Assessment 2017--Little Princess

 

This darling lady is kind of an oldest child in the middle.  She's independent, a leader, curious, has a defined sense of self, is incredibly untidy, and . . . well . . . tattles too often.

Eh, I'm okay with some imperfection in my kids. :)

Math
Just this week she pulled out last year's math book and was looking it over wistfully.  "Mom," she sighed, "I miss math."

I've purposely held her back a little bit in her math work because I've heard of too many kids who took off in math so hard and so fast that eventually the math concepts went beyond the children's physical brain development.  Math became a horrible burden because even though the kids were really smart and really good at math, they simple hadn't grown into the necessary cognitive skills.  I just don't want the same to happen to my girl.

As it is, she's doing math at least a year ahead of her peer group, and I'm happy to supplement her with problem solving and puzzles to challenge her curious mind. 

This school year she completed Math Lessons for a Living Education 2 and set to work on Life of Fred Kidney and Liver.  I made her stop when the set theory introduced in Liver got to be too much for her.  She also needed some time to firm up her times tables.

Language Arts
Little Princess completed The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 2.   She flew through the reading skills (too easy for her) and learned a lot from the grammar and writing exercises.  She's a creative writer.  We didn't do much with spelling, but we did a little, and her spelling is improving with writing experience.

She's a voracious reader of simple chapter books.  Her favorites tend to feature mermaids, fairies, or baby animals with large eyes and sad backstories.  However, she did form a deep relationship with Sarah, Plain and Tall this year as she studied it through Reader's in Residence. 

She has a sensitive heart and a powerful sense of justice.  She listens avidly to our evening read alouds, and as she's the youngest of the 6 who formed our main read aloud group this year, she's been exposed to a lot of literature and ideas beyond her years.

She reads on her own by the hour, and I've learned that if I give her a chore or ask her for a favor, and she answers, "Just a second; I'm almost done," I know that it will not happen because she is too lost in her book to remember.  (We clash often over this.)

Religion
Little Princess turned 7 this year, so she started the 7-year-old challenge with The Book of Mormon.  She's read/listened to The Book of Mormon faithfully, so she'll have completed it well before her baptism this coming fall.  She recognizes the spirit of God in her heart, and she has a testimony that she is one of His precious children.

Other Awesome Stuff
Little Princess loves online art lessons--when she can do them alone.  She doesn't like keeping up with the group or having to pace herself with another person.  But she is happy, happy, happy to paint/draw/sculpt by the hour when she can be lost in her own world and doing her own thing.

For history she kept up with the big girls in Mystery of History volume 2.  I asked her to write one sentence for her daily narration after each lesson, but she often took careful notes and wrote whole paragraphs because the big girls were doing the same.

She has learned a great deal of ASL and Spanish through family lessons and the daily videos we've used. 

She's participated in all of our family art and music appreciation lessons.

She's performed with our homeschool dance troupe, given talks and musical performances in church, and participated in community talent shows.  She's poised and natural on stage, even if she is somewhat shy in new social situations.

She loves nature walks, Breakfast at the Park, helping in the garden, and taking pictures of natural scenes that strike her as beautiful.  She seems to be partial to how the sun shines through trees.

In General
She's kind of 7-going-on-21 in her determination to keep up with her sisters and be in charge of her life.  She's opinionated, bossy, dramatic, and really, really cute.

She knows how to apologize after an argument (I'm so impressed with this talent!).

She's not a morning person, but she gets up in the mornings as best she can.

She cannot keep her hands off technology . . . no matter what!!!  We are forever telling her to "put it down!" as she fiddles with someone's phone or a remote or computer . . . or whatever.

She asks lots of questions, and she listens for the answers.

She's doing very well.