Posted by Cindy on April 25, 2008
I know many of you homeschool year ’round and as much as I think the idea is wonderful, I enjoy my nice, long summer break too much. (Not to mention canning and freezing season makes doing school almost impossible in the summer.) Anywho – we have only TWO WEEKS left! Can you just feel my excitement?? I’m literally jumping up and down in my computer chair right now!
I’ll be doing some posts soon about wrapping up the school year, thinking ahead to next year and some of our summer plans. But for now, I’m just basking in the wonderfulness of the words – ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT!
I can’t decide if homeschooling is harder with a baby or a toddler. I’m leaning toward toddler. I don’t think I can count the number of papers he has either run off with or scribbled upon. I’m also not sure how many pencils have no erasers due to him biting them off. I think he still has pen and marker on his tummy from somehow finding those tools and trying to turn himself into living art (more than once). Needless to say, the baby chasers (older children and myself) are all ready for a break from school.
We’re finishing off the year with a Renaissance Artist unit. In history, we last studied the Middle Ages and next year takes us into early American history, so a bit of Renaissance history with a slant towards art will be just the thing to make the history connection and end the year with some really fun projects. Lord willing, I’ll keep you posted on the artists we choose to study and the projects we do.
Posted by Cindy on April 22, 2007
The end of our school year is quickly approaching. It’s been a long, drawn out year for us – starting July 1st, taking a huge baby break and then starting up again. I think we’re down to 12 “official” days. We’ll continue some light, fun learning through the summer, but more on that in another post.
So many people ask me, “What do I need to keep for records of our school year?” So, I’m going to tell you what I keep. In KY, we are required to keep an attendance record and proof that we have taught the required subjects.
Each year, I keep my record of attendance, lesson plans, curriculum list, letter of intent, certified letter to the DPP receipt, any other legal correspondences, and narrative report cards in a 1″ three-ring binder. I keep the entire binder as part of my yearly records.
As you can see below, we keep everything we’ve done all year in various folders and notebooks – one for each subject. At the end of the school year, I go through most notebooks (or subjects) and pull out a sampling from the beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of the year. I only choose well-done work and try to choose things that show a good progression of skills from the beginning of the year to the end. The subjects I narrow down like this include Bible, math, handwriting/copywork, grammar, phonics, spelling, writing, reading lists, and art.
For science and history/geography, I keep all the work. We spend a lot of time putting together nice notebooks, lapbooks and timelines. They make great resources for us to go back through as we move on to other science topics and history eras. Not to mention, if the DPP ever shows up at my door, I would just love for him to see the fun we have learning as he looks through these!
After I’ve gathered the lesson plan book, the science and history things and the folder with a sampling of all other work, I add any co-op awards, school pictures, certificates or other important things to each child’s pile. In such a lovely and highly technical fashion, I rubber band each child’s pile and then file them away in a Rubbermaid tote! This tote is holding five years worth of records.
So there you have it. It’s a very simple system. I have proof if needed and a great reminder of each school year!
