School

This is the time of year that my kids and I both fight the "end of they year" shut down.  We all know that there is work to do but none of us really love doing it!

I always have a goal to be done by May 15th.  I do this for multiple reasons.  One, it gives us 4 weeks before Connections is actually done so if we have a project to finish or a lesson to do, we have plenty of time to do it.  Two, by May 15th the weather is nice and no one likes to do school once the weather is nice.  Three, if we are going to homeschool, we want to benefit from being able to be done before regular school is done!

The boys each have projects to finish.  Josh has a Social Studies project, a Michigan History Project, a Science Project and a paper to write.  (Honestly, I'd like to skip the paper - but we won't)  Nate has 5 reading journals to do, a paper to write, and a Michigan History project.  (The Reading Journals are my nemesis - total 100% busy work that are worthless but, again, we will do them and that paper, I'd throw it in the garbage too HA!) Plus they have lessons to still complete. 

Next week we have testing 4 days in a row where we have to travel to Grand Rapids to waste time and money (on gas!)  I'm not a fan of state testing so it kind of irks me that we have to do it but, again, it's required so we do it. 

So, the boys know that next week, in the afternoons, we are hoping to focus on projects and wrap them up since doing regular lessons won't happen due to testing.  Then we will hit lessons hard to wrap things up!

The boys are both asking to not do Connections Academy next year - they have said they are tired of doing everything on the computer and, honestly, so am I.  BUT, I still haven't made a decision.  I'm looking at a couple different curriculum options and then will show them to my husband and see what he thinks.  I know that he likes Connections because they track and grade things so he knows they are right on track.  So we will see!