Portfolio Time!

Warning: This is a brag post. If you're not in the mood, skip it! I had tough day with the little guys and a stomach bug scare. Everyone's OK, but I was a bit frazzled. So I decided to work on my portfolio review tonight because it always makes me feel better.

Yes! It's almost time for my home school portfolio review! I would have thought this would be incredibly stressful and my least favorite thing about home schooling.

It would be except: 1. I have the best home school reviewer in the world (and no, she has no idea about this blog) and 2. Once I start looking back on all the cool stuff we've done, I get really jazzed up: Hey! We're LEARNING here! What else can we do?
1 + 2 = 3: The portfolio review is a big brag fest and the reviewer is excited and encouraging.

The only down side is the time it takes to write out all the "materials utilized" and "concepts completed." For example, this school year so far, in science, Mxyl has used: Lego Mindstorm NXT robotics kit, computer, Popular Science and Science Illustrated, Bill Nye videos and books, Magic School Bus videos, models,books and computer games, salt, borax, and other chemicals, periodic table, wire, lamp hardware, household wiring, library books and other videos, websites, experiment books, zoo, Boy Scouts, microscope, binoculars, magnifying glasses, flower bulbs and plants, pets, parks, wild animals, APOD, Snap Circuits, public works, nature walks, found objects, star charts, cooking (and then we run out of space) and he learned the concepts:Robotics, programming, making circuits, electricity (static and current), basic household wiring, creating a lamp, amps, volts, watts,energy, alternative sources of energy, pollution, ecology, endangered species, habitats, food web, domestication of animals, simple machines, power, force, friction, work, air pressure, crystallization patterns, salt, hypertonic, isotonic, hypotonic (review of cells and human body systems), DNA, genetics, cybernetics, periodic table, elements, reactions, atomic models, creating and maintaining our museum(and we are out of space in this little rectangle, too).

It's all in tiny type because there 6 subjects on the first page of the form! How are you supposed to squish it all in? But it's fun to try!

It's also fun to bring in some of the stuff we've done. I'll bring Mxyl's latest robot as his science example, and some of the Egyptian stuff, the ribbons from the gingerbread houses, and lots and lots of pictures. This year I will have some special extras: an article in the latest Faith and Family featuring our Plutarch Party, and possibly a column by the excellent Kate Tsubata in the Washington Times about our home school. I don't know if it will be out in time. When they come out on the net, I'll link to them.