End of our Home School Year

We have completed our first full year of home schooling! 1^st and 2^nd grade are in the books and it was great!

What does ending a year mean for us? The entire month of July for Summer break! This is new to us this year, our first partial year we took 2 weeks, but.....lesson learned we needed a little bit more time. It also means that I do some reports. Please Note: Reports of any kind are NOT required by the state of Illinois. I do reporting for my personal records. If we ever move out of state, if state laws change, if any truancy issues ever arise I want to be able to easily prove what we are doing.

What I do is start with this:

I use these grade level lists for both planning and end of year reports. These are non common core lists (that's a different discussion for another time), but this is how I stay on track.

http://nevadahomeschoolnetwork.com/world-book-and-common-core/

Along with this grade level list I write up a summary of each subject for each child with how they are progressing in that subject. I print and keep a copy of any website reports/scores that they complete. I also keep work samples for each month and this usually consists of between 2 and 6 writing assignments/spelling tests/worksheets so I can flip through and see their handwriting progress through the year.

All of this information is kept in a 3 ring binder. If anyone were to have cause to question our home school then I can quickly and easily pull the binders and prove what we are doing. It is also a good habit to be in because as they progress to higher grades then transcripts will need to be kept for college purposes. These reports are NOT REQUIRED for the state of Illinois, I do this for my peace of mind.

With end of year stuff complete it is time for a 1 month brain break. Why only one month and not the whole Summer like most public schools? This is a life style for us. During this month off the kids have done several educational things, it's only natural to want to learn and I don't want to hold them back. Summer slide is a real concern children face. By only taking a short break we significantly decrease the need for review to be able to move on. What works best for us is a 6 weeks on 1 week off schedule because we need little breaks periodically through the year.

Welcome to Summer....Have Fun! I know we will.......Learning As We Grow!