Weekly Wrap-Up: Bittersweet Edition

Somehow I missed posting this Weekly Wrap-Up entry from last week. I just noticed it is in my folder and not on the blog. Better late than never I always say....

I know all of us sigh a big sigh of relief on the last day of the school year...for better or worse. This year I am excited that it is the end of the term and we have a whole summer stretching out in front of us but on the other hand it is a little sad to have such a great year of learning completed.

Bittersweet.

I think that is my theme for the whole year reflecting back on it. Many changes and lots of growing have taken place since we started school last September. It is wonderful to see the maturing of my children and it can also make me a little melancholy.


So what was our last week like? Busy. We left quite a number of projects to finish this last week which was a bad move on our part. Note to self: Do not have a huge writing assignment due the last day of school, make it due the week *before* school finishes. The writing was just too good to try to hurry to edit and polish the last week of school. I still have second drafts sitting here beside me waiting for my eyes to look at and read. I also realize we never really covered how to write a bibliography using a formal format. I will put that on the list for next year.

I have read the debates about the evils of "format writing"...IEW in particular has come under fire. I thought about both sides of the debate, giving some time for the points to sink in. My conclusion after using IEW with my two youngest children for the last three or four years is that for our family it has given our writing a framework to build on and to make our own. My boys do not feel hemmed in by the guidance of the IEW system for style and structure. It gives them somewhere to build from with their own ideas.

Their assignment was to write an eight page super essay on a topic from their other courses. They wrote thesis statements and outlines, collected information to fill in their outlines, found quotes, and read lots of information in the course of this writing project. We refined introductions and conclusions together and they did a little peer editing this time which was a great process to watch from my side of the table. I could not be happier with the end products.

Robotics-They each finished their final projects and demonstrated them.



Punch Bot-Robot reads a handmade punch card and then completes an operation that has been written in the program.


Sort Bot-Robot sorts M&M's by color!

Physics-Finished the last module and pulled the notebook together. I wrote a review for Apologia Physics while I was wrapping things up for the year.

Algebra 2 and Geometry-Work in progress and they are taking a break for the summer.

Literature-Finished Hamlet and since they had already completed their free reading list, they updated that list with books they picked and read on their own. As part of their literature this year we also had a "free viewing" list of movies I wanted them to watch. Since I don't think I have shared the complete list before, here you go!

• Les Miserables-We watched this after we finished the book. We all gave it a thumbs up.
• Pride and Prejudice-Again, we watched after reading the book. They liked Mr. Darcy in the A&E version that we watched.
• Jane Eyre-We did not read this book and they did not like this movie.....we watched the BBC version and I thought it was pretty good.
• Cry the Beloved Country-We read the book and then watched the movie. Big time thumbs up from the boys for this one.
• Hunchback of Notre Dame-We turned it off after about 20 minutes...too, too depressing.
• Count of Monte Cristo-The version we watched from 2002 did not follow the book's plot at all. Disappointing. They watched the entire movie but spent most of the time shouting at the screen when the movie veered from Dumas' story.

Geography this week was centered on the continent of Antarctica. You would not think that there would be a lot to fill up our geography time with but it was a full week of learning. Here are a few links we found very interesting:

• Research Stations on Antarctica: What countries? What science? Where on the continent? Some of the stations have webcams and we enjoyed viewing in real time.
• Wildlife of Antarctica: Wonder what lives there? Here are some great pages of information.
• Travel to Antarctica: Ever thought about traveling to Antarctica? Here are some options. We had fun picking out trips that appealed to us...it is always fun to dream.

Art and Music, at least our formal study, is completed for the year. They will be using the Summer 2010 Art and Music plans over the break but this will be very informal and casual. I plan on putting out the prints and leaving the supplies available at all times.

PE testing is done and they improved slightly in their abilities since August of last year. They made their weekly physical activity goals for the year, logging in over two hundred fifty miles in hiking, running, and biking for the year. I lost track at some point so I cannot tell you exactly how many miles but I hope to do a better job at recordkeeping this year.

So, I think that wraps up our last week of the 09-10 school year. I am busy preparing their report cards for them to read which in our family the report cards are in a narrative form and reflects back to them some positive thoughts and some areas to work on during the next term. They love reading their report cards and my husband appreciates the way it keeps him up to speed with the boys' progress. They give us an end to the year, a final point. ( I keep a separate transcript using Homeschool Tracker.)

All that is left is to clear this year's books off the shelves and file their papers away. I do not keep everything but we keep a large sampling of their work. They boys usually have some input over what we keep and what we can toss. Since we don't generate lots of paper this does not take long.



Summer...sigh. Again, it feels bittersweet.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom