I'm curious what others are doing during the summer. Do you 1) shut down, do you 2) keep up with math facts and reading, do you 3) do fun stuff like camps and projects OR do you 4) keep going all year round?
This year, we are doing a combination of 2, 3 and 4.
My #2 - My first and third graders are struggling with fact memorization right now. The third grader is definitely a right-brain learner, so memorizing facts is not an easy task for her. We've adapted our method to her needs and we are seeing much progress. One of the things that has helped is Times Alive by City Creek Press. Homeschoolbuyersco-op.org is offering 50% off right now, so we decided to try it. It's been a great help, but she really needs more work. The first grader is just resistant :-). They will also have some assigned reading and read alouds this summer.
My #3 - For fun, I'm hosting a Writing Club for Reluctant Boy Writers, some Engineering Camps and some AHG Badge clinics (Space Explorer, History's Canvas, Our Feathered Friends, Dawn of our Country and Archery). My summer is filling up! We'll also do Catholic VBS, Schoenstatt Camp for Girls, Boy Scouts Camp, our church's family camp and a couple of camping trips with the family.
My #4 - I will be still teaching Latin (Lingua Latina is our chosen curriculum), via Skype to my group of middle-schoolers at least once a week, at their request. One of my young gents will be out of the country and plans to participate, taking his mom's iPad2 to Skype with us while he's gone an entire month. He cracks me up because he was deeply disappointed we were going from 3x a week to 1x a week. Love that love-of-learning!
So here's my bleg - what will you do this summer? Your comments will be helpful for me to share with the group at the Beginning Homeschooling talk at MCHEC. Thanks in advance!
4 comments:
We are also doing a combination of 2, 3, and 4. There are some day camp opportunities too good to pass up. Maintenance for violin, piano, and ballet. One will be in a production of The Music Man. Family camping, vision exams, allergy testing will squeeze in there too. If this summer is as hot and humid as last, we will stay in the a/c and keep schooling so we can take more time off when the weather cools off and the mosquitoes die!
Sorry this is so long...you asked for plans :)
Personally, I’d like to do #1 and have the kids do 2,3,4. Can I suggest a #5? Things I’ve always wanted to teach them but can’t seem to squeeze in during the school year? (Mommy it’s a Renoir!, more music, etc.)
Seriously though, it totally depends on the year and how much more is being thrown in. Need to be realistic. Last year I planned to do a lot and with moving and morning sickness…school did NOT happen.
My plan this year is to work on math and reading every… single… day. I say every day because I find it’s easier to keep on a routine that way. (And really, this should take no more than 45 minutes for each child – a couple hours for me). My kids will do math every day until they finish this year’s books (2-6 weeks depending on the child…guess that’s what happens with a long drug out move and a new baby ). Once they finish this year’s books they will start next year’s and will be able to skip a number of lessons in the beginning because there is no need for review. Once they are in the new book I will allow them to drop to 2-3 lessons per week. For the 2 that I am still teaching intensive phonics/reading I will have them do SOMETHING every day all summer. That might mean something as small as flash cards with a sibling or as long as a complete lesson with me. For the ones that already read well they are required to read every day anyway. Ideally, I would add in some more language arts by the way of spelling and punctuation (a few need extra help there) – we’ll see. Trying to make that into a daily journal “assignment”. Maybe they will journal M,T,W and I will “pick apart” one day’s journal (maybe even one of their choosing) for them to rewrite on TH. If my kids weren’t already behind in their math books I would do some fun group work with Singapore math word problems or something like that.
My older kids and I want to get in the habit of attending daily Mass as well – something we found a hard time doing more than once a week during the school year. (Bonus…Mass is 7 minutes away).
We will continue with quilt camp as well. I want summer to be more carefree and relaxing for us all. Just like all families I have a mix of kids who want to be on the go more and some who want to stay home all the time (I’d prefer to stay home – outside – but at home). So….we will be going back to the practice of blocking off one day every single week (the day varies) to stay at home with no friends over. I tell my kids they are welcome to go play at someone else’s house but I will not be driving anywhere and will not allow friends over to our house on that one day.
Just wanted to clarify so I don't seem too mean :) I don't make my kids do schoolwork during CVBS week or if they go out of town or some other special event. Ha, we take days like that off during the school year - why not summer!
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we'll be doing plan #2 and plan #3. We all need time in the sun in the summer, and a change of pace! Still, I learned a long time ago that taking extended time off of things like math and spelling just leads to intense frustration. We'll do enough work to keep us inside during the worst sunburn hours, about 10:30 to 1:30, including a break to eat lunch. On co-schooled Mondays and Thursdays it will be plan #4 "lite". That is, we finished up some curricula for the year, but for other things (writing, memorization, Latin, Spanish)the plan is just to keep on trucking.
Post a Comment