 Welcome to the Waldeck Way. I'm Jessica. I'm Emily. I'm Kevin. In today's video is a homeschool show and tell. The homeschool show and tell is an open collaboration hosted by Abby from Rooted and Rest and Myself. Our goal when we started the homeschool show and tell two years ago now was to just show that there wasn't one right way to homeschool and we do that by bringing homeschoolers together from around the world and we all share our different takes or opinions or tricks and tips on different topics every single month. This month's topic is going to be year in reflections and record keeping. So we're just kind of wrapping the end of the homeschool year up all together. And for us, it seemed very fitting for all three of us to be in the video because our homeschool is all of us. We don't, it's not just one of us. It's all three of us, right? We're a family unit. We homeschool together. And so I thought it would be kind of fun to reflect on our homeschool year together as a family. So what I did is I came up with a few questions that I thought we would all answer and kind of reflect on our homeschool year together. And then I'm also going to be leaving a link in the description box that you're going to want to check out because it's going to be a playlist to all of the other people sharing their end of the year reflections and record keeping. Now I'm not going to be sharing our record keeping in this video because I have done in-depth videos of how we record keep. I keep a digital portfolio because we live in the state of Florida and that's something we have to do legally is do a portfolio. So I keep it digitally and I have details on all of that. I'll leave a link in the description box and I will link it up here at the eye in the sky so that you can read more about that and watch that video. All right, you guys, you ready to answer some questions? Totally. Okay. All right. So the first question is, Emily, how about you go first? What two or three words would you use to describe this past homeschool year? Probably fun, exciting, and awesome. I think that means we did a good job, babe. Yeah, I'll take that one to the bank. Okay, what about you? What two to three year words would you use to describe this past homeschool year? I think it was active and pretty exciting. I would agree with that. I am going to go for broke and like twist the rules a little bit and use compound words and I'm gonna say that it was interest-led because almost everything we did followed your interest and that it was laid back because in previous years we've been a little more high strong and it felt like we were laid back and okay with that this year and definitely fun, exciting, engaging, all of those things too. Oh, definitely. Yeah. All right. Next one. Emily, what is your most memorable moment from the past homeschool year? This one's gonna be a like a tiny moment. I think it's when we started journaling. Really? It was pretty fun when we started out and we were writing about what we were doing and just the small little moments. So of all of the things we did this past homeschool year, us journaling was your favorite? Well, that's awesome. She likes that one-on-one no matter what. She does like the one-on-one but we're going to make sure we do more of that if that was her favorite. Yeah, well, I thought I'd do pretty good with the STEM department, but... Oh, I think Daddy's jealous. You have to tell him that was a runner-up. Yeah. Yeah. There's only three of us. All right. What about you, babe? What was your most memorable moment from the homeschool year? Well, the whole thing was I really got to kick off my STEM and do everything that I wanted to do because I could just devote all myself and my time to it. But my most exciting was the big explosion. Are you talking about where it got everywhere? Yeah, everywhere. Where you guys did the elephant toothpaste and I got in your hair and on the ceiling and on the wall. Really? I think that might have been a memorable moment for me too, as we were cleaning stuff up from the ceilings and walls. A messy memorable moment. It was definitely messy. But did you guys have fun? Mentos and all that stuff outside was pretty cool, but the one that blew through the kitchen window and made the mess in the kitchen and the downstairs, that was pretty cool. I'm up for more. So my most memorable moment I think was our fellow trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. While we did some really, really cool stuff all year long, I think the look on all of our faces when we kind of like walk through and we're in the moment and you know something that we've done in our home school for the past four or five years kind of was physically brought to life before us. Yeah, it was kind of a thrill when y'all gave me that t-shirt and I was like no way, we're not. We're totally going to university. Plus, I mean it was our first day of school and what better way to have a memorable moment than your first day at school? I don't think any of my brick and mortar would compare to... Yeah, I don't think I've ever had a first day of school that was nearly as cool as that one. And not just for her, but for us too. Oh yeah, yeah, riding Hagrid's ride. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cast and spells. