End of Year Questionaire

I've always wanted to sit down with my kids and talk about how the school year went, what we could do better, what they wished we would have done, etc.  And I often do talk to my girls informally about those questions....but I wanted something more.

This year I made up a questionnaire that I could keep in their notebooks about some of their favorite things from this past school year.  I just made up my own because all the printable ones I could find were geared for public school kids (they all had the question...who was your favorite teacher?  Ummm...that would be ME!)

It was a simple typed form...but it worked!

Here are some of the answers

Logan...just finished kindergarten

Favorite Color:  blue, green, orange, purple...all of them
Favorite Food:  candy
Favorite Indoor Activity:  color
Favorite Outdoor Activity:  give Dogger a belly rub
When I grow up I want to be:  a movie maker and live in Logan (Utah)


 
Sienna...just finished 2nd grade
Favorite Color:  pink
Favorite Food:  bow tie pasta
Favorite indoor activity:  reading
Favorite outdoor activity:  jumping on trampoline
When I grow up I want to be a librarian
I'm really good at:  reading
What is the most memorable moment from this past year:  When we did the human tower (the kids made a human tower last Father's Day...it must have been memorable for Sienna!)
What are you most happy about accomplishing this past year:  Finishing the Book of Mormon
What was your favorite book this year:  Magic School Bus and American Girl books

Jenessa...just finished 5th grade
Favorite Color:  purple
Favorite Food:  pot stickers, bubble pizza
Favorite indoor activity:  playing card games
Favorite outdoor activity:  riding my scooter on driveway, kayaking, playing with animals
When I grow up I want to be:  either a librarian, preschool teacher or kindergarten teacher, or a professional soccer player
What is the most memorable moment from this past year:  moving to our new house
What are you most happy about accomplishing this past year:  finishing elementary school and starting junior high next year
What was your favorite book this year:  The Land of Stories series, Kane Chronicles, Nancy Drew series, Hardy Boys series, Emerald Atlas series

Kessiah...just finished 7th grade
Favorite Color:  black and red
Favorite Food:  cheesecake and chocolate
Favorite indoor activity:  playing on computer, reading, piano
Favorite outdoor activity:  kayaking, hiking, playing with animals, riding bikes, ziplining
When I grow up I want to be:  pilot or an animal trainer
I'm really good at:  piano, video gaming, computers
What is the most memorable moment from this past year:  getting my Kindle, turning 13, getting the chicks, moving
What are you most happy about accomplishing this past year:  accomplishing my goal of getting a new house
What was your favorite book this year:  Erin Hunter books, 13 Treasures series, Hunger Games series

I didn't fill out a questionnaire for Mason or Corbin...but Mason's favorite color is red and Corbin tells me his is yellow!

End of the School Year Review

Honestly, this year had a big bump in the road!  It was a good bump, but still a bump!

Kessiah kept on track with Williamsburg Intermediate...she had some hiccups with math during the last part of the year but she did get her grade where it needed to be by the end!  She is getting really good at the piano, it is fun to listen to her practice.  She found a song from Frozen on the computer and now plays it so well that all her siblings sing along (I do mean all...even Corbin sings it!).  Because of our spending freeze she did have to drop violin...hopefully we can add that back in at some point.  She has continued to participate in 4H and has chosen to focus on small stock and sewing.


Jenessa is very good at staying on schedule with K12.  She continues to improve at the piano...sometimes I'm not sure if it is Kessiah or Jenessa playing.  Unfortunately, because of the move she was unable to participate in basketball or volleyball this year.  She is looking forward to soccer in the fall.  I'm excited to see her learning to sew in 4H.

We did get back on track with Sienna's schedule after the move.  She has been really good about getting her assignments done early in the day so that she has a lot of free time.  She is taking piano lessons as well.  She did not participate in basketball or springs sports either...but we did keep doing gymnastics at the Y.

