SUMMER!!

We are done with “school” for the year which means that it is officially SUMMER in our book!  This is one of the benefits of homeschooling!  We control our schedule.  We are in NC and the law here states that we must have “school” for 9 of the 12 calendar months.  We do not have a day count or anything, but I have kept count.  We completed 179 days of school (this excludes all holidays that we took off and other random days here and there that we took off).

Of course, the last day of school was on our calendar.  However, there are still several days marked on the calendar with classes.  The kids were not to keen on this but they are getting over it fast!  Sims is still finishing up his Aquatic Ecology class and Parks is finishing up his Soil classes.  Then they all have one more class on bioluminescence and one more hike.

So here is the rundown of the year!

Sims finished fourth grade!  He learned NC history and geography, grammar, the Norse Myths, Zoology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Ecology, Geocaching, Biology, Fractions, Decimals and Percents.  He made HUGE gains in his independent reading comprehension which was one of our goals for this year!  He also found that he actually does enjoy reading for pleasure.

Sawyer completed second grade!  She learned about several Saints, folktales and fairy tales, multiplication, Biology, Geography, grammar, Jakata tales and Anansi tales.  She also wrote several stories and poems throughout the year.  She is my writer and she learned a lot more about the technicalities that go into writing this year.

Parks is headed into the big leagues next year!  He finished kindergarten!  Parks worked on fairytales, folk tales, adding, subtracting, telling time, cursive and reading.  This was his first year out of “school.”  He did a good bit of deschooling this year and finding where he fits into the mix.

As a family, we celebrated Labor Day, Halloween, Diwali, Michaelmas, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Winter Solstice, Valentine’s Day. and Easter.  We read several books together including: To Kill a Mockingbird, Charlotte’s Web, Because of Winn Dixie, The Whipping Boy, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bridge to Tarabithia, Three Cups of Tea, The Magician’s Nephew, Pippi Longstocking, Dolphins at Daybreak, Robinhood, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Twenty-One Balloons, Paddle to the Sea, Frindle, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Cheaper by the Dozen.

Now to finish up the school yearbook and to experience some new adventures!