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was cool. Alright, Emily, what was one of the coolest things you learned this year? I think my coolest thing that I learned was human body. Where the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body and the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body. That was pretty fun. Like, weird but cool. It is actually kind of weird if you think about it, right? It's like opposite. Okay, I can see that. Yeah, we'll see. I've got the good angel and then the little devil. I don't know if that's left and right brain, but... Daddy, it's crazy. Alright, so what is the coolest thing you learned this year? I picked up quite a bit of stuff as we were going along. But one of the things that kind of was memorable was doing some of our science kits. And we were playing around with iodine and using plastic bags and other plastic items and stuff. And I did not know that... I understand molecules and speeds of molecules and stuff like that. But I didn't know that the iodine molecules could slip past the bag, like a Ziploc bag, and end up staining outside of the bag while still being inside the bag. It was pretty interesting. That was actually kind of like... The one thing that kind of amazed me about that experiment is that the little white tube plastic thing that was wrapped around kind of, that didn't get any color by the iodine. Some of it's completely resistant and some is just... Kind of mind blowing. Yeah, it was crazy. That was a really cool one. But that's why we like still. Yeah. Are we going to be voting now? Which parent's cooler? No one's cooler. For the record, it's me. How about it's a tie? Okay. We can be equally cool. Thank you. I think the coolest thing I learned this year, because you really know I'm a math geek, was when you were doing your multiplication times tables and you're like, Hey mom, look at this just like randomly. It was something I had never seen. And it's that all of the products, or most at least that we did up to, of the nine times tables, the answers add up to nine. So like nine times one is nine. Nine times two is 18 and one plus eight is nine. Like all of the products, even nine times ten, nine plus zero is still nine. I still haven't got your cheat. Oh, the nines? Okay. Explain this to me. These are your nine times tables. Nine times one, you have nine fingers left. Nine times two, this is your tens and this is your ones. So it's 18. Nine times three is 27. So like this side, yeah, nine times four is now 36. I'm going to have to work on that. That's like sign language. I don't have to work on that one. Nine times nine equals 81. Yeah. See the same thing. There's eight over here. This is your one. So anyway, there's all kinds of little tricks, but that's a trick I knew. I've been watching y'all do that when I've been trying to pick it up in the background and it's not working well for me. So when she just randomly was like, hey mom, look that all of the products, because she had written them out. Yeah. And it was like they all like 45, 54. Like all of the product answers, if you add them together equal nine still. And it was just really one of those like, okay moment. So I thought that was pretty cool. Okay. And my next question. What made you, what is either something you did or learned or just something in general that made you the most proud this homeschool year? I have to say my spelling has come very far and to get to where I am now in spelling, accomplishing. Accomplishing? Yes. Okay, accomplishing. Accomplishing all of the words that I have is me very proud. So the fact that you're able to spell more independently is what you're the most proud of? Yes. Why? I don't know. I'm pretty impressed with your cursive writing. So is that the thing you would be the most proud of this homeschool year? It's torn. It's like partly the math. Yes. Because she's learned to somewhat enjoy it at least or see the real world and she doesn't love it but she doesn't just like it anymore either. She has come so far and then in our STEM we're doing math and we're doing word problems and measurements and time and decimals and conversions and we're doing stuff down there with our science projects. And you've just kind of seen her blossom with math. With math but watching her going through the house while I'm doing my other chores or whatever I'm doing at the time and watching her do her cursive writing which she was always okay at writing and she would try to write and do her stories and all that. But when she found out how beautiful cursive can be it's like she gave up on anything else other than cursive. And honestly her cursive blows her print out of the water. Yeah. I mean. I'm glad she didn't get that from me. And in all seriousness because your writing is so illegible. Yeah. That was a concern of yours was writing because you wanted to make sure that she didn't have to. I can draw a picture on a grain of rice. I can't write nothing that's not a mix of a print and a cursive and a capital and lowercase and yeah. So that was something that was important to you. I was worried about that but she's definitely picked up from you which I'm pretty happy about. And I think the thing that I it's funny because it's kind of all falls into the same category but I think the thing that I'm the most proud of this homeschool year has been your writing. And I don't mean like your handwriting. I mean like your actual you've you found your writer's voice. You always in years past would either because you didn't want to physically write it or because you didn't know how to spell it or you know maybe you didn't like the way your print looks. I'm not sure but you would kind of take the easy way out. You would pick the shortest word