From the High School Lesson Book - A Year-End Summary

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There's a part of me that is still in denial, but the homeschool year really is officially over. My last student just finished her junior year, which means we have only one year to go in our homeschool journey. Heart-stopping though that realization may be, it's still a good feeling to get the final report card sent in for this year and close the books. Most of them.

Grammar and Composition

Kennady did a Non-fiction Writing class at our co-op, using The Power in Your Hands from Writing with Sharon Watson. I was the instructor for the class, and it was a lot of fun to teach. This textbook lent itself to a small class setting very well, and it was so helpful to have firm deadlines for every writing assignment that I had to enforce. That's one of the great benefits (for us anyway) of co-op - a schedule that we have to stick to. Kennady wrote twenty-some essays for this class and although she's not a huge fan of non-fiction writing, she did some outstanding writing and earned very high marks.

We originally reviewed this curriculum quite awhile ago. Read our review here: The Power in Your Hands (A Schoolhouse Crew Review) I recently wrote an update for the Blogging Through the Alphabet series, which you can read here: The Power in Your Hands (Blogging Through the Alphabet).

History, Bible, and Literature

Kennady worked through the second half of Exploring World History from Notgrass this year, and we added a few things along the way to make sure it earned a full History credit. The Bible portion was another full credit. We'd originally thought to do a half credit worth of the Literature portion, but decided not to do that after all. She's already got a half credit in Brit Lit and will do some American Lit next year, so it's covered. She still has a few chapters left and will be finishing this off over the next couple weeks.

Math

Algebra is the subject that has caused the most frustration this year. In my opinion, it would have been less frustrating if she'd worked on it more consistently instead of avoiding it. We are using No-Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials. She is doing okay with it, and although it was slow going, she was understanding it, and that is the point. I'd rather have her get it done slowly and understand it than blow through it but not really learn. And that appears to be exactly the situation we have. Her bad habit of avoiding working on Algebra whenever she thought she could get away with it is catching up now, because she will have to work very hard to get the rest of this course finished by the end of the month. 

This is another curriculum we reviewed some time ago: No-Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials (A Homeschool Coffee Break Review) and then did a more recent update: No-Nonsense Algebra (Blogging Through the Alphabet).

Electives

French I

 This was another course completed at the co-op and one Kennady really enjoyed. The textbook used was French I for Christian Schools from BJU Press, along with some additional material. There were times when Kennady felt a little lost and didn't feel confident that she was really getting it, but overall she did so well that when the instructor sent her final grade, he called her the "star of the class". 

Music

Children's Chorus - The season ended in April with another outstanding Spring Celebration concert. Kennady earned a full credit for singing in the upper level chorus, and another full credit for interning as a Director's Assistant. She's decided not to do the internship again next year though.

Guitar Lessons - Kennady took private guitar lessons all year. She's also a regular guitarist and ukulele player (and vocalist) on my worship team at church and with the youth band, and she occasionally plays with the other worship team as well.

Speech and Presentation

This was a half credit course completed at the co-op in first semester, and was probably her favorite course of the year. And yes, one of the powerpoint presentations she gave was on the topic of ukuleles.

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Final Report Card

She finished 8-1/2 credits this year, making 22-1/2 credits thus far. Our requirement for graduation is just 23! However, she needs one more math credit, a tech credit, and a US History credit. Those will be looked after next year, so along with the other courses she is planning for next year, she'll graduate with about 30 credits. And then what? Well, she's still thinking through those details.

 How did your school year end - or are you still finishing up? Leave a comment and let me know!

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