Summer School, Here we Come!

It’s that time of year again.  It’s time for graduation celebrations, last day of school fun, and welcoming summer with a bang.  Many families are planning fun summer vacations and looking for ways to bond and enjoy the summer.  That’s not what’s happening in our home.  We are looking at reorganizing how we do school and looking at how we can continue doing school throughout the summer. 

Since our newest little Best blessing is due at the end of October we have decided to school through the summer and take November, December, and January off as our summer.  The good news is that since we homeschool this option is perfect for us as we adjust to a new member of our family.  We’ve decided to school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have Tuesday and Thursdays be family fun days and days left open for doctor’s appointments.  We will go “full time” again in August and September and then enjoy our new little one.  Then we will start up full time in February and go through school into June. 

We have found a math program that Maggie finally likes, “Life of Fred” so we are doing a basic review to get her caught up on everything.  She will be using Sonlight American History for her reading and history, and A Beka Grammar to round everything out.   She will be in Chemistry this year as well.  I can’t believe she’s going to be a junior in school.  When public school starts back, she will continue taking some AG classes.

John Robert and Ethan will continue working on their Math U See books and moving forward with their Sonlight American History as well.  We will be doing a little detour in Florida history as well.  Of course there will be fun activities like A Beka Language Arts, Handwriting, and Science.  John Robert will be moving up in middle school and Ethan will be advancing onto fourth grade. 

Our Sonlight Instructor's Guide is ready to go!

Cole is going into Pre K for four year olds.  I don’t have a set curriculum for him.  I am a firm believer in better late than never and subscribe to the delayed school approach for my little ones.  We will be doing a lot of hands on puzzles (I made some great file folder games from Teachers Pay Teachers), learning our ABC’s, practicing counting, and learning how to spell his name.  We also made a trip to the dollar store and got some fun puzzles and ordered some Melissa and Doug toys from Rainbow Resource, my homeschool "candy" store!!

Cole playing with a new file folder game.  He loves matching the tools.

Even Jacob loves matching shapes.  He enjoys having Maggie help him too.

Teachers pay Teachers have some great preschool resources.  The boys really enjoy these file folder games.

To get everyone organized this year I purchased some composition notebooks from the local dollar store.  I made a schedule and laminated it and put in the front of their “agendas”.  Then I have written all their weekly assignments so they can tackle as much school on their own as possible.  I have also posted the schedule on the wall near our table.  I have gotten most of the new school books ready and organized with only a few little things left to do. 

Our schedule that hangs at the table. 

Today marked our first day of summer school and so far, this plan is working well for us.  We will continue to revamp and change things as needed to make our homeschooling adventures a success.  Here’s to Summer School Best Family style, and another year of great adventures!