Look out 2nd grade

He did it!  Benjamin made it through first grade.  We had many dramatic, crazy, ridiculous, pull your hair out kind of days when I never thought we'd see this day.  Thankfully, we pushed through and now we have a second grader.     

A few days ago Jon said something about Bens grades.  I reminded him that one of the perks of homeschooling was we didn't have to grade him the same way he would be graded in public school.  But, of course, since he mentioned it, I got curious on how he would stack up.  Yesterday and today were scheduled review days.  I went through each subject and asked a few random questions to see just how much he retained and what areas we'll need to review over the summer.  If he were to get traditional grades, this is how Ben would measure up: Math 95%  Grammar 94% Spelling and Writing 90%  French 84%  Science 81%  Art 60%.  Ouch!  
Art mainly consisted of learning the artist name, where he was from and studying 4-6 paintings (each painting was given 2 weeks) by each artist.  While I don't think that grade is completely representative of what he knows, we will be spending a decent amount of time reviewing our artists and works this summer.  
We also studied music and history.  Music was a lot like art. We reviewed the composer and listened to several pieces and discussed what he liked or didn't like about the music. I'm not giving him a grade for music.  History is something that deserves a grade, but based on the curriculum we're using and the switch we made in the middle of the year, I've decided not to go there just yet.  
I'm not putting a lot of stock into these grades, but I'm glad I have an idea of where he's at.  He seemed so bored by math so I'm surprised he did so well.  He was so excited to learn about space, but that was the part of science where he missed the most questions.   

Ben is so excited to have the summer off--not counting his review time.  I'm also excited to be able to relax a bit over the summer, but I'm also looking forward to coming up with a better plan for next year.  I've learned a lot about my teaching style and Bens learning style over the 9 months and I'm excited to incorporate some new strategies for a smoother school year.