The school year in review

We finished our first year homeschooling!! I think overall it went great. We will change things up a bit for next year. I loved the math and english curriculum. I am going to change the history/social studies and science. 

Noah completed 2nd grade technically but was working ahead in most subjects.  He said overall his favorite was english. He liked learning new words. This suprised me because his favorite subject is math. 

Alex completed 1st grade.  He is doing so well learning english and learning other subjects in english. He said his favorite has been learning to read- which has been the focus all year for him. It has got to be crazy coming from a language that is so different. He is doing great and has learned a lot. 

Aiden and Claire completed Pre-K- which is more fun than scholarly. We did a letter of the week thing, and basic counting, calendar, etc. Aiden said his favorite thing was cutting. Claire said she liked writing her name. Both will do Kindergarten next year. 

For scoence/history/social studies all four did a curriculum that focused on different countries and ecosystems. I hated it to be honest. It had to filter a lot of the science stuff, as it was very much teaching young earth science is the "right" belief system, and I just don't agree. 

Noah says his favorite country we studied was the countries in South America and China. His favorite ecosystem was rainforests.

Alex says his favorite country to study to study was China. His favorite ecosystem to learn about was forests. 

Aiden says his favorite country to study was the US. His favorite ecosystem was the oceans. 

Claire says her favorite country to learn about was China because she loves China. She says her favorite ecosystem to learn about was the artic/antartic because of the ice. 

I learned a lot this year too. I learned that I like being with my kids so much. I learned that giving them lots of free time expands their imaginations. I learned that homeschoolers also need snow days. I learned that I really love himeschooling- way more than I thought I would. I learned that I can meet the unique educational needs of each of my kids better than the school system. 

This summer we actually will so some school type stuff. Noah wants to get farther ahead in math, and Alex needs to continue his reading instruction. 

I have mostly decided what we will do next year- I will post about it when I decide for sure. I will have a 3rd grader, 2nd grader, and 2 kindergartners. That seems crazy.