Everyone is asking us, "Have you started school yet? Actually, we didn't stop doing school last year... sort of. During the summers, we typically do some schoolwork three days a week (on weeks that the kids aren't in camp or we aren't traveling). I typically reduce the number of subjects that they do per day to 2 - 3, and they get to choose what they work on during these days, so we continue to make progress and keep our skills and brains active during the summer months. In addition, they continue working on projects of their own choosing that keep them actively engaged in developing skills. For D, that means working on creating Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and for C, it involves drawing and working on her novel, her web comic, and her Youtube channel.

Relaxed schooling during the summer gives us approximately 30 additional instructional days to use as we create a flexible schedule for the school year. This enables us to take days off as needed for travel, special events, or even sanity days. Our fall schedule consists of three days of all subjects, 1 day of co-op classes, and 1 day of project work. We generally get 16 weeks of full-time homeschooling in the fall semester before Christmas and 18 weeks in the spring. Then we move to our summer schedule. We have found that utilizing time during the summer for academic pursuits reduces the amount of time necessary to review skills typically lost during long breaks and enables us to continue making progress in small chunks in the areas that are typically more challenging to our kids and could result in frustration if they were required to progress rapidly through those skills.

Life Intervenes

My apologies for being remiss in posting, but life has intervened... quite literally. I have spent the better part of the last two weeks being a doting grandmother to a sweet newborn. Welcoming this precious little one has been a sweet break for me, but it is time to get back to work.

This year is my tenth year homeschooling. With one in middle school and one in high school, our lesson plans call for more independent learning than in previous years. We are currently using Acellus, Life of Fred (Geometry), and taking advantage of an area program that offers classes one day a week. In addition, I will be adding novel studies, writing activities, research, and life skills projects to the coursework (along with driver's ed for the high schooler).