Wrapping Up

This is our last week of 7th grade.  I am so proud of Kara for the hard work she has put in this year.  Here are some highlights:

 * My main goal this year was to begin teaching Kara how to study.  We tried several different things like taking notes and that sort of thing, but it turns out she really loves making index cards.  As she studies, she makes two piles - those the knows and those she doesn't.  Next time around, she studies just the pile she doesn't know.  And she goes on from there.  She still will be learning which things to take notes on (she mostly just does bold words, Spanish vocabulary words, etc.), and eventually how to take notes during a lecture (right now we are practicing with church sermon notes).

 * Kara continues to grow in character and I am so proud of the young woman she is.  She is entering a time when she needs to decide who she is and who she wants to be - along with that she will decide how friends/people can treat her - what she will stand for and what she won't.  I pray she keeps a tight grip on God and stays close with Him.

 * This was our last year of grammar.  Kara is an expert at parts of speech and it is time to move on to a more intensive writing curriculum, which is the reason for studying grammar and parts of speech in the first place.

 * We completed her first high school class - Spanish 1.  We took all the tests, including mid terms and finals, just like she would have in school.  I have to say, when there was a particularly difficult thing to learn, we slowed down and spent an extra week or so on it.  In the end, she got an A.  Not because I held her hand and altered tests or anything like that.  She got an A because we made sure she mastered a topic before we moved on.  She took all her tests on her own and picked it up fairly easily.  This is exciting to me because her only grade on her high school transcript so far is an A - which means she has a 4.0 right now.  :-)

 * Today she finished this year's history.  She liked it so much, she wanted to continue with it for next year's Bible.  (This year's Bible was devotions.)  This year in history she read from Genesis - Numbers and read books alongside to learn about the Egyptians.  Next year (which we will use for Bible, not history), she will read Joshua - Malachi and read books alongside to learn about the Greeks.

 * Algebra still has a few months to go.  She had a harder time with the stuff from the first semester than the stuff we are studying now.  Bs were a struggle then.  She says she doesn't like math, but she gets As easily these days.

 * Next year's school will be a bit different than this year's school was.  I'm looking forward to the different list of classes, and to Kara growing more independent.

We will take a few weeks off before we start 8th grade - I'm thinking two weeks.  Kara is looking forward to some time to goof off!  Meanwhile, it'll be busy for me as I prepare for the next year.  I absolutely love planning a new homeschool year.