Year end meetings

Our school year is pretty well wrapped up. We'll keep doing a couple of subjects through the summer when we can and do have one or two things that need to get finished up this month, but otherwise we're done. One thing I do at the end of the school year, now that the girls are older, is have a year end meeting with each of them. They can pick somewhere to go out, usually for a snack type treat where we can talk. Sweet Pea and I got together a few weeks ago at Starbucks and I hope to take Rosie Jane out tomorrow to Tropical Smoothie.

When we get together, we talk about how the past year went - what did they like and not like and why, what went well, where can we improve things. Usually, most of this I know. I have a pretty good idea of how things are going, they're both pretty vocal about something if they don't like it. Sometimes I can change it, sometimes I can't and they just have to work on it anyway.

We also talk about the upcoming year. I enjoy this part more, I think. I share with them what I have planned, I get their input, and hopefully what I have planned and what they want mesh together. I also ask if there's something they want to study the next year and we see if we can fit it in. One thing Sweet Pea is very excited about is the possibility of learning Russian this fall. Hopefully the class she wants will come together. The other thing she wanted to do is an art history class. I think it's a great idea but hadn't thought of it myself for her.

When I got together with Sweet Pea, we talked about next year specifically and the last two years of high school in pretty general terms. She's shared what her current career ideas are and I've worked a high school plan taking that into consideration. I told her some of the "why's" of the classes I was picking for her so she would understand why she'll be taking a lot of math and science, even though her favorite subject is history. She also shared some ideas of history classes that she'd like to get in sometime during high school. I think we can get in everything she wants to do. One of the great things about homeschooling is being able to really tailor classes to your student's wants and needs.

When I get together with Rosie Jane, we'll mostly talk about next year, 8th grade and I'll share my initial plans for her high school years. She still doesn't really have any idea what she wants to do so there's only a few things that have been written in pen for her plan. We've already talked a little bit because the convention is coming up this weekend and I needed to get some input from her about a few things. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get into more detail about next year so I can finalize some ideas I have for her.