We’re officially in our new home, with all unopened boxes tucked politely out of sight in the garage. Our gardens are overflowing with beautiful perennials, which I’ve cut and brought into the house. I think it’s the flowers that gave our move-in process the final sense of closure. The act of bringing them in the house felt so decadent.
Over the last two mornings, I was finally able to sit down and bring closure to our school year as well by writing up our annual end-of-school report, which I turn in to exactly nobody. I do this for myself and have since I started homeschooling three years ago. The end-of-year report is absolutely essential for so many reasons. As the year winds down, we’re all pretty tired, pretty lacking in inspiration. There are a lot of out of the house activities (band concerts, etc.) that keep our schedule untidy. By the time May is over, I often feel like I let things get away from me – that our homeschool year didn’t work like I wanted it to.
The end-of-year report brings the excitement of the fall and winter – and even spring – back into sharp focus. I keep a daily journal of our activities, so creating each kid’s report takes only about an hour. As I wrote them up this year, I was amazed by Ian’s progress in music. Last year at this time, he didn’t know anything about scoring for bands. Now he’s written and directed a concert band piece, gotten pretty far in a beautiful arrangement of Coltraine’s “Bessie’s Blues” and is an expert in using the composition software Finale (he’s also written 7 additional original pieces).
Eva tackled so many personal fears, it’s unbelievable. Last year at this time, the child was terrified of standing up in front of anyone. The idea of presenting anything in any situation out of the question. But over the year, she didn’t just chip away at her fear of public speaking, she used dynamite and blew apart the mountain. She’s now presenting in front of classrooms, teacher conventions, and via Skype. She still has her moments, but on the whole, her progress astounds me.
The template I use for my reports looks like this:
Homeschool Summary 2011-2012
Kid Ridenhour, age ##
- Math
- Topics Covered:
- Resources and Activities:
- History
- Topics Covered:
- Resources and Activities:
- Science
- Topics Covered:
- Resources and Activities:
- Reading/Writing/Literature
- Topics Covered:
- Physical Education
- Topics/Activities Covered:
- Home Ec
- Resources and Activities:
- Music
- Topics Covered:
- Social Consciousness Building
- Topics Covered:
- Resources and Activities:
- Logic and Philosophy
- Topics Covered:
- Resources and Activities:
- Language
- Topics Covered:
- Resources and Activities:
- Leadership and Public Speaking
- Animal Attack
- Other
That’s Ian’s template. Eva’s looks similar, but instead of Animal Attack, she has a separate section for writing, since that’s her thing. Some of the headings have just a few items listed underneath; others are extensive. Once I fill in my report, I print out the kids’ Goodreads list from the previous year, and attach that along with any standardized test scores they may have for the year.
These reports aren’t just exciting for me; the kids grabbed them off the printer as they were coming out and poured over them from start to finish. It makes them feel good too – lets them see how much they’ve accomplished. Grades simply aren’t important to me. We study for mastery. They won’t retain everything – nobody ever does – but they are building their familiarity with some topics and their expertise in others. My goal is for them to look back at their report with joy and fondness. I want them to be excited to do it all again in the fall. And from the smiles on their faces as they read their reports, I’d say we’re doing all right.
