Countdown to Summer Vacation

Whew! The school year is almost over! I know we are more than ready for a break. But before we're too hasty in tossing schoolbooks aside, we'd better take a look at what we've got left to do. How soon will we be able to take our summer break? One of the jobs I am working on right now is catching up on grading, so I can make sure we are on track as the school year winds down. Ideally, I'd like to be finished with this year's coursework by about the end of this month, but there are some things we'll work on at least a little bit over the summer. English/Language Arts - Kennady finished her Literature course a couple weeks ago, but she is already looking forward to a study of The Hobbit to wrap up the year. Landon and Kennady are finishing up their final writing assignment for their Composition course. Which they should have done at least a week ago, but whatever. Hopefully it can be wrapped up today and tomorrow. 
Math - Since Landon is doing VideoText Algebra, he only needs to get about halfway through the course and he will earn his Algebra 1 credit. He is pretty much there right now, so no worries! He will do the second half of the course by the end of next school year, and that will be his Algebra 2 credit. Kennady's math is pretty open-ended - she has been doing a combination of Life Of Fred, CTC Math, and some practice worksheets. Math is a subject that I feel they should keep working on during the summer, even if it's just once a week. For Kennady, that's a necessity to keep those hard-won skills fresh.
Science - I just wish we were done with Science. This has been our problem area all year. Landon will be able to finish without too much trouble, but he is hustling at the end. Kennady has dragged her feet over her science for the better part of the year, so she is having to buckle down now too, but at least her attitude has improved with the end of the school year in sight! I think she is also looking forward to next school year, when she will be studying what she wants to study - meteorology.
Social Studies - We worked together on a study of the geography, history, and cultures on North and South America this year. Since it was a study that we put together on our own, we can pretty much be finished when we want to be as well. We have studied South America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands, so now we are ending with an overview of North America. We're spending some time looking at the geography of North America; we'll take a look at the history of Canada (we spent all of last year studying American history, so we will skip that for this year); and there are a couple of writing assignments and art projects to do. I'm aiming to be finished by the first week of June, give or take.
Economics - It's been about a week since I checked on Landon's Economics study, but he was doing just fine then, and it shouldn't be any problem to finish this up by the end of the month. Landon and Kennady are also working together on the study Micro Business for Teens, which we are reviewing. I'd like to award some credit for it in combination with the Economics course, but I haven't decided whether I'll do that or revisit the course next year and award some credit then. 
Art - Kennady has done a lot of art this year! She is just about finished the ARTistic Pursuits Middle School 1 book, having taken breaks throughout the year to do some Social Studies related art projects, and to do a unit from the ARTistic Pursuits Construct book. I'd like her to finish off the book, and next year she will do Middle School 2. I don't anticipate any difficulties here, because Art and Music are her favorite subjects!
Music - Kennady's choir season was finished a few weeks ago, so she is already on summer break from that. But her piano and guitar lesson continue, at least until the recital in the first week of June. I suspect we'll continue lessons throughout the summer.
Phys.Ed. - our last gym class was last week, so we're already on break in this subject as well. Of course, Kennady is still playing softball, and both kids go to the church's open gym night and do other activities.
Foreign Language - Kennady has worked on French off and on during the school year. She hasn't done much with it lately, and that's fine with me. I figure once we wrap up everything else, French will be a study she can work on during the summer and have some fun with it!
Civil Air Patrol - although Landon's involvement with Civil Air Patrol continues year-round, he will be awarded a full credit for what he's done over this school year.  At times I wonder if we really will get this stuff done by the time the date that I need to submit final grades. I look at my own spotty (in places) record-keeping, and the subjects where the kids have been lollygagging and almost every year there's that sense of panic where I wonder if we'll manage to get it done! Will we never learn to persevere through the school year so that we don't have to rush along as we near the end? Well, the good news about my taking the time to write this post is that I can see exactly what we have left to do. And y'know... it's not that bad. It's manageable! We now have Tuesday afternoons back since gym class is over, so we've regained a little time to use in the final push, and with each subject that we finish, we can claim a little more time to catch up in the subjects where we are a bit behind.  How are you wrapping up your homeschool year? Or do you school year-round? Leave a comment and let me know! Be sure to visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog (this link will be live on Wednesday, May 14th) to see how other Crew members are "Wrapping Up the School Year". You can also visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog homepage to see lots of product reviews, and past blog cruise topics.

This post is also linked at the "Let's Homeschool High School May Blog Hop" .

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