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Back to School


Today's the day .. the day we have ALL been anxiously waiting for ... SUMMER SCHOOL!!! (Perhaps not all share my enthusiasm).

Actually I am not enthusiastic, just ready. We took off school for the month of May, and I am ready to get back into a semblance of a routine. Plus, I've been doing some planning for fall and have a tad bit of my teaching excitement coming back. So it's time.

We won't be doing a whole lot, just beginning to reuse our brains for something other than Splatoon! on the WiiU, Youtube videos, and Netflix (that last one is for me).

Our summer schooling plans look like:

  • Mom gets up a little before 8:00 for coffee and quiet time.
  • Kids get up around 9:00 for some personal time and breakfast.
  • At 9:30 mom works out.
  • At 10:30 we start schoolwork.
  • At 12:30 we are done with schoolwork.
  • Afternoons are for swimming, playing, housework, relaxing, reading, Netflix!
From 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. we will be doing a math assignment, a grammar assignment, reading out of one of our remaining Little House books, and having personal reading time. The kids will also be reading their library Book Club selection.

We will only do this morning schoolwork schedule Monday through Thursday (and only weeks that Brynne doesn't have a sports camp). Fridays are for total relaxation, garage sales with my mom, and a trip to get groceries.

In addition to these morning studies we will be attending a Book Club at the library and gardening class on Thursday afternoons. Eli also has speech therapy on Wednesday afternoons. Brynne has softball practices and evening games, and she still has a couple of sports camps at the nearby university. A lot of afternoons will be spent swimming. And rainy days we will continue watching Little House on the Prairie episodes.

Why do we summer school? 


It's simple. It gives us a little bit of a routine, it keeps our brains working, and it gives us school hours to log toward our yearly requirements so that we can take off at other times through the school year when we want a break (fall Florida trips, long Christmas breaks, extra days for Spring break, a whole month in May). You get the picture. We bank hours for future time off.

How about you? Do you school in the summer?


Comments

  1. It sounds like a relaxed way to get in some learning while still enjoying summer! We'll be doing some summer studies as well, but we haven't started yet. July? I still need to purchase a new laptop (since mine died in February). Both kids will be doing the summer reading program at 1-2 different libraries as well as Cati doing Pre-Algebra (Khan Academy) and Sentence Diagramming (on-line) and Sam will learn cursive (and hopefully some math if I can talk him into it LOL). Oh! About the coffee cozy...It's up on my Creative Crochet page for sale, but I'll give it to you if you're comfortable sending me your address. (If you want another color I'll see what I have. They're a QUICK project...)

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  2. We don't do "school" per say. I do insist on at least 20 minutes of reading for the older ones, and sit and read with the youngest every day But most of our learning during summer is more "on the job" type education. So if we take a nature walk, we will talk about the plants and animals and what can we do to protect our world? We will do fun science experiments on rainy days. Go to museums. Stuff like that. They are keeping their brains active, but in a different way than in the classroom setting.

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