Week 31 ~ Anne Finishes 8th Grade

Anne decided that she wanted to take on a huge challenge this year. She wanted to complete 8th and 9th grade on top of a very rigorous dance schedule. We had multiple reasons, but the main one was she wanted to graduate at 17 and at the same time as her brother. So we decided to let her try as long as her emotional well being or our educational standards didn't suffer. Today, she completed all of her 8th grade subjects with 144 hours or more. I am not going to go into huge details about her courses, because it doesn't matter from a transcript point of view. We decided in the first few weeks of the school year that history was boring her, because it was a repeat of what she had already learned and that she would just have to do it again in high school. So, we moved the course to high school and made sure that some of the material was new to her. I will talk about that course when she completes it and it is posted in her high school transcript.

8th Grade Courses ~

• English 8 ~ This course was a balanced mix of grammar, spelling review, writing styles, tons of poetry, the first four Harry Potter books, six literature-based movies and a host of family read aloud books. Her favorite activities were memorizing And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou; reading Harry Potter books; seeing the movie, To Kill A Mockingbird; and saying goodbye to the last formal spelling program she ever will have to do in school...I promise. 
• Math 8 ~ Math this year consisted of filling in gaps and correcting trouble areas. She used parts of the Life of Fred series: No Nonsense Algebra; lots of workbooks (Spectrum 8th grade being her favorite); and about half of the book, Everything You Need to Ace Math. She is moving on, ready for a solid year of Algebra with Teaching Textbooks next year.
• Home Economics ~ Anne had a fantastic year of home economics. As the year evolved, she pursued cooking, baking, sewing. painting, lessons in organizing a special needs family, gardening and how to make travel plans. Her favorite things were learning how to refinish furniture, painting her entire bedroom suite, becoming very efficient at sewing pointe shoes, and sewing tiny alterations to costumes (pictures to follow of her room at the end).
• Performing Arts ~ She completed 180 hours of performing arts (dance classes) this year. Her hours for this course only reflect the preparation for The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Fringe Festival and The Winter Showcase. I decided to put the actual performances in 9th grade and create a half-credit of performing arts so they show up on her high school transcript.
• Physical Education ~ Anne completed 180 hours of physical education credit, which was mostly dance classes that were not working towards a show; Cecchetti ballet; pointe, swimming and last summer's dance intensive. Her dance classes included ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, salsa, West Coast Swing and hip hop.

Anne's home economics accomplishments this week.

Rose Water Bread

She will be working on completing as many 9th grade courses as possible over the next six weeks.

Blessings, Dawn