I always mourn the end of summer. This one was busier than usual with kids jobs and activities, but it was still slower-paced than the school year. I love sleeping in, having time to swim and camp, and just not feeling the press of school assignments.
Our most recent camping trip included Jared’s girlfriend and a couple of the grandbabies. Such fun to see them at the place we’ve loved for so many years. As usual we had a little tent city set up next to our travel trailer. Though there’s lots of sleeping space inside the trailer, most of the kids prefer to have their own space in various tents. There’s lots of swimming and fishing, plus games with cousins and visiting by the camp fire.
But now that summer is winding down, I’m back to thinking about school. Last school year we had lots of finishing-up to do with our then-senior, so we hit school pretty hard and got a lot done. The current juniors benefited from that intensity, and also got a lot done, so I’m planning for this school year to be a bit less ambitious.
I’ve never been an unschooler-type mom– I like structure too much. But we’re going to try taking Mondays off, as I wrote about before. Sleep in, plan only a little. I’ll still have the kids do chores, as well as an hour of reading, but it can be something of their own choosing.
Subjects with our three juniors will include:
- Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2
- Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Physical Science
- SAT Prep using College Prep Genius
- Spanish with Fluenz Spanish
- Literature/writing using The Eternal Argument
as a guide
Our two younger daughters (4th and 7th) will be doing:
- Teaching Textbooks math appropriate to their grade
- Apologia Exploring Creation With General Science
- Seterra Geography
- History: Story of the World meets Minecraft -my girls are so thrilled about this!
- English: Daily Guided Teaching And Review and some simple essay writing.
How about you? Are your kids back at school? If you’re homeschooling, are you trying anything new?
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We’re going a new route this year and have enrolled our kids in a Christian school! I’m half excited, half “oh my goodness what have I done?” But uniforms have arrived in the mail, tuition is paid, and now we just have a few last minute purchases to make. We may be back to homeschooling next year, as we always take school year-to-year. I’m looking forward to dropping the role of “teacher” for a season, and just being wife & mom. God bless your year as you move forward. Love the idea of a relaxed Monday. We’ve usually had a four-day week, but it was Friday we took off. 🙂
We start school on Monday. Ready for the routine to come back. By the end of summer I am getting bored and ready for my kids to have some structure back. We are trying teaching textbooks this year for the first time for two of my kids. I am excited to see how it goes. No big change ups other than that. I am excited to have moved to North Carolina this summer…it should be a wonderful fall season. Can’t wait for my kids to experience some of the stuff I enjoyed as a child. Hope you have a great year!