Annual Homeschool Review for CLAA Parents

Reflection

Can you clearly distinguish, in your own planning and daily schedule, between classical Catholic studies and modern academic requirements? Which has been receiving more of your time and attention this past year?
Have you treated modern academic requirements as something to be completed efficiently, or have they gradually expanded to dominate your child’s school day?
When you evaluate whether your child had a good school year, what criteria do you actually use? Do those criteria reflect the Academy’s priorities?

Things to Do

Review your child’s schedule from the past year. List the subjects studied and sort them honestly into two columns: classical Catholic formation and modern academic requirements. Does the balance reflect your stated priorities?
Identify one area where modern requirements crowded out classical study. What specific change will you make to your schedule in the fall to correct this?

Reflection

Does your child complete assigned work consistently, with minimal prompting? If not, at what points does supervision break down?
Is your child developing genuine independence in study — following written instructions, managing time, persevering through difficulty — or is progress still dependent on your constant presence?
Are the habits appropriate to your child’s grade level now in place: sitting attentively, completing work carefully, accepting correction calmly? If not, which habits are still missing?
Has your child learned that accuracy and care are expressions of intellectual honesty, not optional refinements?

Things to Do

Choose one habit that has been consistently weak this year. Name it specifically. What will you require differently starting in September, and how will you hold to that expectation?
If your child is in grades 7–12, identify whether he or she is capable of a full day’s work without direct supervision. If not, what steps will you take this summer to begin that transition?

Reflection

Have classical subjects — Latin, logic, philosophy, theology, sacred Scripture — been treated as serious academic labor this year, or as secondary and skippable when time ran short?
Has your child encountered the faith this year through disciplined study of the Catechism and sacred history, or primarily through devotional activities alone?
For children in grades 8 and above: has formal composition been treated as disciplined communication requiring structure and clarity, or as informal self-expression?
Has mathematical study been pursued with mastery and understanding, or merely with procedural completion of problems?

Things to Do

Review the classical subjects your child studied this year. Were any consistently skipped, shortened, or treated as optional? Name them. What will you do this summer to address the gap before fall?
If Latin has been neglected, identify a realistic daily time for it in the fall schedule and commit to it now, before the year begins.

Reflection

Have you functioned this year as the governing authority of your child’s education, or have you allowed the child’s preferences, resistance, or moods to determine what gets done?
Have you communicated clear and consistent expectations, or have standards shifted depending on the day, the subject, or your own energy?
For parents of secondary students: have you made the successful transition from daily instructor to overseer and guide, or are you still managing your high schooler’s work moment by moment?
Have you been honest with yourself about areas where your child is behind, or have you avoided the acknowledgment to protect peace in the household?

Things to Do

Write down, briefly, what you expect of your child as a student in the coming year: in terms of independence, quality of work, and daily consistency. Compare this to what you actually required last year. Where is the gap?
If you have been avoiding a conversation with your child about academic deficiency or weak habits, have it this summer — plainly and without drama — so the fall begins with shared, honest expectations.

Reflection

Is your child genuinely ready for the grade level he or she will enter in the fall, based on actual mastery — not simply the passage of time?
For students approaching secondary studies (grades 8–9): does your child understand that the high school transcript is a permanent record, and that the work done in those years carries lasting consequences?
For students in grades 9–12: is your child pursuing a course of study more rigorous than the modern minimum, as the freedom of homeschooling makes possible and obligatory?
Looking at the whole of this past year honestly: has your child grown in intellectual discipline, or merely accumulated completed assignments?

Things to Do

Identify any subject in which your child has moved forward without genuine mastery. Name it specifically. What will you do this summer — through review, catch-up work, or tutoring — to address it before fall?
For secondary students: review the high school transcript as it stands. Is it an honest and complete record of serious work? If not, what needs to be corrected or strengthened going forward?
State in writing the one thing you most need to change as the governing authority of your child’s education before September. Keep it specific, keep it honest, and return to it at the beginning of the new school year.

If you’d like to discuss your self-evaluation, please contact me.

Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy