Winding Down The School Year & Field Trip Update

Well, we made it to the first field trip of the week, but had to skip the second. (We had two sick!) We were able to hit the third field trip and all had a wonderful time. My spouse used the time while we were all out of the house to reroute some plumbing that involves the main water line. He was also able to get a TON of other things done because we made sure we were gone long enough that there would be water available when we got home!

We are all looking forward to the “end” of formal school work for this school year. We have only one more “official” week of regular work and then testing week comes. That means I have only one week and two weekends to write my “finals” in science, history, and religion! I’ve started scribbling history questions down but have not looked at the others. Better get cracking, eh?!

We’ll take a week off and then start up with “schooling light” for the summer. Oldest will be starting Growing With Grammar 3 and Writing With Ease 2. We will also play some math games or work on flash cards for 10-15 minutes several times a week.

Child #2 will do some light math and phonics work – the nature of which changes depending on the day you ask.

Math: We are trying to cement into her brain written two-digit numerical symbols (such as 34 or 79). She struggles and the concept isn’t coming quickly. Math games and lots of dot-to-dots may be in order.

Language Arts: We may just work on handwriting using sidewalk chalk again this summer. She loves it and I can sneak in reminders of what the phonogram sounds are at the same time. We’ll see.

Finals Week

As I wrote previously, we need to assess our progress for this school year. I have made up a schedule for finals week. Friday is currently scheduled for a day of FUN! Hopefully, we will get everything done before then so Friday will only be fun.

As I test something, it will drop off the list of subjects to teach each day. Otherwise, I will continue to teach my usual subjects. Some things have been evaluated already, so the list is not all-inclusive.

Monday: Test all phonograms. Test map skills (geography).
Tuesday: Write Bible story & draw picture. Reading level evaluation.
Wednesday: Test weekly spelling words. Take Catechism/Prayer test.
Thursday: Test spelling level. Final math test.
Friday:  Clean out desk. GAMES.

Sunrise, Sunset. Swiftly Flow the Days

The school year is coming to a close. Part of the ‘end of school year’ process at our house is assessing progress and assigning an official “grade” for subjects. Sometimes, just figuring out what we want to assess is a lengthy process.

Some of the subjects are cut and dried. Take Math, for instance. The curriculum has tests about once per week. Average the oral and written grades for each for the whole year and there is your final grade. Voila! There is no “final exam” because we use a spiral curriculum.

Other subjects are much more murky. How do I assess my eclectic science year? We used a Charlotte Mason approach and did a lot of experiments. I don’t want to ‘test’ in this subject at her low elementary grade level. But I do want to reward her for her year of learning and interest with an official record of this subject.

I just got done making up a ‘final exam’ for her Catechism work. It will make up half of her Religion grade with the other half coming from an evaluation of her remembrance of our twice weekly Bible readings throughout the year.

It is interesting to look back at the school year to see what we learned and to look forward to the books we have already gotten in the mail for next school year. It is a sense of accomplishment followed by more than a small dose of excitement.