and write the shortest sentence that you possibly could for everything. And I have seen you blossom as a writer this year from our journaling and our poetry adventures and your story writing. I mean even in your free time you've been writing stories and they're detailed and long and not just that I think that long is important but I see you developing that in a writer voice and her creative writing has just just blossomed so much that it makes me very proud. Everything's starting to match her vocabulary which is all based on her literary skills. She is so well read. Her writing is kind of at the level of... Everything's catching up and everything's coming together so it's pretty cool. I agree. Okay Emily what is something that you wish we had done more of this year in our homeschool? I'd like to see us more in the kitchen because you remember when I used to help dad in cooking? And you can help in meat time. And you're right because we used to do a lot of baking together too and while we did some over the holidays. But we're still not really baking as much. That was probably really the most baking that we did was during the holidays. We didn't do a lot otherwise. I think we've been more active outside and going. Well we have because our one thing this year was field trips remember and so we've made sure that we've done a lot of those. The opportunity before was we were almost cornered or pushed into being in the house. We were trying to make the best of a bad situation by including her in something basic like cooking dinner or baking because we were stuck here. Whereas now not that baking and cooking isn't great because it is and we will definitely do more of it. We're getting out because we can. I love the outdoors too. You wish we were doing more of the other. Yeah I like to bake and cook sometimes. And that's okay. Yeah we love trying to squeeze everything into one day. We do. If only there was more than 24 hours. Okay what about you? What is something that you wish we had done more of this homeschool year? Standard answer for all the time is more art. More stem. Because it's getting better and better but I'm not done yet. I don't know. I was going to say but you saying that isn't because we didn't do a lot of it. It's because you just love it so much you could always do more. I'm happy and I'm excited to see where we've come from. Where we are right now but I have the anticipation of what's left to do. What's to come. Because now it's like I can sit and watch her and I can answer questions when it gets a little stuff but other than that mostly it's her hands in there getting it done and so I can relax a little bit enjoy it a little bit more. I'm not performing. I'm actually participating or watching. It's no longer us being like dictators of the journey where just get to be side by side on the journey with her. And I'm waiting for her to just take the lead and just run with it and she has on so many things. Agreed. So I think the thing that I wish we had done more of this year is probably that she took off and that's 100% my fault but she took off so quickly this year. Like every book that I was like I bought this for a read-aloud next thing I knew she had read half of it already and I'm like okay and I love that. I totally love that. But I think it's just an adjustment for me because for so many years 100% and then 90% it's like every year while I still do read-aloud every year because she's reading more and more on her own. Yeah but I've also noticed that you have read maybe not orally to her but you're picking up back where you're able to read your book. Exactly. I mean I am still reading as much. I'm just reading for myself. She's reading on her, you're reading on yours. We read parallel. Oh yeah like parallel lines. Parallel lines are lines that never cross. Yeah like that. Side by side reading our own books individually. But we cross though because typically you know our legs are on top of each other. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. True. So I guess we're not really parallel lines. Not quite. Okay so on that same note what is something Emily that you wish we had done less of? Maybe. And not because you don't like it just because it's probably your least favorite but you're getting so good at it and it applies to everything. It's just not her favorite and if she could just push math away and have more time for reading and writing I think she would willingly do that. Maybe if I only had to do like a segment of school of math like just a little bit. Yeah I like to, I love doing math with dad because he explains it in a way. I love that you're trying really hard not to hurt mommy's feelings like I love doing math with dad. You're not my favorite person doing math with mom. That's how I do math with you too because mama tried to help me with my math. Okay in my defense in case you're watching this and you're like wait what I am very very good at math. Like it comes super natural to me and so breaking it down to teach it to other people is apparently something I find challenging so we outsource dad helps and then we outsource to other places right and then mom just plays the math games with you for the most part. It's not that you're terrible mom because you're super great It's just that you can't explain it. I'm just not the best math teacher. You just can't. Well no because I get it so quick and I'm like I don't understand why y'all don't understand this. Like I just don't, I don't understand it. I get math very well. I do