I intended to write this post the day we finished school . . . . I know I even sat down to do it . . . . yet there was no draft so I guess I somehow got distracted. This will be short because it's been summer break too long now. ; )
Here are some post with the material we had planned to use: Term 1, Term 2, and it doesn't look like I did a post about term 3 (but I think I talked about it in other post). Tyler completed 5th grade and Caleb 8th grade this year.
I have the boys fill out a survey during our last week of school. There is a rating system for all the books we used and a page of other questions. It's not their favorite thing to do but I find it certainly insightful every year. The following is from that survey and my thoughts on the year.
Tyler's Favorite book/subject was Cuthbert Joins the Bush Boys. His favorite activity was nature study at the farm. His least favorite thing this year was written narrations. His hardest subject was math and his easiest subject was free reading. When asked if school was too hard, too easy, or just write he replied just right.
Other things that Tyler enjoyed and ranked high on his list were Life of Fred, Story of the World 1, St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism #1, dictation, Fix It, weather study, and morning basket.
Caleb's favorite book/subject was history (20th century). His least favorite was LifeWork: Finding Your Purpose in Life. He complained about the author's tree comparisons. Tyler has requested NOT to read that book in the future, lol.
Other things that ranked high on Caleb's list were Seton Science 7, Winston Grammar, morning basket, nature study, and Xtra Math.
We had many changes compared to the book list in the previous posts. Too many to talk about! Yet, there were some great changes. Saxon math was a hit. Switching Caleb's history and science were very favorable, too.
I saw great improvements in both the boys independent work. I had some much needed "free" time during school hours. It was just enough of a break that I needed to get through our day.
Keep in mind that these were our positives and to respect the boy's privacy I'm not going to discuss any goals not meet. : )
I think it good to focus mostly on what was met anyhow, sometimes we can focus too much on what wasn't achieved, I certainly can anyway. Sure jot down little notes but focus on the great:)
ReplyDeleteI always focus on the negative! This year I just wanted to move on (more than usual) which set me up to focus more on the positives. Although, I admit it took me a long time to come up with them. ; )
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