Assessment 2024-25: Lola

 

Lola is a power unto herself!

There's just something about this tiny girl (10 1/2 years old, 64 lbs, 4'3") that defies expression.

But she expresses herself as she sees fit, when she sees fit.

There was that day she couldn't find matching shoes, so she wore one snow boot and one sandal to dance practice.

There's the fact that she wears pajama pants under her church dresses so that she's warmer at church and faster to get changed after church.

There's the fact that she frequently runs around on hands and feet--so quickly that she's just a blur going past.  

There's the fact that her favorite outfit is a silver sequined skirt and . . . whatever t-shirt is closest to hand, whether it be clean or not.

She's her very own self.

And I have to admit (when I'm not stumped for how to get her to cooperate) that I rather admire my youngest daughter.

Math

Lola finished Teaching Textbooks Math 3 for the second time this past school year.  Repeating it was so good for her!  I cannot say she's mastered memorizing the multiplication table, but she understands it.  And she understands a lot more about working with numbers that she did not understand after finishing it the first time.

She said, "Doing it again made me even madder."

"About math?  Do you understand it more?" I asked.

"I don't know!  Just don't make me do it again!"

I don't plan to.

I have hope that she'll do just fine moving on in the coming year.

Morning Meeting

Lola was a semi-active participant in all of our Morning Meetings.  She occasionally deigned to read, sing, answer questions, and practice leading music in 3/4, 4/4, and 2/4 time.  She rarely volunteered any insights, and even though we practiced memorizing scripture, I know for a fact, the words didn't stick.

If it weren't for occasional flashes of thoughtful commentary that she shares infrequently (and almost never during Morning Meeting), I'd despair of any sort of religious education for this daughter of mine.

But it does happen . . . just enough to keep the despair at bay.

Evening Reading

Lola loves, loves, loves evening reading!  She rarely seems attentive, but she's the most likely of all of the kids to ask about reading and look forward to it at the end of the day.  I don't know how much of the books we read actually sticks with her, but she definitely has a list of favorites and is vocal in asking for them to be reread!

American Rhythm

Lola danced in my Stripes class this past year.  She's not a natural dancer, and she's not a cooperative dancer, but she attends the practices, and she performs in the shows.  She never smiles on stage. 🤣  But she gets away with it all because she's small and cute.  The audience members love her.  She is growing in her ability to reach out to the elderly, offering brief thanks and (every once in a while) a smile.

What she is a natural at is gymnastics.  If there's a place for her to turn a cartwheel or do something impressive involving flipping or balancing, she's one to call on!

Everything Else

I based our Kid School time on The Peaceful Press Playful Pioneers 2.  

And we followed it beautifully for a month, then we simplified in the second month, then we simplified further for the rest of the year.  Ultimately, we followed the history reading with pretty good faith. 

We did quite a few written narrations to add some power to our daily oral narrations.

Then we added Shakespeare Stories for a little bit of fun.

     *King Lear

     *Twelfth Night

     *The Taming of the Shrew

I needed history to be less literature-based and more straight-forward for my crew so we made our way all the way through The Story of Science: Newton in the Middle.  In the spring semester, we added brief lessons from The Golden Book of Natural History. 

As with history, we did daily oral narrations and occasional written narrations.

As part of the Playful Pioneers 2 plan, we memorized all 50 states and capitals over the course of the school year.  Lola did not master them, but she became familiar with them.

A few times we did Rod and Staff grammar lessons from the Level 2 book.

When we got adventurous, we turned to  Under the Home for enrichment. We explored 

     *Art Appreciation

     *Studio Art  (we did one or two Art for Kids Hub lessons, too)

     *Geography

     *Music Appreciation

For a couple of months, we did a great job heading out for weekly hikes. Then we shifted to working on Couch to5K training.  Lola likes hiking but clearly thinks running is a waste of time.  I think she ran twice with us, then she moved on to communing with the wildlife of the various parks.  I've written before, and I'm writing again, she's quite the animal whisperer

Back in the late summer, she participated in our 5 week homeschool soccer "league."  Lola loves to attend practice and participate in the scrimmages.  She says, "It's fun!"

On Her Own

Lola loves dragons.  She reads about them.  She draws them.  She makes up play sequences about them.  She gets her siblings to read to her about them.

She is an artist.  She's always creating something.  Drawing is definitely a favorite, but so is using hot glue and cardboard to build playhouses, sculptures, even costumes (I remember a set of dinosaur feet that amazed me!).

She's wiggly but focused.  

And she carries art supplies with her everywhere she goes.

Looking Forward

Lola will complete the year ahead as a mixed 4th/5th grade year.  She became a true reader this past year, and I have hope that this will bring her ongoing joy and increase her ability to self-educate . . . because I'm pretty sure that self-education is the only kind of education that's ever going to matter to her!