Update on homeschooling through the summer

Every summer I have grand visions of completing all my goals and bucket lists but find that I aim higher than I realistically can reach. I feel like this summer I gave myself a lot of room for flexibility while setting attainable goals for myself and the kids schooling.

I knew that in order for us to take off more time in the fall and winter;( when the air is actually not suffocating us) we would have to do school work through the summer. I didn't expect us to have a rigid schedule but wanted us to be able to have a good momentum of play and school work so that when we did start back in full swing, it would not be such a shock to my kids systems and I would not have to break them in all over again.

So far I feel like we have hit a good groove and  have been able to accomplish what I was hoping for. I have still had to remind my boys almost every day why we are doing school but they have been getting better and now don't try to fight it as much anymore.

 We will still get together with friends some mornings and plan activities but when we come back home and I get the little boys to bed, we will work on school. I am really happy with how we are still able to get out and come back and get a lot of work done.

Our main focus this summer has been Reading, Writing, Language Arts, Spelling and Math. I am also having them work on these practice test books, as we are getting ready for testing and evaluations the end of this month. We are always doing some kind of art project and science is so much apart of our daily lives. They are experiencing far more fishing and exploring than they would me reading to them about it.( Not that I am against science or art books)

The big boys are with Josh at adventure camp and I can't believe all that they are doing!! Rock climbing, jumping off waterfalls, and of course catching toads.

I know I have said that I am done with the library but we actually ventured out to the Library and Israel got his own library card. I think I must have lost my mind. We only picked out a few books but the kids and I had fun looking at all the great books. I am hoping they will be more responsible than I have been and that no books will be disappearing behind dressers or be devoured by monsters under the bed. I can hope. I love when we come back and they are all huddled together poring over their books.

Ellie is officially starting Kindergarten in the fall but I have already done quite a bit with  her because she is so enthusiastic about learning! I am taking advantage of it! Of course her favorite subject is arts and crafts and she never ceases to get tired of doing new projects.

One of my goals this summer is getting the school room organized. I will feel so much better when I know where everything is and I can find things easily. In my mind I am so excited to get started and have a well running and efficient school room it is just the doing it that is hard. It takes me forever to figure out what we do and don't need and where everything should go. I am really bad at making little decisions. Bring on the big ones but figuring out the best way to file paperwork and organize all our supplies gives me a headache. I am improving and once I get started I find my groove. It is just thinking about how I am going to do it all that gives me problems.

Next project to cross off my list is lesson planning. I am so excited about this lesson plan that I bought from Alicia Hutchinson.  It is just what I was looking for! I can't wait to sit down and plan away. I think I am going to have Josh watch the kids one afternoon so I can bust it out. Look out for a post coming soon about my progress and a discount on her planner!! Yay!

I hope your summer is going as planned or at least as close as possible! If not give yourself some grace and do what you can!

Do you feel like the summer flies by also?
Do you set unattainable goals for your summer?
Are you schooling through the summer? If so, how is it going?

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