Logan is where we (I) got way off track!  We just couldn't seem to get it together after the move!  My fault, I know!  Thankfully, he did learn a few things from our homeschool groups and Sienna read him some science books as part of her assignments.  They especially liked the Let's Read and Find Out Series.There are so many titles I can always fine one that they are interested in reading.

I'm looking forward to starting our summer schedule so I can start fresh with doing some academic things with him.  Logan was bumped up a gymnastics class so this year he has been in an all boys class.














Mason and Corbin...no schooling needs here.  They have both been enjoying gymnastics.  Mason moved up a class so he is no longer with Corbin.  They have really enjoyed the new space we have to explore at our new house.  These 2 little guys are some of the reasons I'm so glad we made the move.  I had been thinking of sending Mason to kindergarten and Corbin to preschool.  In our other house, the floor plan was so open that Kessiah and Jenessa didn't have a quiet corner they could go to when they needed to focus on school.  These 2 little guys had a really hard time being quiet!  That situation has been changed here...so these guys get to stay home. I am pretty excited about that!

I have to admit is was nice not to have winter and spring sports schedules.  We really needed the time to get things done around here, but it was also nice not to have to do so much running around!  Our chickens have kept the kids quite occupied...maybe I'll count them as our spring sport!  Kessiah and Jenessa have especially taken over the care of them...I have really appreciated how responsible they have been!  Kessiah refers to our chickens as our comedy show...they are pretty funny to watch.

Our Summer

We are ending our carefree summer and starting to get back into a school routine.  We started some school this week...I like to get started early in order to give us some flexibility during the school year.

We did a session of swimming lessons in June.  Everyone did very well.  Kessiah got moved up to the next class during the first lesson...she was very excited about that.  Jenessa and Sienna both were promoted at the end of the session.  Logan did a great job, I think he has been the most comfortable of all of our children during their first try at swimming lessons.  We are signed up for another session in August to help them continue to build on their skills.  We went swimming as a family last weekend, I'm hoping we can do that a couple more times this month.

We have one more week of the summer reading program at the library.   Logan was old enough to participate this year.

We've been meeting on Friday morning with a couple of other families (Patterson's and Dunbar's)  for "Kid's Club"  It's been a fun activity for the kids.  This morning we went walking/hiking near the Highland Center...because of some trails the kids wanted to take we were out longer than we expected but they had a lot of fun together.  Last week it was our turn to host...we did a history day.  Everyone came dressed as a historical character and we played 20 questions to figure out who they were.  Then in honor of Pioneer Day that is coming up we made covered wagons out of boxes and yarn dolls.

We've done well at keeping up with devotionals and zones this summer.  It's just part of our routine now.  We are still doing a bare bones devotional...I'm hoping to start building that back up.

We only made it to the park once this summer...between the heat, a nearly two-year-old, and a new baby...it was a hard activity for me right now. 

The girls were signed up for gymnastics this summer, but we only made it to a couple of classes.  Our regular class starts up again in August.

End of the School Year

Just a recap of this semester...how did it go?  Well, it was the end of my pregnancy for baby #6...so it was a little rough.  Thankfully, Kessiah and Jenessa are pretty independent in thier work.  Unfortunately, we didn't do any "extra" things beyond what was required which doesn't make for a very fun school year.

We did continue to go to gymnastics on Mondays.  We also somehow made it through basketball season with Kessiah and Jenessa.  The three girls are currently playing softball/t-ball.

We did pretty good at keeping up with our zones and Saturday jobs during this semester which was very helpful for me...since I pretty much fall apart at doing anything while I'm pregnant!

Our Summer...What worked What didn't!

Our summer is wrapping up, we have started some school and starting to get back into our school routine.

We did a session of swimming lessons in June.  We did the T-Th for 4 weeks session, it seems to work better for us than trying to go 4 days in a row for 2 weeks.  We are signed up for another session in August.

