Our 2014-2015 “school” year ended in July.

Though I haven’t quite caught up my blog with this past year’s activities (I will be doing that soon), we did finish our 2014-2015 year in July, and since the new school year is starting for so many homeschoolers, traditionally schooled kids, and us, I thought I’d mark the occasion here on my blog.

My end-of-year review and celebration is very simple and informal, and it takes much longer for me to get it all together than for us to celebrate it.

• First, I write up the boys’ progress reports, which are required by law. I use this blog to help me do that! It’s my main record-keeper.
• I print out the progress report, a list of books the boys have read this year, and I also print out simple “certificates of completion.” They don’t get report cards, but they can at least see they have accomplished another full year of their education.
• I put together a slideshow on a dvd of the year’s photos, including vacations and homeschool work, field trips and activities, and we all watch it together. I’ve done this for two years now, and we’ve really enjoyed reviewing our year together. (This year, due to using different software than I have used in the past, it was a hard job. I appreciate my husband stepping in to help me get it done!)
• I lay out the boy’s portfolios, some of their significant work, any certificates or badges they earned during the year, and we snap a photo, which you can see above.

And there you have it. The end of 2^nd grade and pre-K.
Where does the time go?!

We have taken a few weeks in August off so that we can concentrate on birthday celebrations, cleaning up the old projects to make room for the new, organizing the calendar for our new school year, getting the new curriculum ready, and, of course, having fun and relaxing.

I’ll be starting our new year very soon, and we are adding quite a lot of work this year since my oldest is turning nine and going into the third grade, and my (gulp!) six-year-old is starting his FIRST OFFICIAL YEAR OF HOMESCHOOLING! In Georgia, we don’t have to report we are homeschooling until our child turns six-year-old. Now I have two official homeschoolers, and I’m very excited to see what this year brings us!

Note: To see the forms I use for record-keeping, the progress report, or to use the same certificate, see my free printables page.