Wrapping Up the Regular School Year

We are in the last weeks of our regular school year.  Most days are half, or three hour days, and some subjects have been completed.  I will start thinking about putting together our portfolios, and gathering the tests I want them to take this year.  I do not normally do end of year tests, but I really want to see where they are at this year.  With my son going into grade 10, and my daughter into grade 6,  I need to see how they will test.  This will be for my info only, and if I choose to share it with my evaluator I can, but don't have to. 

DJ has finished Japanese 1 for the year, and Nutrition which was an elective.  I will be looking, or creating final exams for those.  He will not do a foreign language next year, but would really like Rosetta Stone Japanese for 11th grade.  He will continue Algebra 1, and American History over the Summer.  He will also finish up Marine Biology, which is almost complete, might go a couple of weeks over. 

Caitlin has finished almost all her required courses, and we are concentrating on Math, Writing and Grammar.  She will continue to work on those over the Summer.

Our Summer schedule is light.  They get to sleep in, and do school for 1-2 hours a few days a week.  Nothing major, and they get plenty of time for fun, and relaxation.  I also always encourage them to find books they love to read. 

I am ready to be done, lol.

Devil's Mill Hopper Field Trip

On Wednesday we went on a field trip to Devil's Mill Hopper State Park. What a beautiful place, peaceful and quiet. The main attraction of this particular park is the 120 foot sink hole that you can walk down, and of course back out. There are stairs, thank goodness. There was a small waterfall, that when it rains is engorged with water. There were not hardly any bugs, and the weather was just splendid. Be sure to read the sign below that explains the strange name of this park. I will be posting some info on sinkholes in the future, and DJ will be doing his 4H presentation next year on sinkholes. Now that we have about six weeks of school left, I start to prepare to make our portfolios and end of year testing. I am considering buying an online standardized test for DJ this year, and I have not yet decided for Caitlin yet. DJ is having a horrible time understanding some of this new math. I must admit it is rather confusing, and I was very good with Math in school, always an A student. Anyway, since he has completed most of his other lessons, Math will be our major focus over the next six weeks, and over the summer. The last thing I want to get behind on is Math. I have not decided if I will test Caitlin this year, but right now I am leaning towards no. I did do a Reading assessment for her today, and she is well above third grade level. I am sure her Math would be at level, but her writing would be way below. So, yes you guessed it, she will be working on Writing a lot the next six weeks and over the Summer. Do your kids have week areas in school? Do you try to be aggressive to help them learn it better? Oh, by the way, the stairs on the way up were brutal.  It is equivalent to about six flights of stairs, or so.  My heart can handle it, but my poor muscles were screaming.  Even though I have been exercising regularly, my legs are still way weaker than I want them to be.  I blame this on the fact, I have mentioned this before, that I am pretty sure I have MS.  I was proud of myself for even attempting it, and very relieved I didn't just fall down and not go further. 

Last Few Days Of School!

This is our last official few days of school. Yay!!!! Then I have to do final report cards, start working on portfolios, and continue planning for next year. I know still busy, but still a vacation for me.

Don't worry, I still put up posts, and summertime is when I get to post about anything I want, educational or otherwise. So be sure to have your typing fingers ready so you can comment on all my cool upcoming posts.

Have a great Summer!