op classes. Creative teacher gifts and cute school pics. Enjoy your summer break together and looking forward to a new schoolyear.
Posted by: Renee | May 23, 2012 at 10:04 PM