Saturday, June 02, 2012

Summer Homeschool Plans











I'm homeschooling my six year old year-round, so I'll continue to post homeschool items for early learning throughout the summer. She's now enjoying Bob Books and Christian Light Education's first grade learning to read program. We also use story telling via art and words. Much of it is her drawing pictures of her stories, and me helping her to incorporate the words she has learned. Weekly trips to the library are anticipated with joy. They have children's computers, a play area, and all the books and videos she could ever want. Inevitably, there are little girls there for her to play with and share the learning computers. The girls always seem to want to "help" each other and work the Reader Rabbit games together, giggling and just falling into the flow of working together. The library is the best of both worlds - free of charge and free unstructured time in a wholesome environment.

 My teenage son is entering high school next school year! How fast time has gone. He has been homeschooled since kindergarten, and now does self study homeschool(Christian Light Education[CLE] workbooks, "Light Units"), which is the way he learns best. He prefers this style over all others, and is a happy clam when he can self direct and met his goals successfully. With all the self help books and internet tutorials, he does very well when we hit a rough patch of learning. During the summer, he'll continue to read classics and Newbery Medal award books. There's a good biography section for young people at our library, so we've pulled a few books from this category throughout the year as well. I like the way our library puts these books, the award winning books and biographies, aside in their own special section, so that I don't have to go searching for them off a list.

My son will be working toward an academic degree via CLE Homeschool Plus, and then he wants to enroll in CollegePlus for his college degree. He has no idea, as of yet, which degree path he'll choose.

Our city parks and recreation department has a few nature classes and swim classes for which we'll be signing up. We've got a beach nearby and the city pool to enjoy. Hopefully, we'll be able to get up to the mountains for hiking again this summer. I've got to get some varicose veins operated on, so it all depends on how fast I recover.

What are your plans?

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi! I just found your blog :) We also homeschool year-round. I have a 5 year old and a 10 year old. We try to keep things more light and fun during the summer, but I still see no reason why to stop learning. I like to focus on learning games and reading during June and July. Learninggamesforkids.com is one of my fav free sites to have my kids play on... I also just bought a bunch of story books at wal-mart for $1! Like Peter Pan, Little Women, Cinderella for my oldest to read.
~> I hope everything goes well with your surgery and you recover fast!

Eddie said...

We homeschool year round too. Our summer homeschooling tends to involve a lot more things outdoors, so this summer will be geology, the Great Lakes, plants, pollution, and of course math. :)

Therese said...

A lot of families over here use Christian Light Education. I think Christopher would benefit from their learning to read program. He is very good at recognising site words but once they are in a sentence, he seems to have trouble.

Alexandra said...

Keri, I'll have to check out that website! Thanks for the well wishes...this and a few other minor medical items are taking up my summer. I figure I'll just get everything taken care of at once.

Eddie, it does take the pressure off the rest of the year. I like the idea of spreading the academic work out over 12 months...more time for non-academic learning and fun. I'm not the most structured person, so this works for me.

Otter Mom said...

I didn't actually homeschool, but we generally had some type of lessons during the summer when our daughter was in elementary school. We tried to make it fun, as well as educational. I didn't actually buy a cirriculum, but we would get several different workbooks at a teacher supply store and then we came up with a lot of history & science stuff on our own since those have always been our areas of interest. Of course, there always were (and still are) always crafts of various types.

Alexandra said...

Therese: My daughter was like that. She turned a corner with reading when she hit 6.5 years old. It was like a light switched on, and she was ready to learn to read. It came so much easier than before. I had to hold off on a lot of formal reading instruction at the beginning of the school year. Her birthday is at the beginning of September, so she really was a young first grader. I'm probably going to have her begin first grade(rather than move onto to second) this coming school year.

Ottermom: You are an awesome mom. :)

Otter Mom said...

Thank you Alexandra!

Eva said...

Then she will be in the same grade as Veronika, who is turning 7 in August. Wise decision!

So you are staying with Christian Light! I think we'll do a very basic OLVS program (except their math because we don't like Saxon). We will add French, German (of course), music, art, ballet, fencing, gymnastics, handwork, geography, and woodworking. I also want to do "Teaching the Classics." So just English, Science, History, Latin, and Religion will be covered by OLVS. We see how grade 9 goes. If we like it, we'll stay with them, if not we'll do our own mix of things. We also still have some main lessons from Live Education! we want to finish. That will keep us busy.

Veronika will do Live Eduation! plus a mix of materials form MODG, OLVS, and the library. She will also continue with ballet and gymnastics.

Alexandra said...

Yes, we've gone back and forth; my son was most comfortable with doing CLE full-time. I have to get him signed up for PE credit in high school. He mentioned yoga! They've got "fitness yoga" with the city, so we'll look into this. Actually, this perfect for him.

Eva said...

I did yoga for several years in high school and liked it a lot.