Wrapping Up Our School Year

I feel like it would be fun to document how this year went as a family, and how each of my kids did themselves.  It was such a year of ups and downs.  Sometimes I feel like I’m failing at what we’re doing.  Writing it all out is therapeutic.  I can see what we actually did.

Morning Hour

I first heard reference to the idea of Morning Hour from the Read-Aloud-Revival Podcast.  (If you don’t listen to it, you should, homeschooler or not.  It’s just so great.)  I have a morning basket of all the things that we do together as a group.  It’s here in my kitchen, so that a stack of books that I pull off the shelf daily aren’t just cluttering up my dining room and bookshelves.  I got some great ideas and inspiration from the Wildflower and Marbles series on Morning Baskets.  Now that I have been implementing these ideas for a few months, I feel like I finally found something that fits me, and my lack of organizational skills.  I try a lot of organizational ideas and they just drop off after a week or so.  Months of working is a huge success to me!

I also got a little notebook to keep track of what we are doing for morning hour, on which days, and hold all the loose papers that might be involved.  I customized it at zazzle.com.

The idea of morning hour is to start the day reflecting on things that are true, beautiful, good and lovely.  I usually limit it to less than an hour, depending on how the kids are doing, how antsy or late we are, and how much disciplining and correcting needs to happen during the hour.  Really, I just wanted it to set the tone for the day.  David often balances on a stool, or leans on his chair during this time.  It’s a time for inspiration, encouragement, and setting the attitude of curiosity and scholarship.  I fight the “sit down and be quiet and still” impulse, and instead, “set the feast, and fill them with inspiration.”

During this time, we start off with devotions, do some memory work, read some history or literature-based history, and then we rotate through things like grammar, geography, art history (we do the portfolio studies from Simply Charlotte Mason), or anything else that we have time to do.  This year we went through How To Teach Your Child Shakespeare and it was fantastic.  We just have to finish up Hamlet and we will call it good for the year.  I cannot believe how much my kids got into it.  We aren’t totally done yet, and we skipped one or two stories, but it was the spine of our unit study.  This involved a lot of memorizing famous passages, and reading more child-friendly versions of of the plays.  (The kids’ favorite was by far “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”) I loved even hearing little Solveig memorize the passage from Midsummer Night’s Dream while she was coloring at the other end of the table:

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk roses, and with eglantine.

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.

And there the snake throws her enameled skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes

And make her full of hateful fantasies.  

It cracks me up to hear my little 5 year old stomping around the house to the beat of this passage as she recites words of Shakespeare she does not yet understand, but she loves the sound of it so much that she keeps going over and over it.  This is the beauty of homeschooling, right here!

For geography we went through Draw the USA this spring.  The kids really had fun with that too.  I think we’ll move right into drawing Europe after this without waiting for fall to come.  All the kids really enjoyed it, and it brought about a lot of discussion and them researching their questions.  It was a great jumping off point.

History is something that is often on in the car as we are running errands.  My kids love listening to Story of the World on audio.  There were some things that I wanted to read to expand that, and we didn’t get through as many books in that area as I wanted to, but I’m pleased with the one we did: Magna Charta.  It was a great background to Western history, and the background to the Magna Charta and how it set the footings for all future democracies.  The language was a bit above my kids, but they followed along still.  We had so many discussions about events described in this book, and that part is the gold.

For devotions, we went through 24 Family Ways this year followed by The Young Peacemakers.  Both of them were excellent.  More about them later.

Silje and David worked on cursive a bit.  Silje is now writing cursive all the time for her school, and David just got an introduction.  Elias is still working on printing.

Tea Times and Evening Read-Alouds

During morning tea times (snack time) around 10am, I read to all 5 of the kids some kind of literature as they fill their mouths and hopefully not interrupt and stay still.  We read through The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Railway Children, several of The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh short stories, and Kipling’s Just So Stories (especially the illustrations in this version.)  I thought we did more than that, but maybe that was just it.

