Year in Retrospect

I promised myself that I'd allow some time to unwind before I began to critique the school year we just completed and set to work on the school year ahead.  I've had two weeks to unwind and I feel ready to face homeschool again for a few moments.  It's easier for me to truly evaluate myself and our school now.  I'm not feeling so connected or so fragile about our progress this year.  We did well and I'm pleased with all we accomplished.

Highlights:  We made it through!  Four children completed a more than adequate amount of learning at four different grade levels and no one ran screaming from the house never to return.  That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment worth noting.

Our curriculum choices last year were sound.  There wasn't anything that didn't do the job it was designed to do.  Rod and Staff English was not a hit but all my children will admit that they learned from it. 

All four of the children have a better grasp of spelling, grammar, history, math and science than they did when we began.

We've enjoyed being and learning together.

I'm benefitting from homeschool in ways that I never thought about.  I'm more organized, focused and forward thinking.  I'm working to educate myself in areas that I've neglected or forgotten over the years.

Lowlights:  We were never able to incorporate logic and Latin as part of our routine school day.  Now that we've got the basics going smoothly, I will start the year with both these subjects rather than trying to add them later.

We read so much this year but didn't write much of it down.  Next year, I want each child to keep a reading list so they can see what they've read and so I can too.  I will also keep track of what we read, listen to and watch together.

As I think about our school year I believe that we met our goals and accomplished what we set out to do.  Our children are less stressed and more confident.  Our family relationships are stronger.  We know more about God, ourselves and the world around us.  It's been a good year.