Merrilee has officially finished up her first year of homeschooling, and I'm breathing a sigh of relief. It worked...it really worked! We did it!
This year was kind of an experiment, and I knew I could homeschool her, but wasn't sure if I would really do a good job. Well, after many wonderful days of accomplishments and learning, and only a few days of breakdowns on both our parts, we have graduated! I'm quite thrilled with the way things worked out. In fact, I have a hard time believing we really did a whole year of school. It went by so quickly.
Merrilee has become a fantastic reader and is even reading for pleasure now. She's also amazingly interested in science to the point that we recently invested in a good binocular dissecting microscope. Both kids enjoy it, but Merrilee is absolutely fascinated with all things biology. She's got me rather excited about her future, since she seems to follow right along the lines of things I love. I have to refrain from planning her future career too far in advance...I so wish I had gone the biology route instead of chemsitry.
She has also put forth lots of effort in math, and completed the Saxon Math 1 course. I'm really proud of her for that, since math is not one of her favorite subjects. She doesn't dislike it, but tends to get tired of it easily. Saxon math is not for the faint of heart, and the daily work involves review, the new lesson, a practice sheet of math facts, and a worksheet. But she's a trooper and toughed it out; she has done an excellent job in grasping all the concepts we covered and does have good mathematical ability.
Overall, I would consider this year of my homeschool experiment a success. We accomplished even more than I set out to do. On the down side, I wish I had been able to put a little more time into her music and art interests. She hasn't done much on the piano since Christmas, and we'll probably work on that more this summer. She enjoys playing, but at her age, I didn't want to strictly enforce the daily practice. She opens up the piano now and again on her own, and plays what she likes, but we really need to settle into a routine to help her progress. On the creative front, I found the art/craft stuff to be a bit overwhelming, simply because I'm not that great at coming up with ideas. I tried to let the kids do something crafty whenever the seasons changed or holidays rolled around, but I just plain old do not enjoy the planning, setting up and cleaning up of art class. I'm going to have to put a bit more effort into it next year.
Jacob graduates from preschool in two more days, so I'll post some photos of his big day later in the week. For now, enjoy a brief review of Merrilee's school year in pictures.
Science experiment with magnets
Practice printing letters
Colonial studies: dipping candles
Doing her daily math worksheet
Viewing a feather with the new microscope
1 comment:
Yay! Good job Merrilee. As for us, school has come to a halt and we hope to resume soon.
What kind of microscope did you get? Model and spec.? I've been thinking of getting one for the kids for a long time now but haven't invested enough time to research for a good one.
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