Half way through our school year, this is a good time to take stock of what we have accomplished and revisit those goals that we set at the beginning of the year, in order to make any needed course corrections. Sometimes we get bogged down in the day to day and miss seeing the overall progress or lack there of that we are making so I find it important to take time weekly and monthly to evaluate our learning, but on a larger scale each semester to measure our progress and see where my focus should be on their education. Today, I'm sharing a few of the ways that I evaluate our progress in order to do this.
Material Covered
The first benchmark I compare is how far we've gotten with school compared to the curriculum mapping I did back at the beginning of the school year. That weekly schedule was my best attempt to break down what we wanted to accomplish and approximately how long it would take. I then took that information and placed it on a year at a glance page in order to see what I intended to cover each month. It gives me a quick guide to determining our current pace.
Math: Britt and Ruth have covered about half as much as planned. Rebecca and Kate are about 3 lessons behind. Overall math is going well, but Algebra is going slower than I had anticipated.
History: On track, and I've only needed one of the catch-up weeks.
Science: Britt and Ruth have covered about half as much as planned. Rebecca and Kate are 1 lesson behind. Overall science has been a struggle for the two oldest.
Writing: Britt and Ruth are blowing their writing class out of the water this year. Also scoring high on their history writing. Rebecca did very well on her online class as well this semester, but her second class over the winter was cancelled.
Reading: The kids have done lots of reading this year for DEAR time, but probably need to be directed a little more in choice of materials. Kate is progressing far slower than I anticipated, she may also be dyslexic.
Electives: Ruth is doing about average in her ASL class. Britt scored an A in his Driver's Ed course. Both will start a Study Skills course this semester
After determining where we are I can then determine what actions to take to get us on schedule.
Math: Continue at the current pace, and just plan that Algebra will take longer than a year to complete, we want mastery not to just speed through the material.
History: Keep doing what we are doing, should stay on track.
Science: Continue at the current pace, but work more one on one with Britt and Ruth so that we still finish within the current year and increase comprehension in Biology. Continue as is with Rebecca and Kate.
Writing: Keep plugging away for Britt and Ruth. Consider upping Rebecca's history writing assignments to compensate for not having a second writing class.
Reading: Include some more directed reading at DEAR time. Looking into testing Kate for dyslexia, and be very slow, steady, and systematic in her instruction.
Electives: Encourage Ruth to spend a little more time practicing her ASL with me or one of the girls at Church also taking ASL.
Comprehension and Absorption
Another thing I do is not only check our progress against the plan, but to gauge how much of the material the kids are retaining. Some courses this is easy. When Kate is figuring how many days till Christmas or the boys birthday, I know she has understood her basic math so far this year. I can see that Kate has retained alot of knowledge about the earth because of the questions she asks on hikes and then what she tells me that she knows about the things she is seeing. Other course it involves more discussion. Talking with Britt about events in It's a Wonderful Life such as the Great Depression mirrored our history studies before Christmas. Â I can see that Ruth has absorbed much of Algebra because she is evaluating data and determining missing variables. Even doing some math on her own over the break, to solve questions that she had, about how many pages she needed to read a day to get through several fan fic pieces before our break is up. It is important to me not just that the kids do well as we are covering the material but that they are internalizing what they learn so that it will be accessible to them in the future.
Enjoyment
This final rubric is tricky. One of our reasons for homeschooling was to inspire a love of learning and reading. While there are parts of school that I think the kids really do enjoy, they don't just love everything about schooling. While they also need to learn that some tasks need to be completed just because it's needful regardless of enjoyment, I want them to find joy in learning as much as possible.
Math: The oldest detests is, the two in the middle tolerate it, the youngest loves it.
History: They all seem to enjoy the discussions and projects with this except for a few of the more tedious coloring exercises.
Science: Britt and Ruth aren't enjoying this class at all, but Rebecca and Kate seem to like it alot.
Writing: Britt and Ruth don't enjoy it perse but they are getting a great deal of satisfaction out of their improving scores this year.
Reading: Everyone is enjoying DEAR time and wished I scheduled more of it this year. Kate enjoys being read to but freezes up if she makes mistakes practicing her own reading.
Electives: Ruth is enjoying ASL and Britt has a little dread with the upcoming drivers ed practice with me. Both are optimistic about the study skills class.
So I then ask myself is there anything I can do to make the subjects that they aren't as excited about more enjoyable.
Math: Spend a little more one on one time with Britt getting Algebra really down and see if that helps him.
History: Drop the projects that they aren't fond of this next section aka copy work and dressing through the decades.
Science: Work more with Britt and Ruth to see if more help alleviates their confusion and thereby they might enjoy biology more.
Reading: Keep encouraging Kate to read and that mistakes are part of learning, try to pull deep patience and not rush her when reading.
Electives: Be sure to not pressure or stress Britt out as we practice driving.
Our Mid Year Check-In
Overall, I think this year is going really well. There is some work to be done on the math and science front this year, but both can be improved on with some small tweaks to how involved I am as they are working on assignments, and I think by revamping the schedule I have found the time in the day to sit and work with them on those two subjects a little more. While the other two do independent work. Most of our subjects, history, Rebecca and Kate's science and math, the electives are going smoothly, they are being challenged but not to rapidly moved through the subjects. We have some exciting new things coming up this semester with our study skills class having just begun and Britt about to start practice driving with me. All in all I'm feeling pretty pleased with our progress this year on everyone's mid year education check-in.
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