I can breath a sigh of relief, all this year's school evaluations are done!  I worked all week-end to finish the last 3 portfolios.  I met with a teacher this morning at the private school we go through.  We've had the kids evaluations done throught this school for the last 10 years.  My oldest son only needs to take one class at the school sometime before he graduates and he'll get a diploma through the school. 

The portfolios consist of a yearly summary of what the kids covered in each subject and what grades they got.  For the younger years I don't give grades, I just write about what they used for curriculum and what they learned in each subject.  I list the books they've read for the year, and include samplings of their work.  I also like to put in scrapbook type pages with pictures of field trips, friends, and projects. 

I always look forward to starting the new school year,  I did even when I was in school. We always start the first week in september. But for at least the first 4 years that we homeschooled I would get the the end of the fist week and want to throw in the towel. I was always ready to jump into a full school schedule.  But....my kids weren't.  They were still enjoying summer vacation.  They needed time to adjust to a new schedule.

So, every year I would cry to my hubby and saying, " we've made a mistake! Maybe we should send them to school!"  He would remind me that we made the right decision and  to give it time and it would work out.   And he was always right!  Every year I've been so glad we've chosen to educate our children at home.  There are so many advantages and blessings,  maybe in the next post I'll list some of them :)

A friend of mine loaned us the Sonlight Core 1 (Intro to world History) Instructor's Guides  to use this year with my 7 yo. She also gave me the science and LA  guides.  The  Core instructors guides include daily lesson  plans for history, bible, geography, readers and read-alouds (books the parent reads to the child).

 We have used Sonlight for 5of the 10 years we've been homeschooling.  Our family loves good books, so Sonlight is a great fit for us.  It's a literature based curriculum and most of the books you can get at the library.  You can also use each of the cores with a range of ages.  Even if you don't want to purchase the IG's you can get thier free catalog at www.sonlight.com to use their reading list. 

I love this Langauage arts curriculum!  I found it at a homeschool curriculum fair this last April.  Each workbook focuses on a novel and is about 8 weeks long.  They  cover grammar, spelling, writing, vocabulary,  comprehension questions., and extra projects.  We used the workbook based on the novel "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Flischman.  My 10 year old really liked the story and doing the workbook pages-this is my son who normally isn't thilled with school :) .  I will be using this curriculum with my 11 and 13 yr old boys this fall. 

Andrew (11th)

Radio Theater High School course

NCFCA Lincoln/Dougless debate

NCFCA Speech club (counts as part of Language credit)

Home Economics couse (not sure what to use, I might make up my own)

Geometry (math-U-See)

Language 1100 (Switched on Schoolhouse)

Science (SOS)

History (SOS)

Bible (not sure yet)

Music (guitar)

PE -basketball, maybe ultimate frizbee

Charles (9th)

Bible (not sure yet)

Pre-Algebra (math-U-See)

Total Language Plus

History -The Mystery of History vol.2 with sonlight core 6 readers

Science-TOPS (not sure which one yet)

Home Ec class (possibly with Andrew)

Isaiah (6th)

Total Language Plus

Math-U-See Epsilon or SOS math 5 (second half)

History-Mystery of History VOl. 2 with Sonlight Core 4 readers

Science-TOPS (not sure with one)

Bible (not sure)

Music-piano

Christian (2nd)

Language-sonlight core 1

History-sonlight core 1

Science-Sonlight Core 1

Math-Miquon Math

Bible (not sure yet)

One of my favorite things about home schooling is reading great books to my kids.  Here are some of our favorties:

The sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth Geore Speare

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Geore Speare

 THe Little House on the Prarie (entire series)

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Spuanto Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

A Cricket in TImes Square by George Selden

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Liitle Pilgrim's Progress by Helen L. Taylor (from John Bunyan's classic work)

Something I think I've been pretty good at in our home school is not pushing the kids to learn something just because it's the age they are "supposed" to be doing it. 

For example, when my now 13 yo son was in K-2nd grade he hated reading.  He liked to be read to, but he didn't want to learn how to read.  He also didn't have the fine motor skills to begin writing.  I didn't push him. 

For kindergarten I used Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.  It has 15 minute lessons that you can snuggle on the couch with your child and do.  For handwritting, I allowed him to write giant letters instead of having to write within tiny lines that most handwritting courses use. 

In 1st  and 2nd grade he had some we played homemade phonics games and read  lots of "I can read" books.  In third grade he read the entire Redwall series on his own, many of the books are 400 pages!  Since then he has been an avid reader. 

Another example is when my oldest son was in 4th grade, he just couldn't understand long division. He would cry and get so frustrated. So, I just dropped it for a while.  When he was ready he picked it up easily.