reflecting on the semester

This comes a couple weeks later than the end of second semester, but I have an empty week here, and I don’t have one earlier, so here we are.

This post was originally set for the March Break, but as that got moved to April, so did this.

I am extremely pleased with how well homeschooling went this semester. There were a couple weeks that we were not able to complete all the activities, but overall, we had a lot of fun and Dragon didn’t miss the activities that we didn’t do.

The worksheets were a great success, and I won’t be changing how they worked. Dragon loves the math worksheets especially. If I could remove one, I’d get rid of the counting worksheet, but since that’s her favourite, I won’t be.

The biggest struggle we’ve got is convincing Dragon to speak French. She seems convinced that she can’t do it. Although she knows individual words, but can’t seem to pick them out when people are talking to her, and she doesn’t try to meld them into sentences on her own either. We’re just continuing to soldier on.

Overall, I am incredibly happy with how well the homeschooling of Dragon went this semester. We were able to coordinate with her virtual school teachers, and supplemented her assigned schoolwork with pop culture and other activities.

However, some things are going to change next semester, as I feel like the usefulness is not to it’s full potential.

Overview of each section:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days – this will stay the same, although hopefully we’ll be able to do more martial arts.

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano – I need to remember to change the disc more often! Piano will continue as long as Dragon and my mother are okay with it.

Crochet

The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho) – We’re going to keep working on this in the new year.

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. We are also doing the seasons of the year, but verbally. – We will keep doing this. She’s doing well with it.

Printing words

This is going to be changing. Rather than asking questions and having one-word answers, I am going to change this to be a bunch of words related to the movie. Hopefully this will help to increase her vocabulary.

Counting objects/math-type activities

This will also be changing. I am going to have two different worksheets in here. One will be a grid similar to this past semester, although I’ll be making it more squares instead of 25. The other will be an addition/subtraction and/or pattern worksheet.

Storytime

This will continue, as Dragon enjoys it, especially since the virtual school gives excellent online books to read.

Vampirina or other short Disney Junior shows will be watched one episode/day in French.

Activities

These have been a big hit and I will continue doing them.

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I will be continuing this blog in the new year with a whole new set of movies, sarting with these four in January:

• Balto (1995)
• Meet the Robinsons (2007)
• Kung Fu Panda (2008)
• Over the Moon (2020)