After the 2 little girls go to bed in the evenings (yep!  School in the evenings.  Why not?), I read aloud from books geared towards the older kids.  In addition to finishing up the Narnia series, we read Little Britches, which the kids adored.  David actually is listening to the rest of the series via audible, as he’s pretty obsessed.  We also read The Green Ember aloud, which Silje had read before, but the boys hadn’t because they had deemed it a “girl book” because Silje was so obsessed.  They did find out that rabbits with swords on an adventure aren’t so bad after all.  We took a big break this winter to just read some Advent books, and our evening schedule just doesn’t always allow for a read aloud.  I fight with that.

As you can tell, we have a very literature-based approach to our school day.  I spend most of my teacher-prep time researching book lists, as I want to have the reputation with my kids that when I put a book in their hands they know immediately that they will love it.  Dry books are outlawed.  There’s just too many good choices out there to waste time on bad books.

Elias (6/7) 1st grade

I really feel like I dropped the ball with Elias this year.  It’s one of the reasons we are making some changes to our school next year.  He’s there for all of the family subjects, and learns alongside us very well.  I’ve just been inconsistent with his one-on-one time, specifically with his reading and math.  We have tried various readers with him, and the one that seems to be clicking is the old fashioned McGuffey Primer.  We tried Hooked on Phonics, we tried Bob books.  He likes the old-school primer that I just had because I thought it looked cool.  He is still not reading on his own, and I’m still having to help him a ton.  But he is eager to learn.  He’s also been working on Saxon Math 1, and he’s pretty good at math, but he still flips his numbers, and it’s tedious when he can’t read.  The number flipping and the lack of reading scares me a bit, because of the road we have been down with his big brother with learning disabilities.  On the other hand, he’s moving along so much smoother than his big brother ever did, that I think a lot of the problem is my lack on consistency, and him just being late on every milestone of his life.  (He’s my preemie-baby.)

Poor Elias.  He’s going to be my main focus this summer, and my top priority student for school next year.  He’s not going to know what hit him.  He’s going to love it.  I think that he’s been waiting for it.  He has been coming up with a ton of projects himself.  He writes and illustrates books nearly constantly (with the help of whoever he can grab in the house who knows how to write).  He is always drawing.  He builds inventions with Legos and anything he can find in our recycling bin, complete with drawn out “plans” of his prototypes.  When I’m overwhelmed with school with the older kids, I look over at him and check “Is he learning?  Is he studying? Is he using his brain?  Yeah, ok good.  He can do ‘formal school’ later.”  I signed up for a sketching class from Craftsy and we are going to do it as a family this summer as a fun activity.  He asks about it daily.

David (9/10) 4th grade

David finished up the IEW writing intensive A, and then their writing book “All Things Fun and Fascinating.”  As my struggling reader and writer with some learning disabilities, IEW has been a perfect fit for him.  I may have him do the intensive B next year already, as I think he’s ready.  (He doesn’t believe he is.)  He still struggles with spelling, and I let him “ask Siri” on my phone how to spell things while he writes, so he can focus on content instead of spelling, which is easier for his brain to handle, and that way he doesn’t ask me how to spell something every 20 seconds of the morning and I can focus on my other students.  Our goal this year was to get him up to writing at grade level.  Last year during his standardized test, his writing was so awful that it was deemed “un-gradable”  This year, he tested around the 3.7 grade level which was a huge leap from last year.  I was very proud of him for that.

Reading is still a struggle for him, and I have worked him up to reading 1 chapter a day, or the equivalent of 40 pages.  Then I check his comprehension daily.  The big change that we’ve made this year is to use an old iPod gifted to us from an uncle and downloaded a bunch of audiobooks for him, so that his whole school day doesn’t center around his most difficult subject.  History books, his science textbook, and massive amounts of literature have been downloaded to this iPod, and he listens to it constantly like it’s candy.  He listens to literature so much that we’ve had to put restrictions on him so we can actually talk to him.  He loves to listen to his science textbook over and over again until it’s practically memorized.  He’s made great leaps this year through this method, and has grown in independence as well.  I still keep him reading his mandatory 1 chapter/40 pages, and he’s gone through several Beverley Cleary books, Encyclopedia Brown detective stories, as well as some other detective short readers that way to just keep him moving forward with reading the words himself.

