As I mentioned in my last post, Friday was our last day of the school year. Just like our first day of the school year I was excited about decorating and making the day extra fun for the boys. The night before when the boys had fallen asleep I got busy hanging balloons and streamers all over the house for them to see the next morning when they woke up. That has become a staple on special occasions in our home.
The boys running into the kitchen on Friday morning. They were so excited! (and moving so fast my picture was blurry)
They knew we were having banana pancakes but had no idea what they would look like. They squealed when they saw these "race car" pancakes that went with our race car themed day. I used nutella for the wheels. Yummy!
We took several photos before we began our last day of class.
a look back at our first day of school
August 4, 2016
first day of 1st grade and last day of 1st grade
first day of K4 and last day of K4
I like to do a questionnaire on the first and last day of school. When I sat down to print one out for Friday I realized that our ink cartridge was empty. Ugh! Instead I just wrote the new answers on the same sheet as the first day of school. I used a red pen for the end of the school year answers. I was surprised to see that many of their responses had not changed.
Another thing I have them do is draw a picture on the first and last day of school. Here are their drawings from Friday.
Cruz
Ben
I also have them write their names, the alphabet, and numbers as a comparison to the first of the school year and the middle of the school year.
For our celebration lunch they chose to eat at McDonald's.
Later that afternoon they helped me decorate a cake. I had planned to make green icing for grass and a gray or black road for our race car theme. Then at the last moment I realized I was out of blue food coloring to mix those colors. So instead we made a brown road and used green sprinkles for our grass. Cruz said "mama, that looks like a mountain road." I thought that was a pretty good comparison to the way the school year had felt at times. If you have been here and rode the mountains with us you know what I mean. ha
our end of the school year celebration cake
and we finished the day with a swim
What a fun day to end a great school year. We had all worked hard to make the school year a success. We are looking forward to a great summer break before we start back again in early August. I will have a 2nd grader and a kindergartner. Where has the time gone?
We did it! We finished the 2016- 17 school year on Friday. What a huge accomplishment that feels like. It has been a few days now and I am still smiling big.
We wrapped up our Bible curriculum with a wonderful study on the life of Paul. Cruz and I were talking one afternoon and he told me "Mama, God can use one family to help spread the gospel. That one family can tell one family and then that family can go tell another family. Before long the gospel can reach to places like China and Africa." I think he is starting to understand and it is a beautiful thing. I am proud of all the things I have been able to teach them this school year but what I am most proud of is the time I have had to teach them Biblical truths. It has been my main passion for homeschooling them and if I don't get anything else right I pray I do that well. 3 John 1:4 says "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." I pray that regularly for my boys. They spent the month of May learning the books of the New Testament. We have a song we sing that helps them practice. I am proud that Cruz learned them but even prouder that Ben can say them too.
Ben was very excited this week to have finally reached the letter Z. His memory verse was Psalm 97:8 "Zion heard, and was glad." His nursery rhyme was "Here is the Beehive." I think overall he had a really good K4 year and has a great foundation to begin kindergarten in the fall.
Letter Z!!!
singing the alphabet song using his Jolly Trolley mat
reading practice
playing alphabet bingo
Cruz finished up his two year language arts curriculum- Sing Spell Read and Write. This year it had a race car theme that had us racing through 36 steps to reading success. I will admit my fears as we began the program in kindergarten wondering how I would ever teach him to read. But, I did and I am very proud of it. It required a lot more patience than I ever thought I had but seeing the end result has me beaming with joy. He is pretty proud of himself too. As you can see from that big smile below. He finished the week by taking his bookend assessment and then his 3rd achievement test of the year. He did well on both of those. One of the things I have enjoyed about this curriculum is the regular assessment tests you take that assures me that we are on track. It has especially helped when I have had doubts. I am breathing a little easier now as I think about beginning the program with Ben in the fall. Now that I have done it one time I feel like the second time around will be much easier.
taking his last language assessment test for the school year
His last story to read was about a class who finished the raceway program too. They had a party and were given trophies for their reading success. I took that idea and had us a party on the last day of school and Cruz was tickled to get his own trophy. Here I am presenting him his certificate and trophy.
What a proud moment!
We spent the week in Math reviewing and then Cruz took his final exam on Friday. He received a certificate for completing his math level also.
