Homeschool End of Year Wrap Up 2015-16

It is that time of year, the homeschool end of year. The 2015-2016 school year has been our most successful. We have gotten into a homeschool rhythm and have recovered from some of the chaos of life. We had a crazy year of family changes, moves, and job changes during the 2014-2015 school year, so this year seemed calm and peaceful (in comparison). I am constantly reflecting on our homeschool journey and I am not afraid to change what isn’t working midstream, but I like to take some downtime in the early summer to do a final review of the year.

Homeschool End of Year Wrap Up for 2015-2016

Things that went well:

Reading Curriculum – I LOVE All About Reading. We finished the year in the middle of book three and we will keep moving ahead. I love the concepts and it reminds me of the way I was taught to read so it makes sense to me. I have seen enormous growth in the last year (As well as documented growth using the DORA reading assessment)

Math: RightStart Math. We returned to RightStart after using Teaching Textbooks the previous year. We started with teaching textbooks, but the kids were not retaining as well as I had hoped. I think this was more of a lack of consistency than a problem with Teaching Textbooks. I LOVE RightStart math because it is all about making math truly a process rather than just rote memorization. My boys both struggle with short term memory so this works for them to get a good foundation. After we work through all the RightStart levels, I plan on returning to Teaching Textbooks.

Science: We did a science program through our Parks and Rec department and the hands on portion was fabulous. The kids got to hike and explore with knowledgeable people and learned so much.

Social Studies: We go to a social studies and literature focused tutorial one day a week. We used Story of the World for our spine at home to prepare for tutorial. That works fine as a spine, but I will be adding additional resources this next school year.

Literature: We read great books for our tutorial like Caddy Woodlawn, Tom Sawyer, and Sarah Plain and Tall. I am already looking for deals on books for next school year.

PE: We attended homeschool PE class via the parks and rec department.

Art: We attended a homeschool art class via the parks and rec department (we only went occasionally- it meets during the tyrannical toddler’s nap time)

Music: G took violin this year and didn’t love the instrument, but has now decided a musical instrument might not be so bad. That is a win.

The Other Stuff: As I have mentioned before, organization is not my strong suit. The school room is always a disaster by the time I get ready for the homeschool end of year wrap up (as you can see in the picture of our school room above). Lists have worked wonders for our homeschool this year. I create a daily to do list to work through and it has decreased the drama substantially. A clipboard has a list for each child. The list is of school work and chores that have to be completed. While they aren’t always excited to get to work, it decreases the mommy meltdowns which makes the day run more smoothly for everyone. This mommy can only be asked if we are done so many times before nice mommy goes away to a corner to eat chocolate or I begin to lose it.

Things that will need to be tweaked for next year:

Science: I enjoyed the hands on element, but the homework was far beyond the age range. The kids and I were often in tears from frustration. I am still deciding on science for next year with a two year old in the mix it complicates matters. My science specialist background gets in the way when deciding on science homeschool curriculum, because nothing is perfect.

Social Studies: I love our tutorial and the boys will be going to the same class this coming year. They will be covering the 20th century. I am really looking forward to it, but I want to add a states study and an election unit to our homeschool curriculum. My boys will be 11 and 9 and I want to start talking to them about government so that they understand their role. We will also be doing map skills this year.

My kids adore a good map and we haven’t done enough map work. We spent an entire family lunch out talking about a vintage map that was on the wall behind us in a restaurant. We are THAT kind of family and I love it! We are also the kind of family that has the two year old laying in the floor screaming while mommy sweats and tries to hold it together and the other children take that moment to begin a fist fight with each other – I don’t always love that. It is all about balance.

Literature: I hope to get the kids free reading more. Reading has been a struggle. It is especially difficult when there are learning differences at play. We have all worked very hard at reading this year and it has paid off. To offset the exhaustion that reading can cause, we listen to a lot of audiobooks. Creating consistent free reading and read aloud time will be a priority this year.

Thanks for reading through our homeschool end of year wrap up for this year. There are lots of things I want to add to our homeschool day and I am working on finalizing our plans and will be sharing our plan for 2015/2016 soon. Have you wrapped up your homeschool year? I would love to see what your homeschool end of year looks like, please comment below or find me on facebook or twitter.

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