His other big leap was in math.  It’s always been his best subject.  He was doing 5th grade Teaching Textbooks, finished it in a hurry, and started the 6th grade program in an attempt to pass up his big sister and annoy her.  His standardized testing showed a 4 year math leap this last year, from 5th grade ability to 9th grade ability. When he saw that, he wanted to skip to 9th grade, which I said no to, because last time I let him skip a grade in math he found he had some big holes and ended up being quite frustrated.

So he’s been doing the 6th grade math, pushing 4-5 lessons a day in his free time to pass his sister, getting 100% on each lesson and talking about how boring it is.  I have started exploring switching the kids to Khan Academy for math next year.  The pros are that it’s seems to be more rigorous than Teaching Textbooks, and it’s FREE (perhaps the biggest bonus of all).  The con seem to be that it’s an online program and we have a history of inconsistent internet.  I hate the idea of skipping math for a week because our internet is down.  Of course, we could just declare those days “Life of Fred Days” which my kids love reading just for fun anyway, which are hilarious stories of math theory.

So my plan is to get Silje and David exploring Khan Academy this summer, just playing around, and then decide if we should switch.  The kids have been “playing” on that website for a week during free time, and they are so obsessed and love it that I think this will be an easy decision.  It IS harder than Teaching Textbooks because the kids are struggling with even being at the 6th grade level on there.  You can’t sort of know it on there.  You either know it or don’t.  So right now they are “playing” on the early math section, where it covers mastery of all elementary math concepts and checking for any holes in their learning, so the computer program can place them exactly according to their levels.  It’s a mastery-based program, which I adore.  I’d much rather see that my kids understand it totally and completely than to know they got a B- and are moving forward on a limp.

Silje 11, 6th grade

Silje and I have had a few problems with school for this year too.  There are 2 reasons for this.  The first is she joined the public school orchestra.  It’s a lovely orchestra, and she loves it.  But it meets on every 1, 3, and 7 days on an 8 day schedule rotation laid over a 5 day school week with holidays and teacher work days thrown in there.

So in other words: random days on our calendar with zero consistency.  Also, it meets over our lunchtime.  Having activities in the middle of the school day has proved extremely problematic to the “flow” of our work.  Knut’s mom has generously offered to take her in to town most of those days, and that has been a total lifesaver.  Interrupting 1 kid mid-school day is hard enough.  Interrupting everyone to take them to town is nearly impossible.  I like that Silje gets to see her grandparents more, and she often visits her great-grandma when they are in town, or run errands and help out.  Those are all good.

But the bad part is that she really has a tough time finishing her schoolwork when she gets home.  Sometimes she doesn’t get back until 3 or 4 in the afternoon because that’s when her ride comes back.  I’ve tried sending schoolwork with her to do in the car, but it is never done.  The other kids are done by then, and she has to spend the rest of the evening doing her schoolwork while the other kids play, which she hates.  It’s caused attitude problems.  Even when she does come home right after her orchestra practice, getting her back on task is a fight…every time…without exception.  I’m so tired of fighting.

The other problem has piggy-backed on that.  She has always been my list-maker, highly motivated student who I could trust to do a good job just because she knew no other way to do it.  I gave her probably too much independent work, because in years past she has handled it and thrived on that system.  I would check on some of her independent subjects every week or two, and give her a few suggestions for improvement, smile and say “as you were” as she continued to study away at her schoolwork.  She was just thirsty to know everything, and I just had to move out of her way.  It was a good system.  She was such an easy student.

This year, we’ve had some trust broken as she hasn’t been doing her work.  It totally came at me from left field, so to speak.  She says things are done, and when I check on them, I see nothing was done for 2+ weeks.  It started with math, her least favorite subject, and moved onto writing, and then she even stopped reading the books I assigned her.  And she loves books!  So why?!?! For a good month or so, every time I checked on her work it wasn’t done, when she told me it was.  You think at first it’s just a little mistake, or just a one time deal, and then you realize there’s some bigger, deeper things going on, and we need to restructure our system for more accountability.

