Homeschool Open House

Last week my kids did a homeschool end-of-year open house for their grandparents. I started thinking about this and planning it a couple months ago. I wanted them to have the opportunity to present in front of people, as well as show off all they have done this year while learning at home. 

I started by taping up some of their best artwork and assignments.

I also put out our history timeline. I'm pretty proud of this thing! Throughout the year, we added each historical event/person we learned about onto our timeline. I absolutely love this visual representation of everything we covered in American History this year.

We began our evening with the kids singing the hymn "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee". The kids and I have been singing this a couple times a week for the past couple months and they did such an excellent job! I catch them singing it (even Andrew) constantly, so we will definitely continue learning hymns next year.

The kids also each chose a Bible verse to recite from memory. Jenna chose Ephesians 6:1-3, Lucas chose John 3:16 and Ephesians 4:32, and Ryan recited most of Psalm 23. Again, we will definitely continue learning scripture next year!

Next up were their history presentations. I asked each of my kids to select a person from history to learn more about. They then had to read, take notes, and prepare short presentation on that person. They did their presentation in the first person, so they were truly in character. Costumes required!

Ryan chose Neil Armstrong (who we technically learned about for science, but I was fine with it). I got this one picture before he ripped off his little sister's softball helmet out of embarrassment. 

Ryan does not enjoy reading or writing, but he did a great job putting together his ideas and presenting them! I thought it was really neat that Ryan talked about Neil's childhood, and how he would build paper airplanes out of paper, rubber bands, and wood. Ryan loves that sort of thing.

Next up was Lucas, who became Anthony Burns. Anthony was an African American slave during the mid 1800s, and Lucas did such a good job researching more information about him. I tried to convince him to let me put some brown powder on his face but he refused. His "costume" wasn't the best, but it worked.

Jenna chose to be Sacagawea and isn't she just adorable? I had to whisper her lines to her since it was too many big words to memorize. I wish I had gotten these presentations on video because they were just precious!

After presentations we played a fun game of Who is Smarter....the Grandparents or the Kids? I asked them 10 space trivia questions, since space science was still fresh in my kids' minds. The teams were Grandma and Grandpa (and Andrew) vs Ryan, Lucas and Jenna. The kids won by 1 point!

We ended the evening by BBQing dinner and having homemade strawberry shortcakes for dessert. The kids had gone strawberry picking with their cousins just a few days prior, so it was the perfect dessert to make.

What a fun Homeschool Open House we had! I fully intend on doing something like again next year.

Ryan and Andrew Well-Checks

Ryan and Andrew had their 11 yr and 4 yr doctor checkups earlier in May. It had been a long time since we'd been there, so I was curious to see how they had grown....particularly Ryan!

Here are their stats:

RYAN

Height: 4 feet 7 inches (29%)

Weight: 77 lbs (45%)

The boy has grown! Ryan's height percentile has never been over 20%, so it was fun to see his height creeping up. (Two years ago his height percentile was 16%, and the year before is was 13%)

ANDREW

Height: 3 feet 4 inches (45%)

Weight: 37 lbs (55%)

Andrew is pretty average in his height and weight!

Everything with the boys checked out fine, except for Andrew's hearing. He failed his test, so they did a follow up test in the office that was not dependent on him having to listen to noises and raise his hand. He failed this one as well, so we were advised to see a specialist the following week. 

When they asked me if he ever seemed to have a hard time hearing us, I had to laugh. The boy doesn't listen, and he goes around shouting all the time. I wondered if he could actually have a hearing problem?? Thankfully he passed his in-depth hearing test with flying colors, so we now have confirmation that his "I didn't hear you" statements are based on selective hearing and not an actual issue with his ears.