Morgan Family Updates: End of Year School Wrap Up

I am finally getting around to posting about our end of the year wrap up for our 2013-14 school year in the Morgan home. (Truthfully, we are continuing with some math, spelling and reading throughout the summer so that we don't get rusty and forget what we have learned! :) We will probably start our new school year in mid-August.

This year, for a multitude of reasons has been one of our hardest years of school. A move, a pregnancy and new baby, and four non-school aged children to watch has made things interesting. I have learned this year, in case you might not have guessed it.....I am not superwoman. I have learned a tough lesson of putting my goals and grand plans aside and truthfully kicking into survival mode out of pure necessity.

I have been pretty hard on myself. I look back at our first two years of school blogging and am amazed we were able to do so much! But, then I look at my oldest sons now. I see their love for learning, ravenous reading appetites, unique passions for science and building/engineering and drawing. I see their funny and quirky ideas for writing paragraphs. I stand amazed at their heart for people and the Gospel. I watch them interact and help with their siblings. I watch their younger siblings absolutely idolize their older brothers. I can see how much they did learn!

In the end, I realize that although this year we were not able to do every craft planned, or Latin lesson envisioned.....learning was still accomplished in abundance. We have read amazing books, fell in love with the Medieval and Renaissance time periods of history and all flying creatures in science. We have mastered multiple digit subtraction and addition and more. We have become familiar with writing paragraphs and devoured all of the second and third grade readers from our Sonlight lists and bookshelves and have started diving into the 4th and 5th grade level books. I am so proud of all of their hard work this year.

At the end of May I was able to join a friend and visit the book fair at our state homeschool convention. It is always a good charge of energy to get me excited about the next year of school. We are ecstatic about our studies for next year. As the books have started to arrive in boxes at our front door, all of the kids are starting to get excited! I will post more later about our plans for 2014-15!

Here are a few things I have learned this year that have worked REALLY well for us! :)

1. Motivation: It is amazing how well kids can do with the proper motivation. We don't have a lot of computer time for kids in our home, so Luke and Ben have started earning computer time if they have a good attitude with school and chores. The plus side is that their "computer games" are really educational logic puzzles and games from The Critical Thinking Co. (Which might be one of my favorite companies ever!)

2. Legos: (Okay this is sort of under the motivation category too!) At the beginning of the year we bought a medium size lego kit for each of the boys. With each math problem they get correct on their weekly tests, they earn a piece of the kit. They love legos, and beg for tests to get their kits completed quickly!

3. Audio Books: I don't know why I did not think of this before, but audio books have become a huge hit at our house (or should I say in our car)! With our TOG and other studies, we don't always have the time to add in all the fun Sonlight read alouds that I would like to. I discovered that our library has several of these titles. I also discovered that on a regular routine grocery run, when Mommy is usually bombarded with everyone trying to talk and tell stories at the same time.........there is absolute silence when an audio book is playing. Needless to say, I don't know who enjoys the books more, me or them! Some of our favorites have included: Henry Huggins, Pipi Longstocking, Black Beauty, Gooney Bird Greene, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Frindle, and Homer Price. We are thankful for a wonderful library system with tons of audio books for us to enjoy. Now whenever we get in the car even Jacob is begging to hear the next story!

Here are a few pictures of our students!

Luke and Ben both devour every book they can get their hands on! I just love that they love reading!

Toddler time with pretend sand.

Earned computer time with logic and critical thinking games

Practice cutting

Fine motor practice playing with water droppers!

Luke and Ben have really learned so much working through All About Spelling Level 2! We are proud of their hard work, and so are they!

Homework time!

This year Gracie worked with Mommy on some more formal Pre-K work. Since she has a fall birthday she will have one more year of Pre-K before we hit kindergarten. She has done amazing and loves doing school. She is an absolute joy to teach. This year she worked through Critical Thinking Company's Mathematical Reasoning (Beginning) and Building Thinking Skills (Beginning). She also is finishing up All About Reading (Pre-Reading). Just recently she read the words "dad" and "cat" for the first time and was absolutely thrilled and on fire to read more!

More busy work for little hands.

Luke, our scientist, got a microscope for his birthday. He loves it!

Luke and Ben finished up their first year of "RA's" (Royal Ambassadors) at church. They especially loved making and racing their derby cars.

Here is one of their science lessons. Blindfolded they were acting as mother bats using their sense of smell to find their unique smelling baby (cotton ball with various scents)!

Working on science notebooking

All of the kiddos are really doing a wonderful job helping with chores too! They all know how to be a part of this big team of ours.

Luke is our early riser, so he is such a blessing to me in the mornings. Every day before I even come downstairs Luke empties the dishwasher and has all our morning breakfast dishes out and ready to go. Jacob is also an early bird most days, and loves to help his big brother with the dishes.

Ben is our night owl, so he does best with his chores in the late afternoon and evening. Every night he faithfully sweeps our kitchen and dining room. All of the kids love to take turns with the vacuum.

Gracie loves to help Mommy with the laundry and she is one awesome sock folder! :) All of the kids also take turns with trash chores, dishes, and helping Mommy in the kitchen too.