So we’ve had to switch to a check work as soon as it’s done, every day, no matter what I’m in the middle of doing.  I’ve started shutting off her wifi access on her iPod touch until after schoolwork is checked and completed.  I’ve started to hover, to make sure her work is done at the time she says she does it.  Because I can’t climb stairs all day long with my big belly, she now has to do her schoolwork on the main level where all of us are and can no longer do it in the sanctuary of her room anymore.  That way I can tell if what she’s reading is what was assigned at a glance.  It’s turned into a doors open, fully disclosed school situation, and she could not be more displeased with this.

I’m kicking myself more than anyone that I allowed her this much freedom.  In past years she could handle it, though.  She always had her work done, and usually had even worked ahead.  We are in a new season now.

I have described the cons of this year, but the pros have been pretty fantastic as well.  She is really at this age where she is questioning everything.  Is what God says is really true?  Does God’s command to love our neighbor (even brothers) be trusted, or should we just look out for ourselves? Can God be trusted?  How do you disagree with your parents in a respectful way?  Is that even possible?  Is God really there for me?  Why are we baptized?  When should I start taking communion?

She thoroughly enjoyed the evening Lent services at our church this year, and hung on every word and took notes without us even asking her to.  Her brain is alive with questions on such a deep level.  She’s excited that next fall she will be joining the confirmation class for 2 years at our church that is lead by our pastor where we go over the “whys” behind so much of our doctrine.  A once a week discussion on theology with a seasoned pastor?  To her that sounds like the most fun ever.  She is definitely fully in the “logic stage” of our classical homeschool.  It reminds me of my weekends with my grandpa when I was in jr. high, studying confirmation lessons.  He was a retired pastor/missionary, and I was going through my own shaky season of being frustrated with everything in life.  It was fantastic.

We have these long 2-3 hour long conversations about friendships, her future, her life, her faith, God’s purpose for her, and all of her dreams…probably 3-4 times a week.  It has been consuming and exhausting for me, but at the same time I’m so honored that I can, and honored that she’s asking all these things, and though we don’t always see eye to eye, I love watching her brain work and her own opinions forming, and light dawning.  It’s been truly amazing.  What an exciting time!

I’m looking at doing some big logic books with her this next year.  We’re going to do The Art of Argument which talks about logic based arguments in a debate format.  It’s right where she’s at and I’m sure she’s going to eat it up.

As for her standardized testing this year, she didn’t do well as well in math, (she fell behind in that “season” we lived through of attitude issues) so she will be working on that a bit this next summer to catch up.  Fortunately she’s super excited about “playing” on the Khan Academy math this summer.  She is already really into their free courses on computer coding, which are excellent.

BUT!  All of her other subjects on her testing put her at a 11 or 12th grade level from reading, general knowledge, etc., with spelling being a bit lower, in the 9th grade range.  She asked if that meant she was soon ready to graduate.  Ha!  No.  That’s not what standardized tests are for.  Plus, standardized tests don’t even cover all subjects.  I see as her teacher as I’m moving her into more difficult books of high school literature that she’s really struggling to grasp them, as great of a reader as she is.  She can get the bones of it, but her brain is still developing the parts that will see between the lines to see symbolism, truths and lies, themes, etc.

In my opinion, she’s right where she needs to be in her schooling.  Like all students, ahead in some things, behind in others.  Strengths and weaknesses.  In the classical model of schooling, the first years of school (grammar stage) you just absorb a ton of information as your mind is a sponge.  The second stage (logic stage) is when you start questioning all the facts/information, and asking the “why” behind everything.  The third stage is still in front of us, (rhetoric stage) where you start arguing, or defending something to be right or wrong, true or false.  That will be her high school.

So we are not just learning information with her anymore.  We have a lot of “whys” a lot of argument and debate, and discussions, discussions, discussions.

It’s been hard on my throat.  Seriously, I’m drinking “throat coat tea” like it’s water this spring.  It’s been hard, but it’s been good.