Wrapping up 7th and 5th

No more pencils, no more books - ha! - because we've wrapped up this really weird, really hard, but altogether really good school year at last!  5th and 7th grades are done!

 

We spent our fourth and last year using GeoMatters' Trail Guide to Learning curriculum.  This year was Journeys through the Ancient World.  We covered Ancient Egypt, Israel/Patriarchs, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome.  We covered all manner of Astronomy topics all year as well as learned Hebrew.  We loved it all! Truly.  I am so sad that Trail Guide doesn't have their high school years published yet or we would continue on with them.  Now I have to find a new curriculum for us for next year, which I have narrowed down to a couple.  But I miss Trail Guide already.  It was such a great fit for our family and school style!

Four 9-week units' worth of work for both kiddos.

Speaking of reaching the end of the road of a much loved and respected curriculum, Noah completed the last year that Right Start Math has to offer the world.  So proud of him.  This stuff is HARD and so IMPRESSIVE and he LABORED through as much as a SAILED through since 2nd grade with it.  He is so ready to rock Algebra I next year, but I am so sad it has to be with a brand new curriculum.  Silver lining, we are going with one that Right Start recommends to follow their program - VideoText Interactive.  It will be a good change for Noah to have a new "teacher" so to speak. These last two years where his lessons were self-guided were a real challenge for him, but were also so good for him, too.  As he gets to this high level math, though, he and I struggle with each other more, so having a different instructor is just what our homeschool needs now.  Glad for it! Anywaym, he just completed his cumulative exam for the year, scored 82, which he and I are super proud of for him. He worked hard for that!

Anna finished her respective year of Right Start as well.  She did that a month ago actually. She is gaining on Noah, step wise. She is already one unit into Level H, which he did last year.  I am excited for her to be in the self-guided stage of their lessons.  She is not - ha! - which surprised me.  I thought she would like not having to wait on me for her instruction each day. She truly doesn't need me.  But she says without me it just feels like something else on her to-do list.  Fair point!

 

Just a shot of this timeline we added to all year.  So, so, so many names and stories to learn ... especially in the Greek and Roman units.  WOW!  I loved learning this all anew along with them.

This Hebrew stuff - this was SO NEAT to learn together.  Anna really took off with it on her own these last couple months.  She got a Hebrew/English dictionary and translates her own stuff for the fun of it.  Languages suit her.  She is taking Spanish next year at CHET.  She is also taking Watercolor, PE, and a Chemistry/Physics course.

 

And another much-loved curriculum we just completed after a three-year run was IEW writing. SUCH a great investment in their writing.  So glad we chose this and did the work. We also continue on with their Fix-It Grammar program, which I neglected to take a picture of, oh well.  We are on the second year of that and will keep on in it.  Next year Noah will have a writing/English course at a new tutorial program called Higher Path Academy.  I am looking forward to seeing how he lets this IEW training influence his work in that class.  He will also take a Science and lab there, which I am MORE than happy to outsource. Science is my least fave.

At Chet this year, Noah completed an English 7th class, a World Geography/Missions course (his favorite), Archery, Study Skills (so helpful for him!), and Choir.  Too bad we just didn't like enough of their class offerings for next year for him to continue on there. We are excited for HPA though, which is much closer to home and offers a great line-up of needed courses for high school if we like it and stay on with them after next year.  Hope so!  Anna's CHET classes this year included Art: Mixed Mediums, Choir, Tumbling, US Geography II, Project Based Learning, and Fiddle Year 2.  And like I said, she is continuing on at CHET for next year at least.

 Parting view of the main wall in the classroom as we check out for summer, not counting daily morning work along the way, much to the groaning of the kids.