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!

IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER SONLIGHT BOX DAY!!!!!

Spring in here!  For us this means lots of sunshine, hot weather, playing outside in the sun, and of course our Sonlight Box Day!  Box Day is right up there with Christmas for this Mama!  I LOVE opening up those beautiful boxes (this year we had two to open, YAY!), and pursuing all the amazing books inside!  There is something so special so amazingly right about opening boxes of books, even if they are to be used for school. 

This year, Box Day was celebrated on my bed!  Why?  Mainly because we couldn’t keep Jacob OUT of the books, or the boxes!  So, Maggie and I locked ourselves into my bedroom and got to work sorting books into the piles so we could organize them all.  This year all the kiddos are studying American history so it was fun to see who was reading what!  Of course Daddy had to come in and see everything he could about the World War books.  He and Ethan have already swiped a book and have been reading about the Lusitania and Hitler!  I have to keep shooing them out of the way.

The bed is overrun with books.

I feel like Santa, looking at my list and checking it twice!!!!  

After we got the boxes empty, we let Cole and Jacob have them and they colored and played inside of them.  Just one more reason to love Box Day, it gets the whole family involved.  As the little’s were playing in the boxes, I set out to organize the IG’s.  So far I have Maggie’s two IG’s organized and I’ve sat down to show her how they work.  I still need to put together the boy’s IG and organize their books.  We decided to store Maggie’s books in her room this year since she is working totally independently from me.   Once I get the boys school shelves reorganized, I’ll share all about that too!

Jacob was finally where he wanted to be!

You can see all the scribbles and amazing art designs the boys did for me on the box!

Maggie's books are in her room where she has since organized them on her desk.

Since Mag's is using Core 100, she gets her own blue binder and IG's this year!

She's all set and ready to go!

The boys books and IG still need to be organized, but I can't get them to stay out of them!

Box Day was, as always, a ton of fun!  There is something magical about getting to open all those books, to touch them brand new and unloved.  It makes for a great memory.  Thank you Sonlight for the memories, they mean the world to us!!!