Homeschooling Year 2 Recap

The original intent of course is that our whole homeschooling journey would be documented in these pages like those of many superstar mamas out there who are doing it brilliantly.  It's a great way to look back not only for myself for reflection but ultimately, the goal is so my girls would have something they could look back on later down the line and see how their homeschooling journey really was with all it's joys and challenges.  Yes...ideally that would have been awesome! But realistically, it's been impossible.  Despite my early mornings of preparations and even some late night wrangling, I finally accepted defeat in my journaling dreams and gladly resorted to a yearly recap of how our second year was. 

 

So here's a short summary of perhaps the most challenging homeschooling year for us so far....

 

We continued our traditional park day, at least for the first part of the school year but later down the line, weather and schedules became way too complicated.

 

We finally settled in to our new and improved school room!

 

We started a new Science curriculum called REAL Science Odyssey that had us adventuring and exploring. 

 

 

2014 - 2015 brought about one of the worst drought in California history! We had very little rainfall and they said there's no relief in sight.

We also started a new History curriculum called History Odyssey, Ancients (Level 1) and we get to enjoy lots of hands-on activities like this one. There was so much to this in fact that we barely moved on in this level so next year, we get to finish it.

 

We had to rule out vision problems for Myka because she is simply not improving on her reading.

 

 

 

We only had one of the three craft day scheduled this year because of lack of participation and attendance.

 

 

Our most favorite class this year was hands-down Math and Science Nucleus that had us exploring local wonders and wildlife while learning with fellow COIL students.

 

The girls finally got on stage for their first demonstration and they both did fabulous!

 

We did have quite a few field trips both local and around the bay.

Then we fell in love with our newest member of the family, Mochi!

 

We found fall again in the Niles and was happy to see that the pond had water this time despite the drought.

 

 

We enjoyed this year's musical, Cat In the Hat very much!!! And we found out later that one of our new PE classmates had one of the lead roles.

 

Mer's thorn this year is learning Multiplication! Despite the many tools and techniques we used, it was simply daunting for her...and still is!

 

Added a lot more books to our collection that we are hoping to read someday.

 

 

Finally started music class - violin for Myka and guitar for Mer!

Found some new dear friends in school, Mikayla and Lucas (and their mom, Shannon)!

 

Incorported creative learning!

 

And as always, we finished the year off with a bang at Aqua Adventure!

 

 

Overall, it was a trying year that did not end as I would hope. We were still far behind on our last Star assessment and I'm hoping that with maturity, my girls will finally catch up to it.  Of course, that would also mean more focused effort on my part and yes, I'm still hopeful that next year will be our turning point. 

 

I still would not exchange our homeschooling journey for the alternative. It truly is a great adventure but one that I know will eventually brings great results!

 

Now, on to year 3!!!