We are finishing up our 2017-2018 homeschool year this week!
Cue the confetti! 👏🎉🎆
Big Brother has completed 4th grade!
Little Brother is an official Pre-Kindergartener!
And Baby Sister is...you know...still a baby! 😊
And Baby Sister is...you know...still a baby! 😊
Even though we technically homeschool year-round (and love it!), we are always excited about the accomplishment of finishing another official academic year and the excitement of what the new one might have in store!
Big Brother plans to take the entire month of May off from more formal work and start back in early June with a lighter summer workload.
This school year has definitely had its share of unique struggles, but it has also been a year of growth. Our family has grown (by 2 adorable little feet), but also the boys have grown. They are both maturing and changing, and Big Brother has especially shown his growing ability to handle more independence and to take more responsibility.
So let's take a look back over this homeschool year:
Math
We switched from one amazing math curriculum we loved (Rod & Staff) to another great mastery based curriculum this year: A.C.E.
I loved A.C.E math from 8th grade through high school myself growing up (it was the only math curriculum that made sense to me!), and my brother had used mostly A.C.E. math growing up, too. So I already knew it was a solid, mastery program.
But I was a little worried (why do we homeschool moms always do that?!) that parts of it seemed to be more on the level of what we had covered already in R&S in 3rd grade.
BUT...when he took the SAT10 (a standardized achievement test) last week...his math scores were through.the.roof. He scored MUCH higher than ever before in math.
So I think I will stop worrying now and just go with it!
So I think I will stop worrying now and just go with it!
In addition to his formal math curriculum, Big Brother has also enjoyed learning some living math concepts just by playing games (like learning to compute with negative numbers from keeping his score in Dutch Blitz...which he is the champion of at our house), cooking, and earning and managing his own money.
I am very proud of how far Big Brother has come in math this year!
Language Arts
Big Brother worked through Level 4 of the Barton Reading and Spelling System (an Orton-Gillingham approach) for spelling. He worked on this with my mom twice a week. I am blown away by all the spelling rules he has learned in this program.
For English, Literature, and Creative Writing: it was A.C.E. to the rescue this year. Surprisingly for a boy who has never been much for writing, Big Brother has absolutely LOVED A.C.E.'s 4th level Literature/Creative Writing course! He has read several wonderful books (he really enjoyed Charlotte's Web), and he has really grown by leaps and bounds in his writing skills, too.
History
It is definitely a good thing Big Brother loves history more than any other subject...because he has completed not 1...not 2...but 3 different history courses this year (not to mention all the reading and learning he has done on his own about various historical people and time periods!).
He completed all of 4th level A.C.E. Social Studies. He learned so much about various countries of the world and missionaries.
He also completed the ABeka 4th Grade United States History course with my mom and loved every minute of it.
My mom also helped him create a huge Kentucky History & Geography notebook (here is the state history resource she used), and I have been very impressed with how much he has learned. He can tell so many fascinating facts and stories about our state and local history.
Science
We used A.C.E. for Science, too this year. And it was fine. He enjoyed simply reading his PACEs (workbooks), and honestly, I was much too sick and sore from pregnancy complications and busy with all the extra doctor visits to come up with many exciting science experiments this year. (But I am pretty excited about next year's Science because each of the 12 PACEs has a very neat project or experiment for him to work on throughout the PACE.)
Bible
Big Brother started working through the 5th level A.C.E. Bible Reading PACEs this year, and we plan to continue slowly working through them over the next couple years. It really gets him digging into the Word, and it challenges him to think quite a bit.
One of the big things I love about A.C.E. as a curriculum is how Scripture memory and character training is actually built into every subject throughout the entire program.
So just from completing his Math, English, Literature/Creative Writing, Social Studies, and Science PACEs alone, this school year Big Brother has memorized 60 different Bible verses and studied nearly as many different Godly character traits!
We have also established the habit of morning worship time before school and Bible story reading and quizzing as a family at bedtime. This has been such a blessing to us all, and we do this even on non-school days.
Extracurriculars
A.C.E. Jr. Student Convention
Big Brother participated in this event back in September for the first time, and he loved it! He competed in several categories (Social Studies Research, Sculpture, Photography, Chess, Checkers, Male Solo, and Male Piano Solo) with more than 100 other Christian schooled and homeschooled students ages 9-12.
