In Evaluating Your Homeschool Part 1, I explained several things that I had decided to do to evaluate our homeschool. We have completed our yearly achievement tests, and I am in the process of getting the records up-to-date and assessing our progress in this year’s curricula.
In Part 2, I shared the questions I was giving to my older children so I could learn more about their likes and dislikes.
But I have failed to report on how the survey went.
As expected, there was a bit of trouble getting my children to fill out the survey. My son was unable to come up with answers for the majority of the questions. A lot of this has to do with his extreme dislike for getting anything wrong. My daughter did complete the survey but not in great detail.
So we improvised and used the survey questions as a guide in a meeting that my husband and I had individually with each child.
Here are my conclusions from the surveys and the discussions that followed. Some things were surprises, others were not.
My daughter’s favorite thing about homeschooling is Latin! (That was a surprise.) She listed history as her favorite subject and science as her least favorite. She would like to study American history and Botany next year. She thinks she learns best by reading and has been disappointed in my lack of reading assignments for her. I quickly rectified that situation by giving her dialectic level reading assignments from Tapestry of Grace.
She is not happy with her math program (that also was a surprise) because she feels like she is not learning anything new. I’m not sure how to fix that problem because she’s learned all the operations with fractions, decimals and percents and I don’t know what else there is. She is not ready for Algebra. I told her she could try out Life of Fred and she has started on the Fractions book.
The 3 things she would like to learn to do next year are sew, knit, and crochet. That’s going to take some figuring. I crochet well and can probably teach her that. However, she’s left-handed and I’m right-handed, so that might be a problem. But I’ve never really got the hang of knitting. I can sew, but I don’t know that I can teach her that either. I do have a friend who teaches sewing classes so that may be an option. The same friend also knits so maybe she can teach both of us!
My son’s favorite thing about homeschooling is not having to go to school. Not exactly what I was looking for. His favorite subject is math which was no surprise. His least favorite is Greek. He wants to study physics in science. He’s scheduled for Physical Science next year so that will have some physics. He also does not like history. Really. So I’m pondering and looking at different options. No history is not an option, but I don’t think that Tapestry of Grace is a great fit for him.
So I’ve been looking and thinking and asking questions about history programs. It’s not a place I expected to be. I’m sure this topic will be continued…
They gave you some things to ponder.
I think it is great that you are doing this…I am going to give it a try at the end of May as we still have some things to accomplish. I have a feeling getting answers from my children will be like pulling teeth so I think a family meeting is the way to go. Thanks for the idea
For crocheting… how left handed is she? Like does she do EVERYTHING left handed or is there some right handedness in there. I ask cause I’m left handed and my right handed mother taught me to crochet. I crochet right handed no problem. My husband on the other hand is very left handed and could never learn to do something right handed. Another trick I’ve heard of is to have her sit across from you as you show her stitches and have her copy them mirror image. I’ve never tried it, but I’ve heard of it working.
Good point Sam. She’s actually not that left-handed. She writes and eats left-handed, but she cuts and does quite a few other things right-handed. So maybe I can just teach her to crochet right-handed.
It sounds like your evaluations are a great success!
For your son, why not try the Henty books for history, or some of the Inheritance Publications books? They’re fun to read and teach a lot of history on the side…and may even spark an interest. My kids tell me, though, that writing about a book destroys it pretty quickly, so be cautious about turning it into ‘school’ again.
Perhaps I’ll do a formal survey too. It sounds like a lot of fun!
Annie Kate
At least now you have a direction of where you should go with your lessons.
I’m reading these posts with interest. My oldest homeschool student is 13 and I need to start letting him have more input in his education. Thanks for sharing the process you used!
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