Summer School

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that we can take breaks whenever we need or want to.  Last year at this time, the kids were on a six-week road trip west, and it was wonderful...life learning in a totally non-academic way!

In addition to taking breaks whenever we want to, we also have opportunity to school when the public system takes a break.  This summer, for example, the plan is for the kids and me to do more schooling than we have traditionally undertaken during the summer months.

It's been a busy school year and a fairly productive one on most fronts.  We are winding down on much of what we've been working on this winter.  The kids have all progressed well in their various areas, and it's been good to see them being able to take on a little more academic work.  But I'm also feeling a little 'behind' where I'd like to be with them, in a few different areas, and so we're going to focus on those things this summer.

First, I'm going to be starting history with them all, beginning with the History of the 20th century - my hope is that by studying something a little more recent than, say, the Victorian Era, history might grab their interest.  A friend very kindly sent me a copy of the outline that she used when teaching her kids about the 20th century and that has been incredibly helpful for this non-historian to wrap her head around.  My friend's list included the major events of that century, both for Canada and the World, and provided a listing of various resources (print, film, etc) that can be used in the process of studying it.  I need to do a little research into each of the events, but having these things laid out for me has been amazing as I've begun to prepare to work with the kids on it.  I find myself somewhat excited about this pursuit.

Second, we're going to be doing a little science.  Matthew took a science class this winter, with a small group of homeschoolers, but some of it appeared to be somewhat over his head (which I expected), and so I thought we'd back things up a little during the summer and see if we could provide a little more structure to underpin what he was studying this year.  I'll work with the younger two kids on a different program.

Math is a third area that I feel somewhat edgy about; we haven't done enough of it this year.  So we'll tackle that on a much more regular basis in summer, too.  This is the area that I still need to figure out a little more clearly.

Finally, we'll continue to work on a few things that we already did throughout this winter:  Spelling; cursive writing; and maybe multiplication tables.

I certainly hope that we have a fun and relaxed summer. But there's really no reason that we shouldn't also be tackling a few subjects that would be good to move forward. I'm looking forward to it!