2016 Success....or Failure?

 

Regardless of the type of homeschool philosophy camp you abide in, evaluating your progress, mistakes or even philosophy camp are always a good idea.    It helps to take a clear, hard look at what did and didn't work.   Sometimes you see that what worked for the first year (or years) is no longer working and you need to make changes.  I suggest however, that you do your evaluating a couple of weeks after you've finished your year, once you've had a chance to...decompress, if you will.

Depending on what state you live in, you may need to submit documentation to back up your school achievements.    In some states, live Virginia for example, you can submit a portfolio of your student's work, have an evaluation letter submitted by a qualified evaluator, or have your students take the dreaded standardized tests and submit that the student is in at LEAST the 4th stanine (or the 26th percentile).

I've often heard public school parents lament about the SOL testing, and how "it doesn't show fair representation of what they really know".   I've always agreed with that statement, yet I've opted for the standardized test route each year just so my kids can get used to taking the tests in preparation for the biggies in high school (PSAT, ACT, SAT).

Imagine my COMPLETE AND UTTER SHOCK when I received the test results below, on a Friday evening, after 5pm, ahem.

Yes, you're reading it right, "lowest level", "Composite Score 1", "Stanine 1".   I stood there blinking, with my head titled to the side, looking somewhat like our dog when he hears a noise he doesn't understand.   I began to interrogate the child that these scores represented....

"Did you READ the test?"  With much tone she replied "YEAH!"

"Did you understand the test?"  Again with the tone, "YEAH!"

"Did you pick some random crazy pattern and just fill in circles wantonly?"

"NO!....wait, what does wantonly mean?"

Oh good grief!

For the entire weekend I felt like the absolute WORST homeschool mom ever. I mean really, how poorly am I teaching if she got a ONE??   I kept flashing to that scene in "A Christmas Story" where the kid had to wear the dunce hat in the corner.   It was bad ya'll.

Monday morning, and at exactly 9am, I called the testing facility and said I had a question about our test results, gave them my account number and the gal said, "Which student are you calling about?  Oooohhh...never mind, I see which one....."   Yeah, ya think?     She then began to interrogate me.

"Did the student take the correct test?"   Trying not to have a tone, I responded "Well, she took the one YOU sent her."

"Did the student read the test?"

Now with a tone, "Yes she read the test!" (deja vu)

After a couple of hours of research I got a call back.   "Um...apparently our scoring machine ATE your daughter's answer sheet, and never actually scored it."    I know I heard the  Hallelujah Chorus echo in the background.   Before I could catch myself, I said "Really, and nobody picked up on that BEFORE you almost caused me to have a  complete breakdown?? "

"Um...apparently not.    So we're going to have to send her another test kit and she'll have to retake it."    The child's response was "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!"   I believe the tone was now justified, ahem.

Three weeks later, the new test is done, results have come back and tada!   She's in the 98th percentile (a far cry from ONE).

Evaluating your homeschool year doesn't sound nearly so bad now, compared to that horror story, now does it?    You can thank me later, grins.

Be sure to pop over and read the experiences of others as they've wrapped up 2016.

Carnival of Homeschooling

While you’re waiting to feast on turkey this week, check out the Carnival of Homeschooling and see what fun projects others have been working on.

Carnival of Homeschooling–The First Teacher Edition

The “First Teacher” edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is live over at Corn and Oil.  Be sure to stop by and check out, there are lots of interesting posts shared, including one from yours truly.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Homeschooling using the carnival submission form or instructions on Why Homeschool‘s blog.

Homeschool Carnival #364

If you happen to have a few spare minutes (like that’ll happen the week before Christmas), you might want to read through the latest edition of the Homeschool Carnival – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, being hosted by Dewey’s Treehouse.

The December 25th Carnival (yes, there is one!) will be hosted at No Fighting, No Biting!  Submission information can be found here.

Why We Homeschool

My oldest daughter, Olivia, was born after a botched induction that lasted three days.  During that time I was in hard labor for 19 hours and pushed for over 5 hours.   At one point the obstetrician came in and checked me and informed us that she was indeed stuck (you think?).   He said that anything he did at that point, whether c-section or forceps would damage her, so we were going to “wait and let nature take it’s course”.   Had we let nature taken it’s course, I wouldn’t have been induced 2 weeks early, now would I?

Then an interesting thing happened.   My nurse was also the emergency c-section nurse.  They came in and got her to prepare for another mom who was going into surgery unexpectedly.   Instantly, God prompted me to start praying for this other mother and her baby.  So I started praying out loud for this stranger and her child.  The new nurse told me I needed to focus on myself and my child as we were in a bad way ourselves…but I pointed out that if this other woman and child were heading into surgery they needed the prayers right then.

