The boys finished up their school year in mid-May, but I completely forgot about doing a year-end review. I like doing these when they are fresh in my mind and now that I'm planning for next year the memories are hard to find. Ask questions as I'm sure I will think of more if you ask. : )
The first year of high school is done. My biggest mistake with high school was thinking that it was different. Once I got that silly idea out of my head life was much better. The biggest success was just treating high school as just another year and continuing with the methods we were already using.
Another big obstacle for high school is goals. Our world tends to make the fruits the goal of high school (fruits are the good grades, high test scores, scholarships, good college, good job, riches in life). The goals should be wisdom, knowledge, and Truth. It's so hard to keep that focus in a world that thinks the opposite. I've caught my wrong thinking many times this past year and had to realign.
Caleb's favorite subject was history and he much enjoyed The Book of the Ancient World by Dorothy Mills.
Caleb's least favorite book was Watership Down: A Novel by Richard Adams. This book went unfinished and Caleb's end-of-term examination for this book was a writing on why he didn't like the book. I have this book for sale, really cheap if anyone wants to give it a try. ; )
My favorites from Caleb's book list this year was Fabre's Book of Insects and History of the American People by Paul Johnson. I loved Fabre's love of discovery (and references to the Creator). Johnson's book taught me more about history and made me mad at timess. Both of these were a tough reads for me, but well worth it. I'm looking forward to continuing in Johnson's book. I love history books that make you realize that the world is not a worse place than it use to be (and getting worse). Early America could be a pretty nasty place too and the bad things that go on today were going on back then too in some form or another.
Tyler's favorite books came off his literature and free reading list. Old Sam: Dakota Trotter by Don Alonzo Taylor was at the top of his list.
Tyler's least favorite also came off his literature list and was Bulfinch's Age of Fable. Tyler loves mythology books and he was very familiar with most of the stories he read, but the book was too challenging for him. I plan for him to pick this book up in a year or two and continue it. I will probably add it to Caleb's list next year since mythology is a favorite here.
My favorites from Tyler's list were his history books and Rocks, Rivers, and Changing Earth. I was surprised how much geology I didn't know! I read this one out loud to Tyler and many times I would ask Tyler if it was true because I couldn't believe it. Turns out it was all true and I was amazed by God's creation!
I think my biggest disappointment for the year was lack of Morning Basket (a term I use for the work we do together). We struggled getting this done and when we did it was not inspiring. I tinkered with it a lot to try and fix that and didn't come up with any solutions. I plan to make big changes to Morning Basket next year and hope for a better outcome. Morning Basket is truly a very important part of our school time and I need to figure out why we are struggling.
I was most happy with our schedule. It was a little too much at first, but I worked it out and we had a good schedule the rest of the year. I had to say no to many things and keep us at home during school hours to make this work. We ended the year because we were finished and not the usual because it's just time to finish. It was nice not to get "behind" this year!
What were hits and misses in your school this year?
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 thought I would share some of our favorite pictures, memories, and blog posts from each month of 2014.
Many bloggers are doing this at the moment and it's been fun to read and reread their posts. I'm amazed at the beautiful writing and reflections they have of their year! Unfortunately you won't find that here! ; )
Anyway . . . some things I did noticed is that I had a ton of Quick Takes and Daybooks and not many subject specfic post. This is something I want to work on for next year. I want to take a topic and write about it. Of course, I enjoy doing Daybooks and I get good response to those (who doesn't when you spill your heart!) and will continue those. I'm hoping a few less checking in sort of posts.
Well, here is a quick glance at the year on the blog!
January~
January's most popular post, 7 Quick Takes Friday~Homeschool Edition~1/3/2014. We celebrated a new teenager in the house. Caleb turned 13 and we got a nice day to go outside and take some pictures.
February~
February's most popular post, The Homeschool Path {Planning Eighth Grade and Preparing For High School}. It looks like we got snowed in and Scott made some coon skin hats. I enjoyed seeing pictures of our hamster (he passed away early December).
March~
March's most popular post, Just Checking In {March 31, 2014}
It seems we were really longing for spring weather in March! Caleb finally saved enough money to purchase his bow. We also went out for our first nature study of the year.
April~
April's most popular post, A Spring Daybook in April. We celebrated a long awaited Easter and looking at the pictures, spring must have finally came! A stray cat adopted us and stole our hearts (which were broken come December)! The First Nature Study of Spring was much loved!
May~
May's most popular post, Evaluating the School Year {2013-2014}.
May was really busy! My blog posts are of full of pictures of Zebra and that was the best part of looking through them all. May turned out to be beautiful spring weather (which can be rare in Missouri). I think this post was my favorite from May either because of the pictures of the iris or cat!
June~
June's most popular post, 7 Quick Takes Friday {June 27, 2014}. We enjoyed some carefree days in June! Tyler celebrated his 10th birthday and I was deep into school planning.
July~
July's most popular post, Our Plans {2014-2015 Term 1}. July: fishing, outdoor play, garden veggies, sweet kitty, and a new school year!
August~
August's most popular post, Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real {August 21, 2014}. We enjoyed some summer nature study, a trip to Kansas, evaluated our first month of school, and tried hard to get into a new school schedule.
September~
September's most popular post (and only post), Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real {September 11, 2014}.
September was our busiest month of the year. Too much to do but the good news is since Tyler will be a Boy Scout come March, this should be our last crazy September due to Cub Scouts!
October~
October's most popular post, A Tuesday Daybook {October 28, 2014}. October brought nature study, the Feast of St. Michael, This Week in Learning, Term 2 of the school year, more nature study, Halloween, and our first cross country season came to an end.
November~
November's most popular post, 7 Quick Takes Friday {November 21, 2014}. Things settled down after a hectic fall season. Because of that I was able to work on recording our school days. The boys had a successful deer hunting season. We had family pictures taken too.
December~
December's most popular post, This Week in Learning {Week 17}. Advent came and went. We grieved the lost of our cat and the hamster. We welcomed a puppy into our family. Christmas celebrations were much welcomed and enjoyed (and continue).