very well with math. When I was in college and I was working through some of my stuff that was still above me and I wasn't getting and I would ask you and that didn't work out too well so Emily and I came to the conclusion we're on our own on that one. Or Khan Academy. We watched a lot of Khan Academy. They rock. No we speak the same language on that. Y'all really do though. So that was kind of lucky that you were able to come home and help as the math got harder. So I'm going to answer first before you just because I can. I think something I wish we had done less of them by we I don't mean you, I mean me is worrying and stressing and... How do you mean? Well because as a homeschool mom I find that as much as I try not to have freak out moments I still have freak out moments and worrying that she's behind even though I know in my heart there's no such thing as behind and I preach there's no such thing as behind but I'm human and so there's still those moments where I'm like beating my head against the wall because I'm like home. Second guessing. Second guessing and being insecure with either my choices or my decision and not trusting the process and so while I feel like every year I do a little less I still obviously wish I had done even less of that so I think as far as homeschooling goes that would be the one thing I wish I had done less of because if I wasn't worrying and stressing and second guessing and feeling insecure then I personally feel like I would have enjoyed our homeschool year even more and Emily probably would have too because she would have had a less worried and stressed out mom and somebody who wasn't like you know freaking out that she didn't know whatever it was I can't even think of an instance right this moment but you know what I mean? No I have to agree because I mean we've watched it and especially coming from break and mortar knowing nothing about homeschooling starting the journey as just we'll do a little bit and see how it rolls and then getting more and more invested in it and then second guessing at the end of the school year going okay did you know we're finishing up did we hit all of our goals how do you know that you really did good or if you're not doing well who's there to tell you and so you turn in your portfolios you talk to people you do a little bit of research interesting the process can be hard especially when you homeschool the way we homeschool right because we don't necessarily like oh we completed 180 lessons we learned everything we need to learn like because we follow her lead and we don't do the workbooks all the way from cover to cover and we dabble in things and it makes it I mean it doesn't make it more difficult but sometimes you question yourself because you're like am I doing what's right and I would sit here and say at the end of this homeschool year we 100% did what's right and I'm glad we did it that way but it doesn't mean that we're not human and that those doubts don't sneak in it's hard to just trust the journey but you know I think it's hard to trust the journey even if you homeschool with like one standard curriculum and you're questioning is this the right fit for my child is there a better one out there or what if it is a curriculum that it just does not work for you whether it's a good curriculum or a bad curriculum for you and yours how do you even know that if it's you're banging your head against the wall both of you are like just throwing your hands up you can't get the concepts and you're in the middle of it it's like okay what do you do you stop you drop it and you step back or you try to change things and you know modify it to work for you because maybe the funds aren't there to buy something else I mean there's there's tons of different things I mean it's just I think insecurity is natural and then obviously I just wish that there was less of it but it's I find that all the things that I was concerned about especially being on the outside going to work every day and coming home and wanting proof wanting to see the results I know for real I know you were like let me see paper and you know this is my child I want my child to have everything unscrew her cap and dump it in and make sure she's got it all and I don't want to miss anything then I'm worried you know are we catching it are we doing it is it working and then to watch especially this year how she kind of blossomed like I said she to to the ball ran with it with her writing with her cursive with her and you were this year was like your first yeah like you were here and present and not that you weren't present before you weren't here but like you took part in so much more this year you were as present as I was so I think you got to see more and experience more and kind of see that like what we're doing does work and it's what's best for her and it makes it more fun for all of us and I think it makes us all want to homeschool because we you know we do it together I would change a thing I wouldn't either and I love that daddy's home because now we can homeschool as a family as a family yes okay so our one thing this year in case you don't know what I'm talking about we choose one kind of habit every year that we want to really focus on our one thing we want to make a priority in the past we've done read alouds game schooling art poetry tea times but our one thing this year was field trips because last year we didn't get to do hardly any so would you guys say that we accomplished that did we meet our goal did we do a ton