Then an amazing thing happened, Olivia suddenly popped loose from her stuck position.  No medical intervention, just God at work in response to my being obedient to pray for a stranger.   Then the heart monitor went silent, as the cord tightened around her neck and the doctor said “whatever you do don’t push”.   Um, yeah….that’s not what you want to hear, and it’s nearly impossible to obey such a command during the birthing process.

Anyway, she finally was loosed, and her little blue body entered the world.  In a few seconds she was resuscitated and began to breathe and to cry and all was right in the world.   Really this is going to lead into homeschooling, hang with me.

Fast forwarded 2 and a half years later.   Olivia is a happy child, but doesn’t say much, ok seriously she doesn’t say anything, at all.  I mentioned to a couple of family members that although I don’t know much (ok I knew NOTHING) about kids, I’m pretty sure she should be speaking by now.  They assured me she was a late bloomer, I listened, because they had raised kids and I had not (on a side note, God gives moms that intuition for a reason, LISTEN TO IT).

After our second child Lindsey was born, my friend Jolanthe from Homeschool Creations came over to babysit both girls so the husband and I could go out on a date.  (Yes, I really do know Jolanthe in real life….aren’t you jealous!!)   Before becoming a homeschool mom, Jolanthe had been a special education teacher, so I’d mentioned to her about Olivia’s lack of speaking.   When we arrived home from our date she handed me some phone numbers and told me to definitely have Olivia evaluated, something wasn’t clicking.

So I called around, got her evaluated and she was indeed diagnosed as being developmentally behind in her speech.  It seems that crazy birth process and lack of oxygen had caused some issues after all.    We went through the routine assessments and she was scheduled to start speech therapy through our local elementary school.   She was three. They claimed that she didn’t have the cognitive ability to understand spoken words and that she would always be developmentally behind in this area.   They were adamant that she HAD to start public preschool at 4 to help her to develop as normally as possible.

I had some issues with this.  Why  on earth would I put a 4 year old, who can’t speak, on a school bus with kids from grades pre-k through high school, knowing that if something happened she couldn’t tell me, or anyone?   She wouldn’t even be able to tell the driver if he missed her drop off.   My mothers intuition was flashing a big alarm at me this time and I listened.

We chose for her to attend speech lessons twice a week at the school.  I drove her and waited in the hallway, and each week asked for the teacher to give me ideas of how to work with her at home as well, and I prayed, a lot.   By the end of her first few months she was starting to speak and I started doing preschool at home with her.

By the end of  “preschool” she was reading on a 2nd grade level and was speaking almost on age level.  We took the summer off from speech (the school lost their therapist and had to replace her), but not from working together at home.  When school started back up we met with the new therapist.   After about a month she scheduled a parent/teacher meeting and asked me why on earth Olivia was there, she was in normal speaking range and was “exceptionally advanced academically”.    She “suggested” that I request another evaluation, and so I did and within less than a month she was released from speech therapy.

During that time, as I taught her to read and to count and saw the enthusiasm for learning take hold I thought well gee, why not just continue teaching her at home?   And so we did.  As everyone else packed up their 5 year olds for kindergarten, we set out on our homeschooling adventure.   Occasionally, Olivia will have a period where she’ll have a hard time grasping a new concept, but I’ve found that by simply rewording the concept it flips her switch back on and she’s good to go.  Sometimes, you have to reword that concept differently 4 or 5 times before that switch flips over.   That is the beauty of homeschooling, I can help strengthen her weak areas and give flight to her strengths.

Today Olivia is in 3rd grade and speaks fluently in English (thank.you.very.much), speaks Latin (maybe not fluently, but how many adults do you know who speak Latin at all?) and is learning pre-algebraic computations in addition to being an accomplished pianist and ballerina.

Oh, and Lindsey, well…she started speaking in complete sentences at 12 months and has never been silent a day since then. I’m sure some specialist somewhere would say she needs to be quieted down, but I bet they don’t speak Latin either.

HSV Garden Challenge– Spring in the Garden

Sometime between the first Garden Challenge post and now, it finally quit raining enough for me to get outside and take photos of my garden(s).   I did a lovely write up on my other blog S.A.H.M. I Am!, so be sure to head over and check out the photos from early April.

Remember all of my cute seedlings from the first garden challenge post?   Dead.   All dead.  It was not however my fault.  My darling spouse, in his attempt to “help” me decided to put miracle grow on the precious little seedlings…and fried them all to a crisp.   So I’m not too happy about that.   I’ve started new squash and tomato plants.  The peppers  will just be bought from the nursery instead of replanting at this point.

What we’ve learned??   MIRACLE GROW is evil!

Currently we have peas, onions, lettuces, endive and spinach coming up in the veggie garden.