This was at the end of his Math U See workbook.
hooray for another good year in math
Ben reviewing his math facts on the Math U See website
Our week in History was spent learning about our home State of Mississippi. The curriculum tells you to save your home state for week 36. We spent each day watching videos and learning facts about Mississippi. It was perfect timing before our upcoming Stateside Assignment and a great way to end a fun year in history. I have loved our history curriculum and all the fun things it has had us doing. It was a great choice for this school year.
We learned about the state flower, state flag, and state bird.
What do you do when you are in the middle of school and spot a beetle on the windowsill? You grab your magnifying glasses and get an up-close look. Moments like this have been some of my favorite this school year. I hope I am instilling in them a love of learning and exploring the world around them.
In art they drew a baby kangaroo.
Journal entries for the week-
Why I like books... "they have pictures. You can read them. I learn things in them. They teach you things!!"
On summer vacation I want to... "go to the beach. I will build sandcastles. I will swim. I am going to the skate park."
Tomorrow I will share about our last day of school celebration and the fun way we ended the school year. It has been quite a journey we have been on since last August and I am thankful to have reached the finish line. There is no way I could do this on my own. I give all credit to the Lord for any homeschool success. He is the one who has walked me through each and every day.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
Another week down and only one week to go. This school year is about to come to an end. I cannot wrap my brain around the fact that it is almost over! Here is a look at week 35-
In Bible we are continuing a study on the life of Paul. I have really enjoyed teaching through these stories. They have opened up a lot of good discussions about being a follow of Christ and what that means. I am very thankful for daily opportunities to invest Biblical truth into my boys. It is what I love most about being a homeschool mom. They are continuing to memorize the books of the New Testament. We are also reviewing all of the long passages that Cruz has memorized this school year (John 3: 14-19, Psalm 34: 8-19, Proverbs 3: 5-6, Romans 10:9, Matthew 18: 1-6, The 10 Commandments Exodus 20: 3-5 7-8 12-17, Matthew 11: 28-30, Matthew 22: 36-39). They learned a new song "I'm in the Lord's Army" and they love to sing it and march around the room.
In Math Ben is mostly reviewing and learning new +1 addition facts.
Using a remote control antenna to point to his numbers as he counts to 100
lining up his number cards and then using them to practice skip counting
Cruz had a unit review in math and then took his unit test on Friday. He is now finished with his math book and will spend his last week reviewing and taking his final exam.
Ben learned the letter "Y" in language. His memory verse for the week was Matthew 5:14 "Ye are the light of the world". His nursery rhyme for the week was Jack Be Nimble.
Y is for yarn
Cruz was thrilled to finally get to this last reader book of the year in his language class. He has known this one was coming up and he has been anxious to read it. He has read all but two of the stories in it so far. The cover shows the sounds that we have been learning. Another favorite thing of mine this school year was watching his reading skills increase. It was almost like an overnight moment that he took off in his reading and he has continued to advance ever since. It has been amazing to watch and it makes me very proud to know that I have helped him learn that skill.
Cruz reading in class one day
In History we learned the stories of Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed.
Our activity was called "Appleseed Prints". We cut an apple in half, examined the inside, and took out the seeds. The boys then each used a half to make apple prints.
of course they had to eat some apples too while they worked
their apple prints
We learned about the beautiful State of Hawaii.
In Science we learned about birds.
We watched several videos about birds- how they fly, what they eat, different types etc. Their favorite of all was a video of some baby birds hatching. They watched patiently for eight minutes and thought it was the coolest thing. In addition to videos we went on a bird walk outdoors to try and see what types of birds we could spot, and to listen for bird sounds.
Our Science activity was painting with feathers.
painting with feathers in Science
In Art they drew a baby goat.
Cruz also drew this picture one day in class
Journal entries for the week-
Describe an elephant. "They are big. They have big ears. They eat a lot. They drink a lot."
"What I like to watch on t.v. Pink Panther, Mister Bean, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, Odd Bods, Discovery Channel, and Mister Maker."
I'll end with a video I took of Cruz practicing one of his piano songs. It is his favorite Spanish praise song called Alabare'. He had asked his teacher if she would teach it to him. In addition to the regular weekly songs he has to learn this was an extra that he added himself. He has been working hard to learn it. I am so proud of how he has done this school year in music. He has come a long way and learned so much. He makes his mama proud!
Only a few more school days left to go. Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah...
