Assessment 2020-21: Little Princess

 

Here is my feisty, opinionated, sensitive, charming, nosy, delightful Little Princess.

Here is the academic plan we made last August.

Little Princess--6th grade:

Colloquium:

     Astronomy, Master Books

     Modern World and American History through Literature, Beautiful Feet Books

     Ancient History, Mystery of History

Language Arts and Literature Level 6, The Good and the Beautiful

Math 7/6, Saxon

Photography, Oak Meadow

Chinese, Duolingo; Book of Mormon in Chinese

Read a lot of library books.

Book of Mormon

 

Notice there is no plan for working full time as a childcare provider.  That's because we had no idea how our school life would change during the 2020-21 school year.

We soldiered through the plan as written when there were first 1 then 2 toddlers.  When we added both an infant and another toddler to the mix, the plan broke down, and we had to make some changes--namely dropping some of these studies and replacing them with the practical skill development that comes with caring for small children:  Little Princess learned about infant/toddler nutrition, patience, voice modulation, scheduling, child development, problem-solving, first aid and safety, and many other harder to name skills.

Colloquium broke down utterly by the end of the first semester.  

 

Astronomy:

We did complete at least 1/3 of the astronomy readings, and we did some really enjoyable night sky observations.  These studies piqued a true interest in astronomy for Little Princess, and even though I did not lead any further formal studies, she spent hours on the NASA website, read several dozen library books about astronomy, famous women scientists, and astronauts, and got out the telescope on her own when opportunity allowed.  Little Princess has expressed a deep desire to work for NASA eventually.

Modern World and American History:

We spent the first semester actually following the lessons as outlined in the Beautiful Feet Teacher Guide--including research, discussions, and essays.  I put the teacher guide away the second semester and moved the literature selections to Bedtime Read Aloud.  Some of the readings were a little hard on our younger kids, but they were powerful for us all.  Between what I knew personally about modern history, what we could look up as we read, and the literature itself, I feel that we completed a thought-provoking, mind-expanding history experience.

Ancient History:

The Mystery of History books are so interesting, but the first one is so, so, so basic!  We used it as a spine to prompt deeper lessons with research and extra reading during the first semester . . . and then we dropped it completely . . . somewhere after Isaiah but before the rise of Athens and Sparta.

Little Princess completed The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts 6 completely and totally--language arts, art, and geography.  She hated the art projects, loved the geography maps, and tolerated the essay writing exercises.  Though she struggled to complete the essays, she wrote them very, very well.  I read them over with a sense of astonishment at my girl's ability to organize her thoughts into sensible writing.  She put in effort well above the described requirements and produced work worth saving (the biggest project was an autobiographical essay--with pictures).

Little Princess completed all of Saxon Math 7/6.  She had a few bones to pick with the textbook as the year went along, but she mastered the content.  (More on this in the curriculum choices post to come.)

 

Photography proved to be discouraging for this girl of mine.  She has two older sisters who take gorgeous pictures almost without thinking.  Little Princess wants this skill, but she has to work at it, and as she has a middle child's tendency to compare herself unfavorably with others, it was very easy to let this subject fall by the wayside.  Because she replaced it with studying astronomy and playing the ukelele and baking and child care, I didn't fuss.

Little Princess loves languages.  Not only did she faithfully study Chinese all year long, she added Portuguese to her study schedule.  Just this summer, she decided to dip her toes in Swahili as well.  Her main study tool has been a free account with Duolingo.

Using her Chinese Book of Mormon as well as a Doctrine and Covenants study guide, Little Princess has faithfully maintained a personal devotional time each day.  She has expressed a deep love for Jesus Christ and a testimony of His restored gospel.

She's a voracious reader.  She signs into the family library account (it's easier than letting each kid have his/her own card) and reserves dozens of books at a time.  She is very sensitive to clean content, and we have frequent discussions about our shared woes of putting away books that "just don't feel right to read."  She prefers realistic fiction over fantasy, but she'll read some dragon books in order to be able to share experiences with Mister Man.

Because I switched Academy from a separate school time to meal times, Little Princess was present and participated in many of our readings and discussions.  She is thoroughly fascinated with geography and nature studies, so even though the picture books were technically below her study level, they included many facts and ideas appropriate for all ages and often inspired her to further personal study which she would share with her siblings.

Little Princess is a born researcher.  She loves to look things up.  She also loves to share information--I think she's a social enough learner that I'm going to have to find classes with other students for her as she progresses in her education.

I know of other kids her age who worked full time while keeping up with studies . . . but they're heroic figures from history.  Here is a regular kid in our modern age balancing full-time work with full-time school at age 11.

I find I'm rather impressed!