The Farm Service Agency has some great resource for kids gardening.  They also sent us “Alphabet of Farm Fresh Food” coloring books and we’ve used those to learn about some of the vegetables we’ve already planned to grow, and we’ve added a few more now as well.

I’ve been wanting an herb garden for the past few years, but getting it built has proven to be a challenge.   So this week, Lindsey and I took matters into our own hands (and pots).  We planted sage, basil, oregano, chives. cilantro and mint.

Our strawberry patch is blooming and thriving (please God, keep the squirrels away a little while longer).

There are LOTS of flowers blooming, here are a few of my favorites.

By next month we’ll have all of the veggies in the garden.   I can’t wait to show it to you!

Be sure to stop by The Homeschool Village and see the progress other  participants have made in their gardens along with the Garden Challenge!

Spring Curriculum Clean Out–Coming Soon!

Once again it’s time for the spring Curriculum Cleanout hosted by Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations.   The giveaway will run from April 25 – May 1, 2011.

This is NOT a sale, but an actual giveaway.  Look through those piles of unused curriculum and see what items you would like to bless another homeschooling family with.  Then post your give away, and link up in one central location at Homeschool Creations.   Of course, don’t forget to visit all the other blogs and enter chances to win lots of wonderful goodies yourself!

The Homeschool Village Garden Challenge

Spring is here and in these parts that means time to start seedlings and getting ready for full fledged gardening.   This photo was taken 2 weeks ago when we planted our seeds.  (The lettuce on the right was obviously purchased.)

Unfortunately, right after I planted my peas we had a 2 inch snow and have since had sleet and freezing rain.  So, for now, this is our garden…notice the lovely trellis for the peas to grown on…yeah, that’ll look great once the ground unthaws, again.

Our seedlings are doing well…most of them anyway.  The eggplant and squash will need to be replanted.

The girls helped with the seed planting and are in charge of watering.  Although they tend to get a little water happy.  We’ve already been working in our garden beds, but they are currently nothing but mud and ice.  Yeah…so much for spring.

Last year when we were in a co-op, Olivia was in a science class that used “A Reason For Science”.   She brought home a mostly unused science workbook at the end of the year.  We used portions of the “Life Science” section to study plants this week.

If you have little ones, you may want to use the Garden Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.  As usual, Jolanthe did an awesome job getting this together!

The Homeschool Village is hosting a Garden Challenge starting today through June 30.  Be sure to join in and link up!

Homeschool Showcase #66 Is Up

 

We homeschool moms are always looking for great new ideas to use with our kids.    This week, you’ll find LOTS of inspiration for education and fun at the Homeschool Showcase #66.

If you are interested in submitting a post the next submission deadline is Friday, March 4, at 6:00 PM (EST).  If you're new to Homeschool Showcase please read the guidelines before submitting your post.  Past posts can be found on the blog carnival index page. 

Green Eggs and Ham – Activity Day

September marks the start of a new year for our local Activity Day group.  We meet the third Thursday of each month for 2 hours.  This year I decided to teach a Dr. Seuss themed class for the 5-year old crew!  

What better book to start with every kids favorite, Green Eggs and Ham?

We started off by reading our book and talking about rhyming words.  We pretended to be popcorn, and POPPED up every time we heard a “am” rhyming word".

While we were still into rhyming, I gave each child a copy of the Pam and Sam printable book from Hubbard's Cupboard.  We read together, giving the children time to sound out (or flat our read) the rhyming words.  Then I read it faster and faster having the kids POP UP for the rhyming words.

After we’d worked out some of their energy being popcorn, we made our own placemats.  Prior to class, I printed and cut out all the “utensils” and “dishes” using the templates from this site.   We had a brief lesson on proper table setting and then let the kids assemble all of their items on their placemat.   Once finished we covered both sides of the mats with clear contact paper and then we were ready for snack. (Originally, it was going to be green egg jigglers and ham rollups, but the leaders of Activity Day provided snack…and egg jigglers are a pain in the butt to make.)
After snack time, we played pin the eggs on the plate from the Seussville site!  This was a scream and all the kids had so much fun!  We filled in some time with a few coloring sheets from the Seussville site as well.

Then we all did the “Clean Up” song and prepared to go home.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and I’m looking forward to next months class! 

Homeschool Showcase #43 is Up!

If you would like to get some serious inspiration for hands on activities and learning, check out this weeks Homeschool Showcase.
Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers does an AWESOME job of putting this blog carnival together every couple of weeks.  Be sure to check it out, and think about participating in the next Homeschool Showcase.   Submission deadlines for the next issue is April 4 at 4pm.
For more info on how to participate click on the button on my sidebar.

The Homeschool Carnival

The 180th edition of The Homeschool Carnival is available.  Click here to go directly to Principled Discovery to see what fun and exciting things await!   (Including a post by yours truly.)