Can you tell I’m excited? It has been quite a year for us, and honestly I am ready for a break!
There were many things that I think went well this year, and many that went not so well. Maybe abysmal is a good description. This was my second year on the Homeschool Crew, and while I really loved it and don’t regret my time spent there at all, I can’t deny that it did influence how much of “my plan” we got done.
The good–
My older children did a great job with completing their skill-based, independent subjects this year. My son (12) worked through 3 Life of Fred math books (Fractions, Decimals and Percents, and Pre-Algebra with Biology). He did 2 Editor in Chief workbooks and a large portion of Our Mother Tongue. We finished Elementary Greek Level 2. That was a subject we got half-way through last year. This year we didn’t start it until after Christmas, but still worked our way through the book.
My daughter (10) completed Rod and Staff English 5 and Latina Christiana I. In Math she finished Singapore 3B, 4A, and is still working on 4B.
My younger guy (8), who was in the 2nd grade according to his age, made great strides in his reading, writing, and math this year. He went from struggling with c-v-c words at the beginning of the year to being confident with those and has learned lots more phonics too. He finished Explode the Code books 2 and 3 and is starting on 4. He also completed All About Spelling Level 1. He’s working slowly through Math Mammoth 1B, but will finish this summer.
The bad–
My son (12) got through Unit 5 of Latin Alive Book 1. OK, that’s not bad, but I really don’t believe he knows the material well enough to move forward. Which leaves me a quandry. I guess we’ll start the year with “review” and have him practice vocabulary over the summer on www.headventureland.com. It’s not really the vocabulary that’s the problem, it’s the endings that are more troublesome though. He also was working through Introductory Logic. Good program, but he was supposed to be doing it with my husband, and unfortunately that didn’t happen often enough.
My daughter (10) did very little spelling. She likes Spelling Power. I personally think she needs something different, but maybe consistency in the future will show some improvement. Her problem is that she can learn the words in spelling, but makes really strange errors in her writing.
Which, we really didn’t do enough of for anyone. I was going to do the writing assignments in Tapestry of Grace, but…ahem…Tapestry of Grace belongs in the bad category for us. Not because the curriculum is bad (I still love it), but because I was very bad at implementing it. Things did improve after Christmas, but we’re going to be doing some history reading for a few weeks to finish up Unit 2 (of 4) for Year 2.
The ugly–
Science. Simply put, we didn’t do science. We completed a grand total of about 3 chapters in Apologia Zoology 1 and Zoology 3. The really pathetic thing is my husband is a science teacher and I’m an engineer! There is no good reason for us to not do science. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Just pure overscheduling.
What am I doing differently next year?
I’m not totally sure. One big change is that I’m not going to be on the Crew. I was planning on it until the beginning of this week. But I decided (with some strong encouragement from my husband) that I needed to put more focus on our chosen studies. Plus my job with HSB takes time, enough time that I don’t have the extra to devote to Crew reviewing.
My school plans for next year will be taking shape over the summer. I know what materials we’re going to use, I just need to come up with a solid plan for implementing them.
It’s nice to read that others have bad years too. Not that I’m glad you did, but always nice to know I’m not the only one. 🙂 This past year wasn’t too bad, but it was one of our first ‘strong’ years.
I understand about giving up the reviews part. I read other peoples book reviews, and though I love reading, I really don’t know how you all do it. We are not all that busy, but I just don’t know that I would have enough time to read that many books. 🙂
Hope you get your schedule set up for next year. 🙂
JoAnn
I do think it helps when we see that others do struggle with homeschooling during some seasons. I’m still very committed and believe it’s the best choice for us. I do see my own weaknesses and know where I’ve got to try a little harder.
I’m not promising to not do any more reviews:) I really love to write them. I just will be able to pick reviews that I want to do and do them on my own schedule. I’ll try to take more time to write up what I think about products that we’re using more long-term too.
Sounds like a pretty productive year despite the ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’. Happy Summer Break!
Janet W
Congrats Kristen on finishing your year! I am sure you can use a summer break. I hope you enjoy it and are able to plan your year.
Happy Dance with you on finishing the year…no matter the good the bad or the ugly. There was learning going on and stuff got done right?
When my kids were in K – 7th we alternated Science and History. One year we did history the next Science. We were able to really concentrate on the topic at hand and not rush to get to the next subject. We did our science in blocks ( usually 2 days each week ) Same with history. We found better retention and attention occured.
Isn’t it helpful to do a yearly analysis sort of thing like this? I did it, too. This was a year full of changes for us, and some of went well, but some of it didn’t.
We are really glad to be done with this school year, too! Congrats on finishing up!
I hate to ask this on your personal blog, but I don’t know where else to ask this…and I was told by HBS friends that YOU are the one to ask. 🙂
I forgot my password and can’t log in. I’ve done the “forgot your password” thing 3 times now and it never sends a new one. The link in the email just takes me to this:
http://homeschoolblogger.com/wp-login.php?checkemail=newpass
which just says “check your email for your new password”.
help?
That’s ok Trish. You can also leave a comment on the hsbcompanyblog (Front Porch). It’s linked on the homepage.
Hi Kristen
Congratulations on finishing the year. I’m still catching up after vacation…and we’re not finished yet. Soon, I hope
That’ll be quite a change for your family, not being with the TOS Crew after two years. Good for you for doing what is best for your family. I bet it was a tough decision.
Blessings,
Annie Kate