Reflections of this year's Homeschool
the school year is fastly coming to an end! i really enjoyed this year with the kids at home. i know they have had moments when they missed school, but all i needed to do was mention the tests, homework, pressure of feeling up to their level, and they were once again content. school was good for them on a social level, but i defintily see a difference in their progress and stress level being at home.
we had a good year. i am loveing Charlotte Mason! at the beginning of the year i was excited but a bit leary as to the effectiveness of such an open way of learning, but over the time i have seen the benefits of narrations, transcriptions, open nature studies, etc... i am sure that many would have done things differently but i see several benefits to what we did and how we did it. just a couple of the advances I have seen are:
Aaron:
has read more books this year than the last couple of years put together!
has found an interest in science
has improved his handwriting GREATLY!
continues to do well in math. (better than mommy at times)
feels confident that he understands what he reads and can reproduce the information he has learned. (at the beginning of the year they would narrate what they had read and I would write it down as they told me. one day after the exercise with aaron, he looked at the page of writing and said, "Wow! I understood ALL THAT!" he was suprised that he could actually narrate a page of information!
Emily:
has GREATLY improved her confidence in reading! YES YES YES!!!!! this was my #1 priority for her! if she didn't get anything else out of this year, at least she got rid of the idea that she wasn't as good as other readers!
she has enjoyed reading books like Pipi Longstockings and the Littles
has gotten rid of that ridiculous idea that she is dumb!! (thank you Jesus!)
has improved in math skills
loves art and has found new ways to express herself artisticly.
enjoys narrating what she has read or learned
there are several things i would like us to improve/add next year.
i think one of the main and resounding things would be record keeping of:
books read
narrations given
learning activities
if not on paper, at least blog them for future reference.
i would also (and plan on doing it) buy a nature study guide to have a little more structure on what we have learned and when.
next year looks to be alot of the same wonderful learning. as i mentioned above, i plan on buying Anne Comstocks book on nature study. we will be using the teaching textbooks for math, and continue with narration, transcription for english and spelling. i played with the idea of buying a Charlotte Mason book on transcription, but when i looked at it, it seemed to be just what we did this year! we will continue with the Mystery of History which has been soooo interesting. i think learning cronologically is the best way to learn history! so much easier to put things in their place and remeber more or less when it was that things happened. and having the bible events included right along with world events is a big bonus!
i was tempted, VERY TEMPTED to go back to the A Beka route. their glossy, colorful workbook pages and beautifully designed posters becon to my perfeccionist side, but the idea of just doing workbooks and more workbooks everyday and having everything sooo structured kept me from pressing the "add to cart" button. i might look in to their music dvd's since our great music teacher is moving back to the USA. we'll see.
i am thanking God for this great year, and pray that next year will be equally or more successful!!!
we had a good year. i am loveing Charlotte Mason! at the beginning of the year i was excited but a bit leary as to the effectiveness of such an open way of learning, but over the time i have seen the benefits of narrations, transcriptions, open nature studies, etc... i am sure that many would have done things differently but i see several benefits to what we did and how we did it. just a couple of the advances I have seen are:
Aaron:
has read more books this year than the last couple of years put together!
has found an interest in science
has improved his handwriting GREATLY!
continues to do well in math. (better than mommy at times)
feels confident that he understands what he reads and can reproduce the information he has learned. (at the beginning of the year they would narrate what they had read and I would write it down as they told me. one day after the exercise with aaron, he looked at the page of writing and said, "Wow! I understood ALL THAT!" he was suprised that he could actually narrate a page of information!
Emily:
has GREATLY improved her confidence in reading! YES YES YES!!!!! this was my #1 priority for her! if she didn't get anything else out of this year, at least she got rid of the idea that she wasn't as good as other readers!
she has enjoyed reading books like Pipi Longstockings and the Littles
has gotten rid of that ridiculous idea that she is dumb!! (thank you Jesus!)
has improved in math skills
loves art and has found new ways to express herself artisticly.
enjoys narrating what she has read or learned
there are several things i would like us to improve/add next year.
i think one of the main and resounding things would be record keeping of:
books read
narrations given
learning activities
if not on paper, at least blog them for future reference.
i would also (and plan on doing it) buy a nature study guide to have a little more structure on what we have learned and when.
next year looks to be alot of the same wonderful learning. as i mentioned above, i plan on buying Anne Comstocks book on nature study. we will be using the teaching textbooks for math, and continue with narration, transcription for english and spelling. i played with the idea of buying a Charlotte Mason book on transcription, but when i looked at it, it seemed to be just what we did this year! we will continue with the Mystery of History which has been soooo interesting. i think learning cronologically is the best way to learn history! so much easier to put things in their place and remeber more or less when it was that things happened. and having the bible events included right along with world events is a big bonus!
i was tempted, VERY TEMPTED to go back to the A Beka route. their glossy, colorful workbook pages and beautifully designed posters becon to my perfeccionist side, but the idea of just doing workbooks and more workbooks everyday and having everything sooo structured kept me from pressing the "add to cart" button. i might look in to their music dvd's since our great music teacher is moving back to the USA. we'll see.
i am thanking God for this great year, and pray that next year will be equally or more successful!!!
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