8th Grade Portfolio for Caitlin

This will be a post that will be added to, and edited frequently over the next few weeks.  I will be going through all of the things we did, and making summaries for each subject below.  I probably won't add any samples of work here, as I bring them to the physical evaluation in August.  This just gives me better organization, and less papers to carry with me.  If the majority of the work was done online, I will share the website it was done on.  I will start with the easiest.  We have worked out an arrangement with my graduated son, for him to be my nanny/tutor for the next school year, and then we will go from there.  Over the Summer, they will be reading Seabiscuit, walking a mile each day I work, and Math games. I am still in the planning process for the next school year, but it will all be laid out for him what to do, and when.  He is taking 2 college classes in the Fall, and  then we will go from there with his college work.  This works out good for everyone.  Here is the STAR website, where you can print off sample questions.  I give her time limits for each question, and do not help her in any way with answers.

Reading/Writing:

Caitlin's Reading and Writing has progressed immensely this last year.  I am very proud of her, and though I still think Writing could use some work, she is finally where I think she needs to be for Grade 8, at least from a non common core perspective.    See results below.

We started out the school year reading, Little House in the Big Woods.  I purchased lesson books to go along with it, from Lee Giles, called Blaze New Trails.  We did not get all of the projects done, but we did a good deal of them.  The literature study book was a lot of fun, and I will be sharing a couple of pics from the things we did.  She absolutely loved washing clothes by hand in the kiddie pool!  After we finished that book, we moved on the The Hobbit.  We tried it in audio version, and it was just so slow.  Because, we were short on time we decided to watch the movie, which I immensely enjoyed, and will be trying to get the rest of The Lord of the Rings series somehow incorporated in coming years.  I used Edx.org, and the class How to Write an Essay to help improve her writing.  This is a college level course, and I didn't have her do all of the exercises, but it did help her a lot.  The end product was she had to write a Thesis, an 8th grade level Thesis, lol.  I gave her my expectations, and gave her 3 chances to edit, and make suggested changes.  She ended up with a 75 for a score.  Though I would hope for at least a B, I will take a C.  I love Edx, and you will see below that I am also using it for summer Math.  Just like last year, I used STAR to print off a sample of test questions.   For Reading I printed 10 in total, and she got 2 wrong.  We reviewed the 2 she got wrong.  Her reading comprehension is immensely better than last year.  Next year we will start a more intensive vocabulary curriculum.  She does not like to read aloud, something else I would like to work on.  There were several other small writing assignments throughout the year, all with good improvement.  I have printed off 3 writing samples, that I will bring with us.


Math:

Math is a work in progress.  She started the year finishing up step one of middle school Math, on Easy Peasy Homeschool.  She then moved on to step 2, and was getting good grades.  Apparently, however, she was not retaining the info well.  When I tested her, she struggled to remember rules, and steps to follow for some basic sort of Math.  So, for Summer school, she is doing, with me, Introduction to Algebra, on Edx.  I had already started this course myself, weeks ago, as a refresher.  I started her from the beginning, on her own account, and I do it with her.  I only help her to find info, and resources, and use the curriculum.  I do not help her with answers.  She also now has to take notes, and keep them for review and studying.  If she doesn't finish this course by the end of Summer it will roll over into 9th grade.  At the end of this course, I will probably return to my favorite, which is Saxon Algebra 1, and start working our way through that.  Another option,, would be Business Math, for grade 9, as she wants to own her own business someday.  Since June 30th, when we began Introduction to Algebra, she has moved through about 30% of the lessons.  We left off on adding fractions.  Here is a link to the curriculum, https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:SchoolYourself+AlgebraX+2T2016/course/

Music:

This one is fairly easy.  It is very informal.  She learns the music she wants.  Since she does not read music, she memorizes the chords using Youtube, and then plays the songs on the piano option of her organ.  For grade 9 I will probably expand her Music lessons to include some reading music.  She would like a keyboard for Christmas, also.

