Reflection on the 2007-2008 year in learning...

As we are coming to the end of the 2007-2008 School Year, we have before us in the next few weeks: IOWA testing, Taekwondo testing for 1st Dan, and finishing up the last 3 weeks of our school year.
This has been an interesting year. I have a lot to reflect on that was positive and some things that I know I want to do differently next year...especially in regards to school. So it is time to consider what has worked well and what bears tweaking or revamping in our homeschool journey.

This year has produced not insignificant challenges as Poppy was highly active and sometimes oh so too helpful and involved in our 4th grade school day.

Poppy has loved her two mornings at preschool (read - Mom has time to work with Cornflower) with productive time doing messy art that I don't seem to work up the nerve to pull out very often. At home we have played alot with letter sounds, number recognition, colors, and song recitation. We haven't quite mastered writing discernible letters (with exception of the I and the O) but we are moving forward with that too. She's also learning how to play UNO which was Cornflower's favorite card game at 3!



Cornflower has faced more challenges this year in budgeting her time and learning to see things through on her own as Mom has dealt with Poppy's needs and the day to day household requirements (like meals!). It is a challenge that Cornflower does better with if I am more organized myself to begin with and so I have my work cut out for me this summer. I need to get next year organized more thoroughly not only for the Fall semester but for Spring semester as well.

The things I was very pleased with this year include:
Adventures in Science - we has a lot of fun in the Fall with Monerans, Protistas, and Fungi and then we had at least as much if not more fun in the Spring with Porifera, Cnidarians, Platyhelminthes, Annelids, Echinoderms, Mollusks, Arthopods, and Chordates.



Book Club - we read some fabulous books with our book club. Part of the joy of this is of course the books themselves and the other part is the getting together with others who are as into reading great books as we are. Several of the girls in this group have been together in this club since Fall of 2003!


Our book list this year included:


The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
St. Thomas Aquinas by the Vision Series
Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis
Poetry Unit (including Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shallott - Cornflower's favorite!)
Tree Castle Island by Jean Craighead George
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

(Alfred Lord Tennyson)




Our Georgia History and Geography Club approach to state studies was successful and something we plan to continue in to next year with more field trips around the state. Cornflower enjoyed our studies of fauna in the Piedmont region, shale and fossils in the Appalachian Plateau region, and our visit to Andersonville, Americus, Plains, Lumpkin and Providence Canyon in the Upper Coastal Plain. We would like to study in more detail the Lower Coastal Plain including the Okeefenokee Swamp, the Blue Ridge region, and the area around Augusta. We may not be focused next year on Georgia study but will continue with it nevertheless.


Cornflower did do a lot of creative writing this year producing poetry, essays, and short stories inspired by books that she had read herself or had read to her. Her stories included: a psuedo Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle story, a fable, a fantasy story with time travel, a mock letter from Young Fu's mother to relatives, an over-the-top phobia story, a detective story and a hilarious short story about a goat in a grocery store.







Cornflower studied Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keefe, George Seurat, Cecilia Beaux, and others. She was also able to see several exhibits at the High Museum including a fabulous one on the Ghiberti's bronze Baptistry doors and sculpture on loan from the Louvre. She created some art inspired by the above artists at her arts enrichment class. I would like for us to do more sketching and painting at home ourselves.

Cornflower practices recorder still to keep familiar with it but we have slowly begun on the keyboard. We have learned that she has an ear for the music and quickly learns the music. I hope to give more time to this endeavor over the summer. We have also had this year a fabulous introduction to showtunes from musicals such as: The Sound of Music, The King and I, The Fiddler on the Roof, Peter Pan, Oliver, and several others. Both Cornflower and Poppy are enthralled.

Cornflower enjoyed her theatrical Shakespeare adventure this past fall in the Taming of the Shrew. I hope that other opportunities will arise for her to explore her talents in this area.


The things I would like to restructure toward improvement include:


This was an area in which we didn't accomplish as much as I would have like and plan to be more structured in next year. We were consistent with our use of Seton Spelling 5 but did not do as much with grammar, punctuation, and editing as we have done in years past and we need to give this more attention in the next year.


The best approach to this particular subject for Cornflower has yet to be nailed down but what worked best for us this year was using a math packet each week that she was responsible to finish by the end of the week. The packet consisted of daily review for multiplication and division facts as well as introduction and practice of new concepts (adding fractions, etc.). We have drawn from Singapore Math, Math Mammoth, Saxon Math and the internet.


We actually worked more in our Latin studies this year than Spanish. Latin seems to be more necessary at the moment with our intense study of life science and my finding my old high school Latin I textbook from which Cornflower has actually taken great delight in translating passages from the early chapters. I would like for Cornflower to pick up with the Spanish again and to dabble in German as well. I do think having an interest and seeing an interconnectedness between various languages fosters a needed attitude toward language learning. I have seen Cornflower almost eagerly memorize vocabulary from the Latin book and quickly gain proficiency in translation.


We are very proud of Cornflower's hard work in Taekwondo. She competed in Junior Olympics in Knoxville and a Georgia Qualifier Tournament and did well in both. She also tested for Chodanbo in January and was awarded her black belt. She has to train now for an another advancement test and we have to work to build up her strength and reaction time. In addition to Taekwondo, Cornflower has enjoyed playing various team sports and games at her enrichment in the arts program.



Whew! I am tired just thinking about all that has been accomplished in the past year and what needs to be accomplished in the future. I don't know that I am finished with assessment but I now know directions to plan toward over the summer for next year. By God's grace, we will be able to continue in our homeschool journey and bear much fruit by it.