of our one thing was field trips a successful one thing this year yes but I'm not done I agree there's still a lot of the year left and I'm not stopping I agree with that there's still a lot of places to explore and we've only explored like a very very small percentage the far farthest I think we've gone is probably Kentucky yes that's probably true we haven't gone any further yet so I'm excited when we get out there and just see the world and see where our car and mind and family takes us okay well because our one thing this year was field trips what was your favorite field trip this year Emily the field trip when we went with Ellie okay to which I think it was remember the one with the big the big giant airplane oh so one of the state parks so that would have been Washington Oaks Guard yeah right Washington Oaks Guard and State Park and there were tons of fields and we ran in all of them trying to catch butterflies so that state park was your favorite field trip of the year that was probably my favorite field trip that we have done so far with okay what about like total was that your favorite one of the entire home school year actually this might be the crazy one but I think I also like the one where we did can be space center and the air show and universal that wasn't one field trip though that just so okay so we did was it two weeks yeah and it was like back to back to back we did Kennedy Space Center universal the Sanford Space Air Space Show we were doing some space stuff and so yeah and then that happened to come we were doing that and then the air show came around and I try every year to go to the air show and then we had already scheduled Smoky Mountains and Mammoth as our national parks for last year and then we had trains end up at universal so we went to Kennedy then we went to universal then we left and went to the air show and then we came home switched everything up repack and then we headed out of state to the we went to Mammoth cave and then Smoky Mountains yes so she's like that's one big field trip one big one it was like grocery shopping we just it was nothing it was like two weeks it was definitely crazy okay babe what was your favorite field trip this year yeah that one okay we pick one like which one of the things that we did I'm gonna say Mammoth I'm gonna say Mammoth but definitely not concrete no no that wasn't we didn't do concrete this year that was last year yeah I know concrete is your least favorite national park yeah it's my least favorite national park so far but it makes sense kind of why it's called Mammoth cave it was very big there's a little hole that's like it was huge okay so obviously my top would be the Wizarding World of Harry Potter like that was my most memorable moment that was my favorite field trip yeah I get to say that it was just really awesome but if I had to pick like a second one just because that was also my most memorable moment I would say I think Kennedy Space Center because we had spent so many months studying space I mean don't remember I love the national parks but we had spent so many months studying space so to be able to like go and see so much of the things that we had studied in person and you know and the vastness of those things like to literally be standing under one of the shuttles and I just thought it was a really cool experience I don't know how it had a play place which was one of my favorites but it wasn't just that I liked how you kind of saw so we can just save money and take her to the park yeah but you're kind of learning what it was like drive a lot so it seems like we're going somewhere far we get in at the same park every day to be fine that's funny alright so basically I think we're saying that we had a great homeschool year right I mean overall if we're reflecting on the homeschool year it was a really good one the best one I think she's right I think this is probably our best year yet I feel like every year gets better I feel like every year gets better and better I think that because I'm getting older so I'm allowed to do bigger things and that's what makes it better you mean like hahaha she was tall enough to go on Velosa coaster at Universal recently and that is something that they have not quit talking about at all we're still working on it I'm not getting on that just for the record you guys I am not getting on that roller coaster roller coaster because you cannot sell that to me as a homeschool experience so I'm just going to keep my feet on the ground there's this one oh yeah yeah yeah there's like a one tall part and then you get all the way to the top and you can see the whole entire Islands of Venture down below you it's so cool no I'm not writing that not happening we love roller coasters yes y'all do love them I like baby roller coasters Haggers is as wild and crazy as it gets for me but that is really nothing to do with our homeschool year other than to say that we had a lot of fun we went on tons of field trips adventures and that we really did enjoy it and I do agree this was our best homeschool year yet they keep getting better and better so yes Kevin we can do better we'll do better next year thank you we hope you guys had a wonderful homeschool year too I would love it if you would tell us in the comments maybe your answers to a few of our questions what were your most memorable moments from your homeschool year or what's something you wish you had done more of or something you wish you had done less of I cannot wait to read what you guys have to say