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We didn’t have a summer last year. We did do fun things: the county fair, a father/son canoe trip, a VBS type program at our parish…but we also did school. Lots and lots of school.
None of my younger kids had finished their work for the year and I was determined to start their new grades in the fall.
But that goal cost us dearly.
I think the kids handled it well, but I was constantly balancing school and summer activities while also planning for our upcoming year.
Plus, I was writing lesson plans for a high school level medieval history course for our co-op. From scratch.
I started the new school year already worn out and I told my husband we would never do that again.
Then, I almost did.
I had “good reasons” for it: one child is only a quarter of the way through her work because of our struggles last fall, and the other kids have tons of math left.
Plus there’s the cursive, spelling, Latin, and geography…
And that’s just for my elementary-aged kids.
After much back-and-forth, I finally admitted I was setting us up for another round of burn out.
I needed to let go of perfection while being diligent on true essentials.
So this is what our summer will look like instead:
- We’ll start the day with therapy exercises, a read-aloud from Myself & Others, and a scripture reading.
- Cursive practice and XtraMath: 7, 8, and 10 year olds
- Reading: my 7 year old will read to me once a day to keep her phonics/reading skills fresh; we’ll add our homemade word games if it looks like things are slipping.
- Middle school: my 12 year old will do two math lessons each day (they don’t take long) as well as XtraMath. I’ll meet with him twice a week for some additional number sense practice.
- High school: Khan Academy’s pre-algebra missions to solidify what they learned the past year. They’ll also do physics review. One of them will also use Quizlet to review Latin forms, grammar, and vocabulary.
For Latin and Spelling, we’ll pick up where we left off when the new school year starts. Geography will be set aside.
The 8 and 10 year olds will pick up where they left off in math when school starts in the fall.
I also confirmed that my 10 year old can start MP’s Traditional Spelling series in the fall rather than trying to finish the Simply Classical series first.
I feel so much peace about this plan. It covers the most important things for each child while only taking about an hour a day.
We’ll have a restful summer…imagine that!
Update: this post shares what happened with the above plan!
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