I know that most families are just settling in to enjoy their summer break.
We’re getting ready to start the new school year.
Our children have been on a break since our final review in May.
That gave me time to reevaluate our curriculum and supplemental material (and get the schoolroom reorganized) and them time to do ‘nothing‘. When the heat is so high that playing outside is no longer fun, it makes more sense to keep busy while keeping cool inside. Why not get some of our learning accomplished?
The 2011-2012 school year was difficult for us and while I don’ feel the need to ‘catch-up‘, I do feel responsible for getting them back onto a forward progression. We haven’t yet completed our guides from this past year so we’ll be heading back to them and continuing on.
Yesterday instead of sitting inside all day to avoid the triple-digit weather we went shopping. Lots of new toys tools for our home-school.
When we first let the children know we were preparing to begin again they were thrilled less than excited. As soon as we explained that it didn’t mean that the fun of summer was going to disappear and that we would only be ‘working’ for a few hours a day, they started to come around. Letting them help me pick out our new supplies went a long way towards building the anticipation of fun.
Our plan is to get started back at math and phonics/reading right away but to focus on all the ‘extras’ that normally get skipped in the pressure to get our basics done.
I don’t want the ‘extras’ to be extra, I want them to be a well-integrated part of our day.
My goal of focusing on things like art, nature study, composer study, and science experiments over the summer is to allow them become a natural part of the day instead of something squeezed in when we are done with everything else.
I know you might be thinking that all sounds good… but don’t the children need to have fun too? I agree, they do!
This week I am participating in a Summer Bucket List series with 8 great bloggers!
I’ll be posting how we plan to enjoy summer while keeping our toes wet in our studies. I’ll share with you how we built our list and give you a peek at what we’ve already enjoyed this summer, like sitting in the dugout at Camden Yards, and stepping back in time at Medieval Times. You’ll also get let in on a (big)little secret of why our list will take until November to accomplish!
If you don’t want to miss any of the posts in this series you can subscribe by email on the right or add us to your favorite reader. If you are on Facebook you can ‘like’ our page, where I often post family-friendly finds and invite you to join the conversation and sharing.
How are you planning on making this summer memorable?
If you are a year-round schooler, how do you keep ‘fun’ a part of the season? If your children attend school outside the home, how are you bridging the summer with them?
I think your “extras” sound like lots of fun! Our kids are having a blast with nature study and journaling this summer. We’re also enjoying turning our family read-aloud time into mini unit studies. It’s light, but it’s learning and they’re not getting completely out of the habit of thinking.
I LOVE the extras, I just hate trudging through everything else to get to them. Hopefully placing them as a focus this summer will correct that habit. Yes, keeping them in the habit of thinking… I need to keep reminding my children that a break from ‘school’ does not have to mean no thinking!