Portfolios....Evaluations....Objectives.....!!!

School is over, but my work continues on as a homeschool mom in PA! This is a busy month as I prepare Joel's and Ivy's portfolios of the year. Thankfully, I have finished Joel's and now I begin to work on Ivy's. These are huge notebooks packed with the daily log of everything we've done and samples of all the work they've done for each subject during the year in school. Also included are many pictures, momentos, and other projects. I like to write a summary for each subject and of course, there are long lists of all the books we have used this year. These portfolios are precious keepsakes of their year and so far, we have eight of these on our shelves! By the time I'm done homeschooling, we'll have 28 huge portfolios in our house!!!

After the portfolios are completed, we have an evaluation with our evaluator, a school teacher who has graduated her own homeschooled children. She will look over their portfolios and talk to Joel and Ivy about their year and answer any questions I may have. She is a great resource of information about homeschooling through high school! Even though I am a certified teacher, I comply with this part of the homeschooling law because it gives added accountability and support. Also I love the feeling of accomplishment after putting those portfolios together!!!

Then I must write out the objectives for each of our children for all subject areas for next year and send that along with a notarized affidavit of our plan to homeschool and turn in the portfolios to the school district. There are many homeschool families in our school district so the portfolios really pile up in the office! After a couple of days, we may go and pick up our portfolios. I always wonder if they even look at them all!

Along with all the paperwork and the preparation of the portfolios, June is a busy time for us choosing and ordering our curriculum for next year. That's the fun part! I am very happy with Tapestry of Grace - we really learned so much last year! So this year, we will be doing Year 2, digital edition! Using the digital edition will be different for us, but I think I will like it. I also ordered Writing Aids and look forward to using that this year for the first time. We did the Bonus Bundle so we'll have the Map Aids again and the first unit Lapbook for Ivy. Year 2 covers the time after the fall of Rome right up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence! We'll be studying the Rennaisance, Reformation and Colonial America - all very interesting! I am so excited! And best of all, most of the books we need are at the library so there are very few that I will have to purchase this year!

For Math, we will be continuing where we left off in their Math-U-See books. And we will order new Language Lessons books from Queen Homeschool Supply. We love those! For science, Joel is going to complete his General Science book from Apologia He did half the book this year because Future City Engineering fulfilled half of his science requirement for the year. Ivy will be doing the Zoology book and she's excited about that.

We've decided to drop our Monday morning Homeschool group for next year. We loved that group and the classes were fantastic! However, it was too much for us to be involved with two groups. We'll continue the Thursday afternoon Hempfield Homeschool Group that we have been a part of for almost 8 years. I will be teaching classes there in the fall and spring semesters next year.

There is much to look forward to for next year and great memories to look back on from the year just completed. I love homeschooling! Soon, I will enjoy a nice break from it all and savor the summer. Oh I love that too!