We have one more week of the summer reading program at the library.  Kessiah and Jenessa always love that.  This year they lowered the participation age, so Sienna was able to fill out a reading log as well.

For the first time ever we did the cheap summer movies at the theater.  With Ryan having Friday's off it worked out for him to take the girls that day.

I changed up our chores just a bit this summer.  We have morning and afternoon zones.  Kessiah, Jenessa and I (with Sienna and Logan) rotate through 4 zones.  Yes, that means that one zone does not get done, the girls can do it for some extra money or it just doesn't get done that day.  I really wanted to continue with our devotional time and our morning jobs during the summer...and for the most part we did really good.

I did take the kids to a park a couple of times, but it is hot enough that we didn't stay more than an hour.  Our backyard has enough toys that I probably just need to get outside and play with them more often instead of trying to go to a park.  We've also been swimming at the Y a couple of times as a family...they have a great pool for me to be able to keep track of everyone!

I made some good progress on my continuing education credits for my RD credential.  (During my last 5 year credentialing period I was really cramming at the end...I am trying to avoid that this time!)  I also got out the scrapbooks again after too many years!  I didn't get a lot done on them, but enough to hopefully get me going again!  I also got the girls school work scheduled out through December, I wanted to be able to take most of the month of December off to do Chritmas things...which is one reason that we started early!

I did not get Logan potty trained like I had intended.  It seemed when I started pushing it he backed off and wouldn't do it!

End of the School Year...What worked and What didn't?

We are pretty much done with school for the year.  It has been really hard for us to get everything done the past two weeks.  We've done ok in the morning...but in the afternoon after quiet reading time and mommy reading time things fall apart!  They don't attempt to do their school work and I don't push them...I guess I'm ready for summer as much as they are!  It's not really a big deal...as far as percentages go we are where we need to be (or ahead) in every subject.

I wanted to write down a few things that worked for us this year...so I could remember!  When we started the school year, I had just had a baby and ended a hard pregnancy so we pretty much drifted through the first semester.  Thankfully, our curriculum is all planned out for us so that is possible to do...unfortunately, I'm a planner so I like to do more than drift!  Since we have pretty much shut down for this year I have already started planning a little more detail for next year.

In January we started reciting a scripture every morning before we did our morning jobs.  I've been using the Primary monthly theme and the scripture that is on the back cover of the Friend magazine.  We alternate each day which one we recite.  It was a good addition to our routine. Sienna and Logan always do it as well (Logan pretty much just looks at the pictures and says one our two words...but it works!)

Sometime in the spring I set a time for us to do our scripture and jobs.  9:00 ended up being the magic number.  So often we didn't get to it until 10:00 or later and it just wasn't working for me.  It is the only thing that is currently "scheduled" in our day...everything else is more of a routine.  This change has helped keep us more on track in the mornings.

Just this week we added a couple new things to our scripture time.  We started reading one story from the scripture readers (the ones from Church Distribution)...actually Kessiah and Jenessa take turns reading outloud while Sienna, Logan and I (and Mason) sit on the floor and "listen"  (as well as a 4 year old and 2 year old can listen!).  Then we sing a couple of active Primary songs.  I made this change for the benefit of Sienna and Logan...as a way to include them more.

Sienna and Logan have been a challenge this year.  I've tried a couple of different things but nothing has really stuck.  I plan to do more preschool stuff with Sienna next year...maybe that will help, maybe it won't.  I need to do something different there...I'll have to search for inspiration over the summer.

Something else we started around the beginning of our second semester (not school related) is Saturday jobs.  I set up a schedule of what each child needed to do and it has worked quite well.  About a month ago I set up a rotating "reward" for each Saturday after their Saturday jobs are done.  We were having a problem with everyone thinking they could pick out a movie every Saturday after their jobs were done.  Let's do the math...4 kids X 2 hour movie = way too much screen time for one day!  So now they rotate between a movie, Wii time, computer time and picking what we eat for dinner.  It has been a great improvement!