Evaluation time!

I can't believe it is the end of the school year already! I took the boys in for their annual portfolio evaluation. This was Jacob's second and Josh's first. It went great!

Sorry I haven't been chatty lately. In Florida, we have to have the homeschooled kids evaluated one of 5 ways each year. I decided last year to try the portfolio evaluation, and I loved the woman we saw, so we scheduled it with her for today. So, I have spent the week trying to get their portfolios ready and prepare Joshua for what would happen. It's really not a big deal, but he needs a TON of preparation because of his autism.

Jacob is in second grade. He is doing math on an advanced 5th grade/average 6th grader level. As we were leaving he was doing multiplication in his head. No lie! Out of nowhere he tells her that 72 x 4 = 288. I am sooooo not mathematically oriented, so it's nutty to me that he is so advanced in that subject. LOL His phonics is a bit advanced as well (probably third grade) and she was totally impressed with a story he wrote and illustrated, because it had proper punctuation and such. LOL She even gave me the name of a book that shows us how to make our own binded books, because she thinks it would be great for him.

Joshua did well also. She said he is fine to move on to 1st grade next year. Yay! I was worried that I was going to have trouble showing what he had learned, but he willingly went and read a page from a book for her, and she said his reading is "phenomenal". He still doesn't really write, but she reiterated that was what is so good about the homeschooling - I can work at his pace and our goal for next year is to actually have him write on paper instead of on dry erase boards like we have been doing.

Whew! I'm so excited they are doing so well. I can relax a bit now. :) We are continuing through the summer only because I need to keep them on a schedule/routine. I learned my lesson last year! Maybe now I can actually find time to update this blog a bit more than I have been doing lately. :)