End of the Year (Year 4)

Apologies for no post last week. Between the end of the school year chaos and coming down with a nasty cold, there was no way that I was getting anything more than the bare minimum done. But now we’re in full on summer holiday mode, and I’m finally feeling better.

This year seemed to go by incredibly quickly, probably because the kids were actually in school and we weren’t disrupted by lockdowns and home schooling. At the beginning of the year I was pleasantly surprised to see how much assessment work the teachers did to understand all of the gaps in learning. While my kids weren’t behind compared to the New Zealand curriculum expectations, they hadn’t made as many gains as they typically would have. I wasn’t surprised at all to learn this. I am not a teacher and did not feel qualified to fill that role in 2020 and 2021. With that being said - there still aren’t numerical grades. We get a report twice a year that shows where the kids’ learning is on each of New Zealand’s curriculum targets and where they should be based on their chronological age. For big projects (like public speaking) there will be a smiley face scale to indicate how well they did, but there is no emphasis put on this whatsoever.

Year 4 was the first year my son’s peers were divided into different math (or maths, if you’re not American) classes and left their home room for lessons. My son was placed in the intermediate group and spent the year working on more advanced multiplication, division, decimals, and fractions. He was introduced to the basic concepts of algebra and really got into solving math mystery word problems. I’ve been quite impressed with how much he’s learned this year. I remember learning some of the concepts he’s covered in 5th and 6th grade, though that was ages ago so the curriculum has definitely changed.

The readers he brings home now are chapter books that typically take two to five days to read. I very rarely have to assist with any words, and the one’s I do are genuinely difficult. (Think pseudonym or nauseous) His spelling words are more complex, and while I don’t think he’ll ever win a spelling bee, he has made a lot of progress this year. When he thinks about spelling as opposed to writing as quickly as possible, he does a decent job.

The coolest new academic development this year were the term-long inquiries he prepared. In Year 4 he was taught how to think critically about a subject, identify the important questions about that subject, do research on it (and properly site that research), and create both a written and oral presentation on it. A couple of the topics he worked on were the history of opera and Moa birds. In term 1 this project was a huge struggle for him, but by term 4, he was incredibly engaged and excited about the project. He couldn’t wait to show me his published report at the end of the year.

My daughter’s Year 3 experience was much better than last year. She’s got no trouble reading, and is currently on the hunt for the thickest non-fiction books she can find. (She was quite upset when I suggested she stay in the kids’ section of the library to look for books because those weren’t big enough for her. I’m going to have to tread carefully with that one as I don’t want her getting her hands on anything that’s horribly inappropriate for a seven year old. Any recommendations?) I’m still concerned about her math skills, but I’m pleasantly surprised that she’s started doing some multiplication near the end of the year.

So here’s to summer, hanging out at the beach, eating too much ice cream, and turning off the morning alarm. I think we’re all ready to relax!