Year Four -- In the Books

I'm so excited, because waiting for me on my doorstep early this afternoon was a package from Blurb.com.  It was our most recent Homeschool Portfolio Assessment all assembled into a fantastic book as a result of keeping this blog.  This year I splurged a bit -- with a hardback cover, higher quality paper, and some larger photo layouts.  I must say, it looks great.

I finished a little early this year as opposed to other years.  West Virginia requires a homeschool notification and portfolio to be submitted in June.  Ohio was very open-ended on their dates, so I usually waited until later in the summer to complete the assessment.  We have our appointment scheduled with our evaluator in a little less than two weeks.

As I've said before, this is definitely not all we do in a year.  Many real life day-to-day activities and learning experiences do not make it onto this blog.  But, the goal of the assessment is to give a snapshot into a child's learning and academic progress.  I feel that what I post on this blog does that adequately for both my children.  It is easy to manage and fun to review in order to see all that has been accomplished.  I highly recommend it!

Once again I will mention that just because I have a completed book, and we have an assessment scheduled on the calendar, doesn't mean our learning ceases for a few months.  To me, learning is an environment.  It doesn't just happen during certain hours of the day or during certain months of the year.  Our activities may slow down some in the summer months, but our educating will continue.  There is always something more to be learned!