This End Of Year Homeschool Practice Will Surprise You

[Music] One question many moms worry about at the end of the school year is did we do enough? I'm going to show you one practice I have started doing at the end of every school year that has helped me stop asking myself this question. We have two weeks left of school and so I've been taking some time pulling each of my kids aside and putting together our end of the year portfolios. We break for spring and summer because we have some property where we raise a lot of our own vegetables and fruit and also some chickens and pigs and a lot of our work is just outside. So this things change this time of year and it's a good time to take a break from some of our book work. We typically begin our school year at the end of August and end it in the middle of May. If you haven't been on my channel before, my name is Sherry. I'm a Christian homeschooling mom to 10 kids and I'm married to my high school sweetheart Nelson. We've been homeschooling now for 15 years. I love encouraging other families on my YouTube channel and on the blog rlife homeschooling.com. I've been really proud of the kids. They've been getting some good school days in, getting a lot done, which by this time of the year, they'd usually be a little distracted, but they've been getting a lot done. [Music] [Applause] [Music] One thing that's been a little harder for me is that our 2-year-old Ben wants to be outside all day long. So, as soon as he's up, he's ready to be out. So, just juggling working inside with my kids and then going outside and watching him has been a little tricky lately. Money did Ryan have at first. Well, he would have 5250 * 3 plus $80. What's wrong? What do you want? Okay. Do you want a puzzle? No. Yeah. Very good. Yes. Okay. Do the next one. Okay. I went there for a long time. Another thing that's been a little distracting is our daughter had a birthday recently and she got a bike for her birthday. Normally I don't let my kids ride their bikes in the house, but she's only four and she is just so enamored with this bike that I can't really say no. and it's been entertaining her. She just keeps going around and around the house and she's so so [Music] happy and never feed them all. The very old woman thought for a while and then she said, "I know we will let the cats decide which one we should keep." As we get to the end of our school year, I think back to previous years and I know one of the thoughts that was really at the forefront of my mind was always, "Did we do enough?" When you're with kids, sometimes the days just all run together and you wonder, "Did we really do that much this year?" quietly. And the very old man and the very old woman peeped out of the window. Do you see them? They stopped. And the very old man and the very old woman peeped out of the window to see what had happened. They could not see a single cat. I think they must have eat in our state. were required to put together a portfolio for each of our kids at the end of the year and just list out how much progress they made in each subject of the law. And even if this wasn't required by state, it's something I would still do because when I take the time to write down the field trips we've been on, the books we've read together, I'm always so surprised at how much we've gotten done. It seems like the days just run together, but we are accomplishing a lot. The king flung himself astride at his old friend who turned and galloped away. He changed directions twice or thrice as soon as they were out of sight without slackening his pace. Wither away, sire to caravel. Hold hard, friend, said Tyrion. Let me off. He slid off the unicorn's back. horse said it was by Alan's orders. The rat said the same. They all say Alan is here. Ben is really not a snuggler. So when he wants to jump up on my lap and play with a truck or whatever, I just soak it all in because I just love toddler snuggles, especially in the mornings. As I was mentioning before, I've always had to put together a portfolio because it's required in our state, but I've come to realize how beneficial it is for me to have something that requires me to write everything down that we did. I start with a cover page and then I put in their checklist and then their book list. They keep track of all the books that they're reading and that I read to them throughout the year. And then I put samples of work in the back, some from the beginning, middle, and end. If you want to know a little bit more specifically about how I put our portfolios together, you can look on the blog rlifehomeschooling.com. just search how to make a homeschool portfolio and I'll also link it for you below. But on that front cover page that goes right as you open the notebook, I take the time to write out each subject and a little bit of what they did in each subject. And then I also write a little paragraph about the child and they help me come up with it. Things they're interested in this year, things maybe new hobbies that they started. This has become a really great time for me to sit down individually with my kids and just review everything we've done. Copy from here. It's E M A U S. Okay. Do you guys remember what all of a sudden they realized who he was? Remember that story? Do you guys want to read? Actually, Jenna, do you want to read this from the light? I know which one is I think it's a when they were talking with each other about all these things had while they were talking and discussing together Jesus himself junior and went with them. Another paragraph that I put on that front cover page is everything we've done together in morning time. All the folk songs, the hymns we've studied, composers we've studied, the different art prints, memory work, Bible verses we've memorized. In morning time this year, we've done two plays by Shakespeare, Symbolene, and As You Like It. We've also studied North America, all the physical features. So, all of our family studies that we do in morning time from our simple morning time notebook, I just write a short paragraph of all of that and that also goes on the cover page. And then I often just copy and paste that onto each child's cover page so I don't have to rewrite it for each person. William is learning to add three-digit numbers and carry into the tens and the hundreds. You may notice with some of my kids that they are not at the end of some of their textbooks because we don't plan to get to a certain spot in the curriculum by the end of the year. We're always just making progress. So sometimes they finish a certain curriculum by the end of the year. For example, Afton and James read their whole apology textbook that they wanted to do for science this year. So they completely finished it. they even finished it early. But as for the most part, we don't try to get to a certain spot as long as the kids are being diligent about their work. That's what's important to me. We took a break in the day and went to a flower shop. I love to plant zenyas and maragolds and in some of the pots around our house. So, I wanted to pick up some of those. And it was a nice little trip for my younger kids. And I think my older kids also like having a peaceful, quiet house to themselves, so this was perfect for that. Before we left, Afton asked if she could make lunch for us. And of course, I did not say no to that. We had uh something that we often have. It's just ground sausage, loose sausage that we fry up. Sometimes we'll put an onion in it and then we put in some sweet potatoes, apples. I often will put green beans in there or maybe even some toasted almonds. I didn't have that today, so it was a little bit more basic, but it was still delicious. We finished this homeschool day by having lunch together. And then I put Ben down for a nap and I went outside and planted just a few of the plants with Holland. And then afterward, we went inside and I did read aloud with all the kids. She um was really excited to do this. The glove she was using was just way too big for her hand, but I did not care because she was so excited. She just wanted to put these plants in there and just was so excited about getting them all done. So, I was happy to let her have a part in this. I think sometimes as adults we lose the wonder of God's creation, but for kids everything is still so new and fresh and they see it all with new eyes and we can learn a lot from them. My plan each year is to take one child aside every day to work on their portfolio. I have seven kids that are in school, so that's why I need to take two weeks before school is over to really buckle down and do this. With Afton, it was really neat because we sat down and read her portfolio cover page from last year, and it just always amazes me things that I forget. It's It's really nice. If you don't keep a scrapbook, a portfolio kind of does that for you. If you don't keep a portfolio, or maybe you don't even want to, at least take the time to sit and write out the field trips you went on, the books that you read to your kids, what they did in math, some new concepts they learned. Write out what they studied in history, are there new lessons that they took this year, maybe on an instrument, maybe some sports lessons? Write down any classes they took at a co-op. If you take the time to do this, even if you don't make a portfolio out of it, I promise you, you are going to be surprised, you got a lot more done than you think you did. How do I know that? Because I have done this every year. There is some point during the year where I question myself and I wonder if we're really making a lot of progress and then when I get to the end and put it all down to paper, I am always blown away. We always do more than I remember. I forget so many of the things that we did back in September, October, and then it comes back to me when we have to write it down. If you'd like to see more about our portfolios and even some portfolio samples, you may want to go and watch the video I did a couple weeks ago where I showed some of our homeschool portfolio samples. I do one video a week on homeschooling encouragement for everyday moms. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week. [Music]