Last Day of School!

Today is officially our last day of school. Tomorrow afternoon we will have our annual evaluation and the boys will take the Woodcock Johnson test. Our previous evaluations were done by homeschool moms that we already knew. This will be our first one done by someone who doesn't already know us. It's possible our paths crossed in the past at some point as she was an adjunct professor in the special education department at Bloomsburg University, which is the same university where I taught for 10 years. Here are some of the highlights of our school year:

1. Oliver learned how to write his uppercase and lowercase letters in cursive.

2. Nadia completed a science textbook independently for the first time. She and Ian had done science with me the last several years. She also took tests in science for the first time. Her study skills improved over the course of the year, and she ended on a high note by achieving a 100% on her last test!

3. The kids completed 47 different art projects through Creating a Masterpiece that included a wide variety of media - ink, charcoal, pencil, colored pencil, pastels, watercolor, etc. 

4. Nadia completed a Personal Finance course by Dave Ramsey as well as a photography course by Kyle Schultz.

5. We memorized Matthew chapters 5-7, read half of the Old Testament, learned about various religions and cults, and completed seven inductive Bible study workbooks together. 

6. Ian and Nadia learned to identify all of the countries of the world on a map with 100% accuracy, all of the provinces of Canada, and almost all of the capitals of the world (all except for some islands in the Caribbean and in Oceania) using Seterra.com. 

7. Ian finished level 5 and and made progress in the level 6 recital and lesson books of Alfred's Basic Piano Course. Nadia had weekly private voice lessons via Zoom through Susquehanna University, and she participated in two theatre productions via Zoom - Nancy Blue and Bad Auditions by Bad Actors.

8. All three kids learned more Spanish vocabulary through curriculum from Talkbox.mom, and Nadia participated in a bi-weekly ASL class through the Public Library for Union County on Zoom during the second semester.

9. We watched one episode of World Watch News each day (M-F), celebrated 16 holidays from around the world, read at least 542 picture or nonfiction books from the library (most related to social studies and a few related to science), and tried 149 new foods from around the world.

10. We listened to 129 chapter books together (I read a few of those aloud but mostly they were audiobooks). Nadia read more than 65 chapter books (six of which were each over 500 pages long). Ian read at least 51 chapter books. Oliver transitioned from reading easy readers out loud to reading chapter books silently this year. He read 16 chapter books.

11. The kids earned 27 junior ranger badges through National Parks during the school year.

12. Oliver is making good progress with learning his multiplication facts. My goal is that he knows them all by the end of May.

13. We went on far fewer field trips this year. Most of them took place during our vacation in October and some were virtual field trips. Many were outdoors. Still we have been on 22 field trips this school year and have plans for nine more in May and June. In Pennsylvania the school year for homeschoolers can start as early as July 1 and must end no later than the end of June. 

14. Nadia and Ian wrote several different types of poems for the first time (haiku, diamante, cinquain, acrostic, limerick, and shape). They also wrote several fairy tales in which they changed the setting to a different continent. For example, Nadia wrote a Chinese version of Cinderella. Finally, Nadia and Ian each researched twelve countries and wrote 5-7 paragraphs about each country.

15. Usually I have a lot to document for physical education - homeschool gym class, ice skating lessons, Upward basketball, etc. This year the kids only had about three homeschool gym classes (outdoors), went skiing once, and went swimming quite a bit in July and August. They (especially Oliver) ride bikes, scooters, and rollerblades on a regular basis and sometimes take a walk with me. All three kids are registered for 8 hours of tennis lessons next week. I am open to registering them for another week or two of lessons in May if they are interested in doing that. 

Although I thoroughly enjoy homeschooling my children, I also enjoy the summer break. With my "extra" time I'm planning on going for more walks, listening to more audiobooks, making progress in the videography course, making progress with learning to speak Spanish, finishing planning our fall vacation, and finishing planning out the next school year. I also want to give using the Instant Pot another whirl as it's just been sitting in the basement. Although I've had weeks where I only had the boys at home and Nadia was at camp, it's been much rarer for me to only have Nadia at home, but that will be the case the end of June when the boys are at overnight camp together. Nadia and I are already making plans to make that "Mom, Nadia, and Milo week" special. Nadia will be spending a few days in Maryland with her cousins in May, going to Indiana and Oklahoma for Bible quizzing events in May and June, and will spend a week at overnight girl's camp the first week of August, so I'm thankful that I'll have a week with extra mom and daughter time since she'll be away from home for three weeks total this summer.