Homeschooling Finale

If I had one regret about homeschooling, it would be that I didn't blog it like I wanted to.  We had such a great year/ experience and I fear I have already forgotten so much of what we did.  Yes, I have it all documented in notebooks... in the attic... but I wish that it was more accessible.

We finished the year a week before we moved- talk about good timing! 

Hunter- happy to be doing his last writing assignment for 1st grade!!!

Anyway, I don't have many pictures and I just don't have time to go into the weekly details.  But, trust me when I say that I think we both learned a lot.  Hunter grew so much this year.  I am anxious to see how he fares against public school kids as he heads back this year.  I will definitely miss him, he has become my talker, my helper, my buddy. 

By the end of the school year he was reading these kind of books.  He hasn't read as much I would have liked this summer or I guess I should say, he hasn't read the kind of material I would want him to read this summer... but at least he is reading even if it is super hero books.  When does that become uncool?!?!  haha.

 

 



The last official reading assignment--- "The Courage of Sarah Noble"

 

Our last science experiment was kind of a bust.  I tried to quickly do it and wasn't happy with the results but he got the point even if the experiment was blah.  Here is what we did.  We were discussing the 3 layers of earth- the crust, mantle, and core.  We tried to mimic the different layers making a s'more type creation.  The crust was crumbled graham crackers (dirt), the mantle was chocolate chips (rocks), and marshmallows were the core.  I don't know if I just used too little but it was a flop... Just for a laugh, here is the end result... oh well, never claimed to be a science teacher (go ahead and critique me Olivia!)


haha... poor excuse for a science experiement... have I ever mentioned that I used my 6 hours of college German to take away a 4 hour science course in college... this explains why.

I was also so pleased with Hunter's writing.  He took the initiative and wrote a series of books where he gave each of his family member's super hero names and then wrote a story with each character.  His end of year project was to take one of the books and make into a real book on shutterfly.  His writing also got much neater.  Now, he is not going to win a penmanship award but it got much better.


An example of his copywork from May.  I have gotten on to him countless times about coloring the dots on the "i." 

We used Singapore math and I really liked it. However, with the intro of Bennett, many of the enforcing activities got sped through so I am hopeful he still go the main concepts... which I am pretty sure he did as he only struggled through one section (forgot which one).  He was introduced to multiplication, and double digit addition, as well as more in depth currency adding. 

I was so proud of him this year.  He complained occasionally but it just took mentioning 6+ hours at public school and he quickly stopped. 

We went to Hunter and Ashton's open house tonight.  There school is wonderful--- ranked high in the state and they both have great teachers.  I am sure they will be thrive! 

Hunter, thanks for such a great year full of memories!

His favorite thing about homeschool--- being done early to pretend play and "pace the pit"

Love ya!

Oh, and Ashton and I started "The Reading Lesson"  a few weeks ago.  He is already starting to get the blending idea.  I was a little worried about him but after starting this book with him, I know he will be just fine!  I intend to start this same book with Shepherd once we get established into a good school routine... never too early to start the reading process.