Our first review is tonight!

[lenswyf]

We are part of the Family Schools Program at our church; it's an "umbrella" program, where the school takes the responsibility for holding us accountable in our homeschooling. One of their services is to provide an annual review , and we are having our review tonight. Since this has been our first year of homeschooling, I find myself a little anxious. But we used Sonlight, so I don't think we really missed anything.

Do any of you get reviewed? What has been your experience?

[Beyond Blessed]

was :pray How did it go?

[Sara]

:grouphug We don't have anything like that around here, but I can imagine I would be nervous if I were being reviewed! How did it go?

[lenswyf]

Thanks for asking. I was a little anxious. We use Sonlight, and while I know that Sonlight says it's okay to not do some stuff, I didn't know how the reviewer would be about it. We have done most of it, but there are a few things that I've done somewhat sporadically, like the activities in the Learning and Thinking book, the "writing" assignments, the dictations, some of the developmental activities. I was also not sure we had been doing enough for PE, art and music. I also had not turned in any report cards for the year. Bad mama!

The reviewer was very relaxed, and very encouraging. I had typed up a summary of what we had been studying and reading, along with fieldtrips for each subject. She said we were doing much more than she had done with any of her kindergartners (she has 3 boys), and she was impressed with the work that she saw. (I don't know if she's ever really seen Sonlight before. She had heard of it, but seemed very surprised by all that we have done.) She asked ds a couple of questions about what he'd been learning, and he launched into a very enthusiastic discourse about bugs and reptiles before taking off to use the sofa and ottoman for impromtu gymnastics practice. It was helpful to learn that we are definitely doing all the things we need to be doing to meet the state's requirements plus a lot more.

I need to get the report cards in (she suggested just doing one for the first half of the year and one at the end of the year) just so they have them on file, but it didn't sound like it was a huge issue -- especially for kindergartners. I do want to do them, though. I can see them being a good way to help us encourage ds in the areas he's doing well in as well as helping him understand the areas where we believe he could improve.

So, all in all, a very positive experience. Very encouraging, very reassuring. :D

[ArmsOfLove]

I'm glad it was such a positive experience :tu

[Beyond Blessed]

:highfive Way to go!!! IME, myself and my IRL friends all felt we weren't doing enough and we stressed about that. I ended up putting my boys in school in March because of difficulties teaching with a newborn who kept getting sick - my boys were either ahead of their class or right on target :) Why do we worry so much :shrug :)

[Sara]

That's great! I'm so glad to hear that it went well for you! :hug :jump :clap