History:

Caitlin's History was centered around the Little House in the Big Woods book.  We did not complete all the activities, but did get a lot done, plus we watched a documentary on The Great Depression.  She got all the History questions right on the STAR test questions.  I think there was only 3 or 4, but she knew ones I wasn't sure she did.  That was a good thing.  Caitlin loves documentaries, and I will be incorporating more of them into her high school years.  Hoping to find some for all subjects, not just History and Science.  In the Middle School years, History and Science are not a priority class. 

Science:

We started the school year learning about Weather, and what an active Fall it was.  We had Hurricane Irma come plowing through here, and we had to evacuate.  It was definitely an experience.  She did a writing assignment about it.  I still want her brother to do some experiments over the Summer with her, just haven't had time to put the info together for him yet.  After we got bored with Weather, and I take it back, The Great Depression we watched, was because we were learning about dust storms, we moved on to Earth Science.  She did the second half of the school year on CK12, doing Earth Science.  She did quite well with it too.  She likes online format much better than textbooks.  I was going to have her finish it up in 9th grade, but I am transitioning her to Physical Science with Apologia, because I like Apologia, and a lot of the stuff covered is the stuff she didn't complete in Earth Science.  So, they will transition together nicely.  She did well on the STAR questions for Science, as well. This should show where she left off on Earth Science https://www.ck12.org/my/dashboard/#selfStudy  It might not come up if it signs me out. 

I think that covers the basics.  I will continue to add stuff as I think of it.

Homeschool Portfolio for Caitlin Grade 7

This is the online portion of Caitlin's grade 7 Homeschool portfolio.  Physical samples will accompany us to the actual evaluation on August 3rd.  This will be a general outline of websites, books, and other curriculum used for each subject.  Please note for the purposes of life skills, I was very ill in December and January, which led to a lot of life learning.  She did Gymnastics for part of the school year, with Tumblemania, then decided to do the Spring drama play, Madagascar.  She participated in the Kiwis youth choir at our church, for the full school  year, and did several performances in front of church audience, I did grade random samplings of Reading, Writing and Math.

1.  Language Arts:  Spectrum Grade 7 work book, 100% completed.  Then switched to Grade 8 Language Arts Lifepac,  4   books completed.   For the purpose of Language Arts, Caitlin also had writing assignments throughout the school year.  Some of them were published to her blog at,             https://kateandbiscuit.blogspot.com/   We read the first book of Anne of Green Gables, with a book report, and she watched the movie.  We are currently still reading Gentle Ben.  To evaluate her reading comprehension, I used the STAR website.  She did 12 passages with questions, and got 4 wrong answers out of the 12, for a mastery of 67%.  Not a great grade, but with such a small sampling, should be considered.  We reviewed all wrong answers, and she was able to pick the correct answer the second time around of reading, with the exception of only one question. I did not give her any clues or prompts, just told her she picked the wrong answer, and to reread and try again.   I chose grade 7, proficient level.

2.  History:  Caitlin's least favorite subject next to Math.  We started with Alpha Omega Lifepac, Grade 8 work books,    5     books completed.  We then switched to watching History videos on PBS.  They have an extensive library of grade appropriate resources.  She liked the videos, with convos, and or writing assignment much better.  We also had some fun with Geography where I twirled the globe, and with her eyes closed picked a spot on the globe.  Wherever her finger landed, she did a little research and then a writing assignment.  Again, these can be read on her blog.  History in grade 8 will be cooking across America.  She will be learning to cook recipes that are famous to each state, with Geography included.  I am not thinking she will cook everyday, but we will see.


3.  Math:  Caitlin started the year with Saxon 7/6, and finished    34  lessons, with review and corrections for lessons.  After the winter break we switched to an online format, her preference, Easy Peasy Homeschool Middle School Math.  She has shown very good progress using this format, and we will continue to work through it over the Summer months, and start it back up in the Fall, for grade 8.  If she completes all lessons, she will start over and do the harder lessons that she was not quite ready for in grade 7.  As of 8/7/17 she had finished up to Fractions #16.  Throughout the year I also print off small tests for her to take.  I graded them all and she ended up with an 84% for a final Math grade, for grade 7.

