Mid-Term Update

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News flash for those of us kinda sorta following the public school calendar - in our county, Friday was the last day of the first semester. That means that for my homeschool group, our first semester grades are due this week. Of course our calendar is really flexible and we certainly don't need to follow the lead of the public schools for much of anything, but in order to make record-keeping less of a nightmare for our group administrators, and to provide a little framework for those of us with high school students needing to submit transcripts and stuff - we've got to have a few deadlines for getting our grades reported. So guess what I'm working on?!

I did have quite a bit of catch-up to do with inputting my kids' grades into my Homeschool Tracker Online program, but it went very smoothly, and faster than I thought it might. I did a little each day last week, and finished up yesterday. I'm printing out the report card produced by Homeschool Tracker Online, and then transferring those grades to the form I'll submit to the group administrator. The most important thing for us to keep an eye on this year is Landon's grades and credits, since he's graduating. He's got his credits if he finishes all his coursework for this year, and the group will provide a transcript for him when the day comes that he'll need it. But it's up to me to provide all the info that goes on the transcripts.

At the end of the first quarter, I felt that both kids were in pretty good shape with their coursework, right on track or not far behind the pace in all but a couple of areas. My real concerns were with Kennady's Literature and Health courses, and with Landon's Drafting and Consumer Math courses. At that time, I thought they would soon catch up to where they were supposed to be. (See Looking Back At the First Quarter) But during the second quarter, we had more interruptions that anticipated, and I made some adjustments to our expectations. Kennady will be doing the half-credit course in Literature, not the full credit we'd originally wanted. We considered leaving the Health course for next year, but she's picked it up and been working diligently on it, so I think that will work out excellently after all. We had originally planned for Landon to finish Drafting in first semester, but he has decided that he would rather take his time, even if that means the credit isn't awarded till the end of the year. And since we really couldn't get going with Consumer Math, we just shelved it at the time, and adjusted our plan so that he will be doing it all in second semester. I just got that all set up today so that he can get started, and it looks like that shouldn't be any problem at all for him to finish.

So here is where we are, as of the official end of the first semester:

Science - neither of the kids are halfway through yet, but they are in pretty good shape.
Math - Kennady will have to work hard to keep up in this, the subject that challenges her the most.
Grammar/Composition - We've caught up to where we should be in both Grammar and Composition, and are forging ahead.
Literature - Landon isn't crazy about reading, but he has caught up and is doing fine with his American Lit. Kennady had thought she could get a lot more reading done than has actually been the case, so we adjusted the expectations back to the half-credit course that she originally chose to do, and are not doing the extra reading that would have bumped this up to a full credit.
History/Geography - The situation here hasn't changed a great deal. Landon is not at the halfway point, but is keeping up very well with History so I have no worries. Kennady has really neglected Cultural Geography, but I hope she will make up for lost time as she seems to have some renewed motivation lately.
Electives and everything else - Kennady has been hard at work in her Health course, and Landon is doing well with Drafting. As he gets started on Consumer Math this week we can see how that will play out and adjust as we go.

How are things in your homeschool looking at the mid-term mark?  Leave a comment and let me know!

This post is linked at Blogging Through the Alphabet, hosted by Cristi at Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg at Adventures with Jude. This week participating bloggers are featuring the letter M.

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