He brought home 1st Place in Color Still Life Photography (winning picture below in a frame).
2nd Place in Social Studies Research (Remember the Alamo)
5th Place in Male Solo (he sang "Seek Ye First")
5th Place in Male Piano Solo (he memorized and played an arrangement of America the Beautiful.)
4-H
Big Brother is now an official Jr. 4-H member. He graduated from the Cloverbud program, and is now eligible to participate in more clubs and advance in competition. He is the secretary of our local homeschool club this year. He is working on a country ham project that will be going to the state fair this summer, and he has been busy competing in Speech and Demonstration contests. His 4-H speech this year was titled "My Favorite American Hero" and was about Davy Crockett. His 4-H demonstration is titled "The Diaper Bag Bandit," and he teaches how to pack a baby's diaper bag from the perspective of a seasoned Big Brother!
Art
4-H workshops have been great for getting in some neat crafts and art. Big Brother and Little Brother both got to build birdhouses this year, and Big Brother decorated recycled glass bottles and gave them to family as Christmas gifts.
Big Brother has taken a big interest in drawing this year (he is even saying he might want to become an architect when he grows up), so we are trying to feed that interest as much as we can. I have purchased him some nice sketch pads, colored pencils, drawing pencils, etc. and encouraged him to draw as much as he likes.
He took a drawing class at a local community center for a few weeks after Christmas, and he has really enjoyed working through Barry Stebbing's Beginning Drawing DVD set. The class at the community center was fine, but I really feel like he has learned so much more from the DVDs.
Music
We are a music-loving family. We are all big Southern Gospel music fans, and we love listening to CDs of our favorite artists. I have tried to incorporate more singing into our school days, and there are few things more of a blessing than to hear the boys singing songs we have learned together.
Big Brother has continued taking piano lessons with a private teacher this year, and his playing is at the point where it actually sounds like real music! He played "We Three Kings" in his Christmas recital and has another recital coming up where he will play "Hail to the Chief." He aims to practice 10-12 minutes per day, and sometimes more just for fun.
Little Brother also loves music, and one of his most favorite things in the whole world to do is to sit down with his guitar and either my brother or my father in law to pick and grin!
Speaking of Little Brother
Little Brother is soon to turn 4, and we just started doing The Gentle + Classical Preschool (mixed with some other resources!) a little over a month ago. I plan to do a whole post soon all about what I am doing with him.
He has developed a love for trains, likes coloring and painting, learned the entire alphabet and basic letter sounds (mostly from watching LeapFrog Letter Factory!), can take care of his own bathroom needs (huge blessing!), can load and unload the washing machine, counts (pretty well) to 20, has a big imagination, and can tell me about some of his favorite Bible characters.
For most of this year, though, Little Brother has done his own thing. His biggest lessons have been life lessons like watching his baby sister on the ultrasound screen and learning to be a gentle big brother. His new place as middle child of the family is a tough one, and I can see he is going to need a lot more grace.
While all that looks like a lot...
There is so much we didn't do this school year. We read fewer books aloud than usual. We did not take as many field trips as a family. I didn't do as much actual parent-led teaching with Big Brother (he basically set his work goals each day in his PACEs and worked on them). We didn't do many science experiments or Pinterest-worthy hands-on projects.
So much of what my children have learned this year wasn't part of the curriculum and wasn't on any formal lesson plans.
Big Brother has especially learned:
- How to set his own school goals and work hard to meet them.
- How to get a simple breakfast for himself and Little Brother when Mommy has needed to rest or take care of Baby Sister.
- How to rock a baby to sleep
- How to feed a baby a bottle of pumped milk and burp her.
- How to pack a diaper bag with baby essentials.
- How to wash dishes.
- How to complete a variety of other household chores.
- How to be understanding when plans have had to be changed due to Mom or baby's needs.
All in all, I have to say we have had a blessed school year.
As always, God has taken what I had to offer my children as a homeschool mom this year (which has felt like so little at times) and multiplied it for their good and His glory.
And now, by God's grace, I say bring on 5th Grade and K4! I will share more about our curriculum choices for next year soon.
Plus Coming Soon for Summer 2018...
Plus Coming Soon for Summer 2018...
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Check out A.C.E. curriculum here!
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