4.  Science:  Alpha Omega Lifepac work books, grade 8. Caitlin was able to whiz through these without much challenge.  I have not completely reviewed them yet for accuracy. and I probably will not. # of books completed     9   .  Science is not one of the classes I worry about in the middle school years.  We also did some fun experiments, and you can read about them in older posts on this blog.

5.  Bible:  Alpha Omega Lifepac work books, grade 8.  Caitlin was able to work through these pretty quickly,  7    books completed.  She also throughout the school year, at various times, assisted with Awanis program at church, and Sunday school.  This was her first year in the teen youth group, and made a couple new friends.  She is looking forward to attending camp next year, with the group in SC.  She sang in the Kiwis choir, and she could join the youth praise band if she chooses to do so.  So far she has not been interested.

Caitlin has one more year of fun homeschooling, and then she will have to get more serious about her education when she hits high school.  She has a goal of taking French, she did some Spanish in grade 6 and 7.  She has a few ideas for high school, with goals of pet groomer/walker concentration on having her own business, and or a Meteorologist.  She will be doing a half year of Weather studies, and experiments in grade 8 to better focus on this topic, and if it is something she would wish to pursue.  I think for Math I will add in a little Business Math in grade 8, for her as well as above stated curriculum, so she will get a feel for keeping track of books in a business.   Over all she had a very good year.  Did a lot of grade 8 work, though I don't think it was challenging, or even very interesting.  She is more of a visual, and hands on learner, and really did not enjoy a work books only style of learning.  She still struggles with the 5 paragraph method of Writing, and will definitely continue to work on that.  Caitlin does not have much motivation to write correctly, especially on paper.  As far as socialization skills, and exercise, she did great this year.  Drama, and Gymnastics were great choices for her, and was able to make lots of new friends.  One of her good friends moved away this year, but we are trying very hard to make sure they stay in touch.  She still participates in 4H, and did her first demonstration this year, with a friend.  They did a get a blue ribbon.  Unfortunately her bunny passed away, but he was 9, and dearly loved.   I am currently looking for a more fun, and relaxed Writing curriculum for grade 8. I would love suggestions.  At this point, I love affordable, but will pay for a good, honestly fun program.  Caitlin will also be doing Health class in 8th grade, as she has had some important milestones this year.  

Online Homeschool Portfolio?

We are in our full Summer vacation schedule, and so far so good.  The kids are getting plenty of extra sleep, fun time with friends, and relaxing too.  Plus, I get to do all the household things, like clean closets, since I don't have to worry about being quiet. 

We have had the same evaluator since we started homeschooling, 10 years ago, and she is awesome.  This year, I asked her if instead of lugging all the paperwork to her house, if I could do an online portfolio right here on this blog.  She said yes!  So, this will be a first for her, and for me.  We still have our face to face meeting, so no change in price, and I still have to bring our daily log and a book for them to read from.  But, besides that all other info she would want to see will be right here.  I am thinking this will be much easier.  Our evaluations are not until August, so this gives me plenty of time to get it set up how I want.

Do you homeschool?  How do you do evaluations?

Homeschool Portfolios, Camp Anderson and A Tropical Low

Vacation is over, family have returned back to their home states, and we are back to normal.  DJ is heading off to Camp Anderson, with the Fanning Springs Church Youth Group.  He is excited and I hope they get decent weather.

Speaking of weather, we have had no rain in almost one week.  It is hot, and humid, dangerously so.  Heat indexes well over 100.  Be sure to drink plenty of water if you need to be out in it.  There is a tropical depression sitting in the Atlantic, just off the coast of Florida.  It is expected to strengthen, and possibly be the first Tropical Storm of the year.  Just in time for the 4th of July weekend, ugh.  DJ will be 14 on the 4th of July.

I have started our homeschool portfolios.  Our evaluation is in two weeks.  I take a lot of time putting our portfolios together, and will share them when they are done.  If you need tips on a portfolio feel free to ask.

DJ finished his last book, To Kill A Mockingbird, and will be completing his book report today before leaving for camp.  My printer is having a moment, so I can not print his Language Arts final exam.  Good thing I had him do book reports and other Grammar final exam tests.