You’re nearly there! As May approaches, it’s time to think about how to wrap up your homeschool year. In my mind, there are two objectives during this final month. They are to:
- Have everything completed by your last day of school.
- End on a positive note.
My End of the School Year List
Here is my very general list of what I want to accomplish by our last day of school:
- Determine the endpoint for each subject. It might be to A) Finish a book, B) Find a natural stopping point with the intention to continue in the fall, or C) Hit a few more highlights and be done with that particular area of study.
- Have each child complete a self-assessment. I have them write short answers to a series of questions about what they enjoyed, where they feel they made the most progress, and what they’d like to do next year. This helps me….
- Complete my year-end progress reports (which you can read more about here) AND
- Make notes for what we want to do next fall.
A few other items that you might add:
- Complete any state-required testing, assessments, etc.
- Send in your homeschool letter of intent or any other documentation required for next year.
I’ve included these two items because I know some people like to do them at the end of the year. We always do our testing in February and I send in our homeschool letter of intent right after that each year.
Something Special
After you organize your list of things you should do, find a way to celebrate. It doesn’t need to be anything super huge. You might do a field trip. Or not. You have all summer to do field trips. Make this easy on yourself – plan a special meal and have the kids cook. Okay, as I write that I realize that can take a massive amount of work on your part. So order pizza. Or give them each a card and small inexpensive toy. Or let them watch a movie in the middle of your school day. It doesn’t matter what you do – just call it an end-of-the-year treat so your children know that you’re celebrating.
The One Thing I Always Do
I admit that I don’t always plan a special outing, meal, or treat. In our family, we have four birthdays over a three-week span from mid-May to early June. So traditional end of the school year celebrations usually get lost in the shuffle. However, there is one thing I always do.
No matter how busy we are, I make time to sit down with each of my children and go through their progress report for the year. At first glance, that may not seem like a celebration. There’s no cake, no balloons, no exciting activity. Just the child, my husband, and me. But I think this short private meeting with each child plays a huge part in our continued success as a homeschooling family.
We talk about their self-assessment and progress report. I try to make the meeting as encouraging and congratulatory as possible. I focus on all the things they did right. All that they accomplished. I wouldn’t be able to do this off the top of my head. I have to look at their self-assessment and also write my year-end progress report first. Those take some time and force me to look back at the entire year. My homeschool schedules are a great resource for remembering exactly what we did. When I’m done with the progress report, I have a good list of achievements to cover.
Of course, every year there are things I wish we’d done better. I acknowledge that next year we’ll be working more on particular skills or subjects. And I use it as a chance to encourage that growth mindset I’m always yammering on about. I’ll use phrases like “Look at how hard you’ve worked”, “You’ll get it next year”, and “Summer will give you a good break from this and you’ll be ready for it in the fall”. You know why? Because those statements are all true.
Can this work for you? Maybe a small part of you feels like you would have gotten through that math book if your child had a better attitude. Acknowledge that privately to yourself. Now’s not the time to address it. Now is the time to set yourself up for success next year. Focus on presenting it to them as something they can accomplish – next fall. Use the summer to relax, decompress, and plan to come back in September with some new strategies and a fresh outlook.
Take some time to think about how to wrap up your homeschool year. Get a list going of what you need to accomplish and a small (or big) way to celebrate. Above all, I think you should highlight your student’s good qualities and any emerging qualities that you want to foster and encourage. Focus on all you’ve both achieved and end on a positive note.
