What Will Summer Schooling REALLY Look Like?

Looks like the summer has started in earnest.   I took some time recently to sit down and REALISTICALLY plan for our summer schooling... I want to school through the summer (so we can take more breaks during the year!), but I don't want my children to miss the summer activities they love so much.  

Each year my children have taken swimming lessons and this year is no exception.  Our swimming teacher is so good that we schedule our summer around the lessons.  GMan takes a general swim class, and Miss B participates in a synchronized swimming team - very cool!    The lessons are twice each week (smack dab in the middle of the day), so that's a total of four hours a week... spread that out over the week and include drive time, etc... that's a time commitment, but SO WORTH IT in my book.   I love this picture from last year's finale - the kids with their teacher. 

 
The benefits of these lessons include:

• discipline
• exercise
• listening skills (LOTS of them for synchronized swimming teams!)
• friendships and team work
• the HUGE sense of accomplishment that comes through perfecting a skill

We are helping coordinate a small Bible School through our church, which consists of five Wednesday mornings - each day being a different journey of the Apostle Paul.   This is something I definitely don't want my children to miss!   Miss B is attending a Vacation Bible School with a friend one week, and all of us will be participating in a Fine Arts camp for a week in July, so I need to stay flexible and we'll accomplish what is possible.   This is the first summer I've homeschooled, so we'll see how everything goes.  

I know we will try to get in Math and Grammar on a daily basis, and I've been debating if we should keep going with Story of The World, but I think we will break from history until August rolls around.  Our history studies can get quite involved, and I just don't think we'd have the time to devote to them throughout the summer.  




I've decided instead to use all of the Five in a Row resources we have here at home.  A friend of mine gave me several teacher's guides and books and the material is just wonderful.    For GMan we will finish up a few books in Volume 1 of Five in a Row, and for Miss B we are working through Beyond Five in a Row.    I'm printing the lapbooking components for each study from Homeschool Share and think this will be a great way to keep us reading and learning and having FUN this summer.  

Of course we'll also continue read-alouds... first off are The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright and  On My Way by Tomie DePaola. 


Do you school during the summer?  What does your schedule look like?  

Summer PE - Swim, swim, swim!!

Another summer of swim lessons has come to a close. My children are disappointed and my husband and I are disappointed, too. I think we must have the best swimming teacher in the whole world! What will the children do each Monday and Wednesday from now on..... SCHOOL, I guess!

Miss Betsie has been giving lessons to children in our area for almost twenty years. For the past two summers Miss B and GMan have been refining their swimming skills. Miss B is on a synchronized swim team with Miss Betsie and GMan takes regular swimming lessons.

I'm so proud of what they accomplished this year. GMan was wearing floaties last year and afraid to go in the deep end. This year he dives from the board, swims the full length of the pool and gets dive sticks from the bottom of the deep end. What a vast improvement!

Miss B worked very very hard on her synchronized swimming team this summer. She is getting lots better at diving, and does front and back flips in the pool - plus it's difficult to "synchronize" with everyone else. I love it that she has to really listen and pay attention at each practice to succeed. Work can be FUN!

We already signed up for next summer's lessons - that's how popular this teacher is. You have to reserve your spot a year ahead to get in! I count this as another one of our many blessings!

Looking Back on the Fourth

The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have my parents to thank for this. They are extremely patriotic and always instilled in me a respect for my country and a sense of thankfulness for all the freedoms in my life.

Here is one of my favorite Fourth photos.... taken eight years ago.

This one is high on my list, too! I think it was taken at a minor league baseball game in Ft. Myers, FL.

Many Fourth of July holidays have been spent at my mom and dad's house in Florida - as you can see, my mom likes to go all out!

Getting a little more current with the pictures (this one is a CLASSIC!)

And this one is just sweet:

Finally - something a little more current! I love how this picture is smoky from the fireworks we had been setting off.

Looking back at all of these happy memories makes me extremely thankful for my blessings. This year I am particularly grateful for the freedom to homeschool my children as I see fit, without interference from the government. I'm not sure how much longer I will have that freedom, but that I shall save for another post!

Our family has a fun and busy weekend planned - many celebrations. Tonight, we are surprising our kids with a trip to see The Atlanta Braves play the Florida Marlins, which also includes a fireworks display afterwards. We can't wait to see the looks on their faces when we show up at the stadium - they think we are going to have a picnic with friends of ours that live in Atlanta. Now that our children are a bit older (8 and 5), doing things like this are actually fun - not work!

Tomorrow we will have a family fourth of July afternoon of swimming and grilling at my sister-in-law's house who lives very close to us. Then, on the fourth of July we are having friends come over for Nachos on the Grill (thank you Bobby Flay!) and a few fireworks we will shoot off in the backyard. I am a happy tired just thinking about the next few days.

My sweet husband, who has been working incredibly long hours for the past few months, has the next FIVE days off! As I sit here and type, he has taken the kids to swim at the YMCA so I can get some work done around the house.

Today I plan to get a book to read/sing with my children all about the Star Spangled Banner. I really like this series of books/CDs from The Smithsonian. I think they are well worth the investment. Children now just don't know enough folk and patriotic music. Come to think of it, I also have the same type of book with the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" - we may have to spend some time laying around with our CD player this afternoon!

Happy Fourth of July!

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