As we wrap up the last few months, I'm just wondering what others feel is good progress for a school year? Is it finishing up a book? Or is it how many concepts your kids understand? If we look at the 'official' scope and sequence for my children, it appears we are failing miserably :shock: but the truth is.. what I feel is important and what the 'institution' feels are important are two different things. I want my children to have a good understanding and useage of concepts. I want them to have a broader world view as a base for later learning. School (here anyway) seems to touch on 100+++ things, with (as I've discovered) limited understanding on any of them. I'm happy with the progress my children have made, but I KNOW if you were to compare some across the board item (reading for dd for example... or math for ds) with ps kids, they would look like they were behind. Maybe they are... but they started behind and we are working hard to give them the skills they should already have learned. I do wonder- and forgive me here- about the "first year test scores" being low for homeschooling families. I have to wonder if that reflects the same thing we have been dealing with: giving our children time to LEARN what they should have already learned, rather than throwing another shallow concept at them so they will do good on a test. Anyway...
Hmm well I decided to break this year into quarters and thus far nearing the end of the second quarter we are doing really well. Perhaps we could have pushed for more but then I would have risked the kids love of learning and that is a fragile balance at this age. So I am pretty happy with where we are. We won't stop but go right through the year. Learning isn't something I can shelf with my two.
Meghan, in my 11 years of schooling Other People's Kids, I have discovered that the first year they are with me, their achievement test scores seem to fall dramatically from where they were the year before in public school. I can attribute that to several factors: I have them working where they actually are in each subject, so they're *catching up* from previous years in ps. Getting used to a new way of learning. I don't nearly repeat myself as many times as a classroom teacher does in ps, and they're not used to working independently. Often, I have to teach them how to write on notebook paper or in a notebook, how to read instructions, how to listen the first time, etc. Taking a different test than they used in ps. That alone can make a difference in scores. NOT doing "test prep" for several months before the test can make a really big difference. Knowing that the only reason we're doing a standardized test at all is NOT "pass/fail for the year" but just so I can know how everybody's doing and be accountable to their parents -- They seem to think that if I don't jump up and down and scream about it, give them special pep rallies about it, feed them breakfast treats the mornings of the test, it must not be very important, so maybe they're not trying as hard. Usually, the second year they're with me, they do better, sometimes spectacularly, sometimes just noticeably. The longer they stay, the higher their scores go until they approach (or surpass) the "homeschool 85th". Percentile that is.
I am feeling pretty good about the end of our school year for a few reasons. We will finish his math books and he understands everything in them, then we'll just keep reviewing it over summer. We have been steadily been working through the topics I wanted to cover. Even with reading and writing I have seen progress. I doubt he is where he "should" be in reading and writing, but he was behind at the end of 1st grade too. As long as I see progress, I'm happy. I am also happy he doesn't have to take a test to prove he's learning. He is a poor test taker and I wouldn't know what to have him study for the test. I tried to follow the "official" scope and sequence that the state would have him follow. I won't do that next year. As you said, it was just too much and too shallow.
I have learned through the years that our progress my not be what others progress is. Don't get me wrong I somewhat keep track of 'official' scope and sequence for my children. But if I school year around then our guidelines change. My youngest is done with her 5th grade math a couple of weeks ago. That makes me feel good so if she struggles later there is no worries.
I keep each day's work in a binder for each kid and when I look at papers they did at the beginning of the year and compare to now, I see how far they've come with their handwriting, neatness, complexity of the work,etc. I also see how they have matured emotionally, meaning, less fighting about doing math, more organized, more self-discipline in keeping their work area and paperwork neat, and easier to motivate to do their best. It's hard to see day to day, but looking back gives me a better perspective on how they are doing. I don't stress over finishing a book, or meeting a quota, or test scores(in TX we don't have to test). Just the other day, I heard ds telling a neighbor about the Native American's Trail of Tears and being moved to Oklahoma and the small pox epidemic that wiped them out, and I realized how much he really does get without my realizing it. I don't need a test to know they are learning. They show me every day. This is how I judge progress.
This is the first year in a long while I've felt like we're on track and she is learning enough for her age. It's also the first year I've homeschooled one child, in 7 years. So I think I'm better at teaching one child. lol Amazingly my paperwork is all caught up. That hasn't ever happened!
We will probably not finish our History/Geography this year. I'm not sure how to deal with that. We will finish our Grammar, our Math, our Spelling (we use Spelling Power - so there's no real "end"), Vocab, hmmmm....but not our MFW History/Geo/Bible/Science. We'll get close, I think. I might just spread out the last unit or two through the summer. BUT....I might just do them in August when we start school for the year. We'll see. I'm not even fully planned for next year! EEEK!!!!
