So yeah, now that I've been all philosophical, ahem, lets take a look at where we are academically at the end of 2016.
9th Grade:
As I've said before, we skipped 8th grade and went right to high school with Olivia. Admittedly, this was one of those decisions that made me a bit apprehensive early on. Truthfully the first little while, 6-8 weeks or so, it was a bit rocky. Most of the issue came from the fact that the majority of Olivia's curriculum picks for this year have her working independently. It took her a while to find her groove and to realize what she had to do to make this work for her.
Geography and science where at first her two biggest issues, because both of these subjects are completely independent. She jumped in with both feet and spent a lot of time taking notes and creating a pretty hefty notebook. Yet her test scores were horrible. I sat down with her and we looked through her note taking and I quickly realized that while she was taking lots of notes, she wasn't doing it in a way that helped her. For example, she was taking notes on the highlighed (or bold) words, which was great, but she was writing the sentence the word was in instead of writing a good, meaty definition of the word. Once I helped her get a better understanding of note taking, her scores have gone back up to where they need to be.
Algebra 1 has been another challenge, mostly due to the curriculum and the lack of explanation in the teacher's guide, and a few incorrect answers in the answer key. Now that I've found a few additional resources to help us when we get stuck, this has gone a lot more smoothly.
6th Grade:
Lindsey's 6th grade year has been pretty smooth to be honest. Her curriculum picks have worked well overall with a few minor tweaks along the way. We realized, early on that the Science Shepherd - Introcutory to Science was not going to be nearly involved enough. We added Apologia Astronomy to her course load and that has been a huge hit. During December I've had Lindsey doing only Science Shepherd, but she's doing one full week of lessons PER DAY. She'll finish this up the first week of January and then we'll pick back up with the Astronomy.
I'd like to say that the Medieval History Portfolio turned Lindsey into a history fan, but that's not the case. She's done well with this subject and has learned to research things on line and has built a really impressive portfolio, but she still does not like history overall, and that's ok because that's who she is. (Olivia and I can't fathom how this child can possibly be related to us and not like history, but to each their own.)
Where we are overall:
For the most part, we have about 18 weeks of school left. This should have us wrapping up our year somewhere around the first or second week of May. We are a bit behind schedule on Latin, so once we start finishing up a few other classes later in the year, we'll start to double up on Latin. Either way we'll be done mid-May give or take.
Extra Curricular:
After giving up classical ballet (after 8 years of dancing), the girls enrolled in a jazz/hop/Broadway dance class at their studio, but it was basically still ballet just with different music. When the term ended in November they decided not to return in January.
Both girls are currently playing basketball and plan to do volleyball again in the spring. Also, starting in February they'll be taking an 8-week archery program that they are both excited about. Our little co-op is still chugging along. Lindsey is excelling in the ASL class that is offered at co-op.
Linking up with Reflecting on 2016 with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.
Sounds like a wonderful year! I hate to admit that I have no idea where we are in our studies; I just know we're plugging away at our books...
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