2012 ~ Summer Curriculum and Plans

I hadn’t planned it ahead of time, but we ended up having a relaxed school month for June.  We did fun read alouds (Matilda by Roald Dahl had us in stitches), began new journals, and kept going with nature study, but most other schoolwork took a back seat.  We camped (twice), had a three-week visit from my brother-in-law who lives abroad, worked in the garden, and enjoyed many summer activities.  I knew after our more rigid schedule for April and May that we would all be ready to take some time off, but I didn’t think it would be a month before I’d have my summer plans ironed out, my lists made (for myself and the kids) and be ready to dive in.

The good news?  It’s July, I am ready with my plans, and it felt good to get back into a routine.  My daughter cheered when I said we’d be making a minibook today, and my son ran to dress up as a pirate when I said it would be about the Barbary Pirates.  That’s a good reaction for our first day back in the saddle!

Though we homeschool year-round, summer is a time we enjoy a more relaxed schedule, fitting in schoolwork around the weather and fun times camping and boating and playing with friends.  Last summer we averaged about two days of school per week, broken up in chunks of a couple hours here and there.  Most of what I have planned for this summer are things we’ll study together (a favorite in our house).  I do have a bit of individual work for each of them just to prevent any “summer slide” in areas where that is a concern.  Here’s the plan:

Big Sister’s Fourth Grade Individual Work:

• Math:  She will log in to Khan Academy twice a week to work on new material and any topics that come up for review.  I love how Khan automatically puts topics up for review, and has the student answer questions correctly to take it off the list!  I also will have her work on Xtramath (you can read my post about Xtramath here) three times a week.  We’ll keep plugging away at these math facts until they’re solid as a rock in her brain.
• Piano:  No break from piano lessons (not that she would want one) so she will continue to practice 30 minutes each day.

Little Brother’s First Grade Individual Work:

• Funnix: He is making good progress as a beginning reader using the Funnix reading program so we will continue throughout the summer.  My goal is 2-3 lessons a week.
• Math: Playing store and other math games to practice telling time and addition and subtraction.

Together Studies:

• History:  We spent last summer studying the Revolutionary War, then backtracked a bit and studied the early explorers and Pilgrims in the fall.  After that we would touch on history topics as they came up during our study of the fifty states, but history was not the focus as much as geography and modern life.  I was anxious to focus on history again and though I knew the time period I wanted (post-Revolutionary War & Westward Expansion) I was unsure how to go about it.  I decided on a Time Travelers unit from Homeschool in the Woods on the early 19th Century.  My initial plan was to use this study just through the summer.  Now that I’ve had a chance to go through it, I see there are so many wonderful topics and activities that I don’t want to rush through.  I plan to add in Charlotte Mason-style living books when possible.  Since it isn’t the only thing we’ll be working on I believe we’ll continue with this well into the fall.  I’ll post a more thorough review of the Time Travelers unit when we’ve had a chance to work with it.

• Science:  Nature Study has become an integral part of our homeschool, and a key piece of my children’s science education.  We have thoroughly enjoyed and will continue using the ideas from Barb’s Handbook of Nature Study blog and her Outdoor Hour Challenges.  As I mentioned in my review of our last school year, I wanted to spend even more time on science.  My son has been begging me to learn about the human body, so I worked on putting together a unit study.  As summer neared, our homeschool group’s science teacher quit, and I formalized my desire to cover more science basics, I decided I wanted to try an official science curriculum.  I requested and received a free copy of Real Science Odyssey’s Life Level One program:  the age range is perfect, it’s hands-on, and it includes a study of the human body.  I’ll be posting a full review as we work with it.  It is a year-long program so it should work well to start now and continue throughout the school year, especially since I plan to slow down as we hit the human body topic and use some of the other resources I’d already put together for a unit study.

• Journals: I’d seen a great idea for a journal jar and wanted to use a similar plan.  Last summer the kids wrote in journals often, but during the busier school year regular journal writing fell by the wayside.  I think summer is a great time to jump back in.  I didn’t print the journal prompts provided in that link, but looked through the prompts and picked the ones I liked, added a few of my own, then typed up a list of prompts and put them in a jar.  They are all questions about them:  likes/dislikes, special memories, plans for the future, what would you do with one million dollars, that kind of thing.  I hope with the journal jar it will not only be fun, but a great keepsake for years to come.

• Reading Aloud:  This one is sort of a given for homeschoolers, right?  In fact, we’ve enjoyed reading aloud since my oldest was a baby.  But two things have placed reading aloud in the forefront for me.  I’ll be doing a post on this later and let you know what two resources moved this from a filler spot to a do-first-even-if-you-don’t-get-anything-else-done spot.  First on our reading list is going to be the Little House series since it’s a great go-along for our history studies.  I still read picture books frequently:  some nonfiction science and history books, but many just because they’re fun.