Friday, May 22, 2015

Another Year Down!

We are officially done with our school year!  Nicholas completed the second grade, and Daniel finished his junior preschool (or whatever you want to call it).  This year had a lot of growth.  It was not perfect and without its challenges, but I feel like homeschooling is still working for us.




Daniel wasn’t too interested in doing school this week.  The theme was supposed to be about him and his birthday.  I managed to get a couple of activities in, but he really just wanted to play with toys.
Don't mess with the water pen!




He did put the different presents in order of size.


Daniel worked on his pre-writing skills by drawing a line from the child to the birthday party.



He then put the birthday hats in order of size.  He used his pencil to point out which one was the biggest. 


Finally, I cut out the letters in his name.  I had him identify the letters and then I put them in order.  We recited them a few times before I mixed him up and had him tell me the order.  He did okay on that task and only needed a little coaching.



Daniel also had some really great swimming lessons.  He is following all of the instructions and doing so well.  He even told the teacher he wanted to swim by himself, so he went underwater and kind of swam a couple of inches to the wall.  He also contemplated going off of the diving board.  They got him up there, but he isn’t quite ready to jump yet.  He’s definitely a little fish though.

Nicholas finished basketball this past weekend.  He seemed to enjoy himself and even scored his first basket in the last game.  He is a big fan of dribbling and trying to get the rebound.  I am glad that he has had the opportunity to try so many different sports. 




His last school week was pretty light.  In the last month, subjects had been dropping off as we completed different books.  I know some people want to see a report card, but we don’t do those.  Since I am Nicholas’ teacher I know how well he did this year.  I know which areas were a breeze and which ones needed more effort.  That is what I like about homeschooling – I can tailor his schooling to his specific skills and abilities.  But, if anyone wants to reward grades, he did score pretty high on his standardized testing results, especially in Total Language (grammar). 

This summer he will be doing some very light school work each week.  He will continue to work on his math, so he doesn’t forget anything.  I prefer not to spend weeks on review in the fall.  We will review his spelling just to reinforce what he learned this year.  And, he wants to keep up with his cursive handwriting.  Finally, he will do the library’s summer reading program.  Nothing too taxing. 

Daniel will also do the summer reading program.  In addition, we’ll work on recognizing numbers 1-10.  I’ll probably print off some fun papers to do too.  He always asks to do school and will probably be disappointed if I don’t have anything for him too.

Speaking of Daniel, we have some more birthday celebrating to do this coming weekend.  My parents also celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.  So, it should be a fun time with family.  Hopefully, I’ll remember to break out my camera.



Daniel’s materials were found from various websites, such as:

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