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School’s out for summer! A few thoughts and memories I want to remember:
We went into our second school year at the farmhouse with the goal of getting ourselves out there. We joined a weekly co-op and started new activities in town. While we still have a ways to go, I think we made progress in the right direction.
Duds and failures:
1. Not enough creativity and too much “do the next page” // Because of our new extra-curricular commitments, I had trouble keeping creativity alive in our daily work. Most of the kids took an art class through the co-op and I scrapped that subject from the plan – much to our detriment! They really enjoy that creative expression in their schoolwork, so I’ll be working extra-hard to add art and projects to our plan again in the fall.
2. Shakespeare // Can I just say that Shakespeare really intimidates me? I read parts of How to Teach your Children Shakespeare and a handful of helpful blog posts, but I still had trouble implementing it. We did manage to read Macbeth, but I’m not sure I taught it correctly.
2. Shakespeare // Can I just say that Shakespeare really intimidates me? I read parts of How to Teach your Children Shakespeare and a handful of helpful blog posts, but I still had trouble implementing it. We did manage to read Macbeth, but I’m not sure I taught it correctly.
3. Nature Study // I have a crazy two-year-old who made this impossible. Maybe next year?
Successes:
1. Dictation for Dyslexic Learners // A handful of my kids have various degrees of dyslexia so I’m always looking for off-the-beaten-path ways to help them learn. Another homeschooling mother recommended dictation and she was totally right! I used Dictation Day by Day with my fourth grader and his handwriting, spelling and grammar all improved just from studying a passage and then writing it as I read it aloud.
2. Beautiful Feet Books // We used four guides from Beautiful Feet Books this year: Modern American and World History, Early American History, History of Western Expansion and Geography Through Literature. I loved them all! Their book choices are great and the guides provide enough structure to keep us on task but are open-ended that I can pick and choose which assignments to complete. We’ll definitely be using them again next year.
3. Grammar // We used First Language Lessons in our morning basket for grammar and I am amazed at how much the kids retained! Just yesterday, as they were working through a MadLib book, I heard: “Okay, we need a verb. A verb is a word that does an action, shows a state of being, links two words together, or helps another verb.” A proud moment where homeschooling feels worth it, hah!
To celebrate the last day of school, everyone got a book to jumpstart summer reading:
M (age 12) // The Man in the Brown Suit
D (age 10) // Click Here to Start
TJ (age 4) // DC Super Friends ABC Workbook
Tradition is also to get everyone a treat, so we celebrated with soft serve ice cream!
It was a good year and I’m happy to continue again in the fall. But first – a summer of relaxed schedules and gobs of long overdue house projects.
I'm SURE any exposure you give them to Shakespeare at all is wonderful. I didn't read or hear a single play until at least 8th grade, and I still love him! š
That's encouraging to hear! I didn't have any exposure to him until high school and it was taught so blandly that I didn't really see what the big deal was, hah! At the very least, my kids will recognize the stories, which is better than nothing, right?
I was going to say exposure for Shakespeare as well!. I donāt āteachā anything really. We just read a bit a day after reading a Lambās retelling at the beginning of the term. I was thinking of doing an Archangel Audio next term instead of me reading aloud to see if thatās even betterāalthough then I canāt skip certain words so Iām not quite sure. At the end of each term I ask the boys to draw their favorite scene and itās always either something gruesome or someone drunk so Iām clearly cultivating very sophisticated children through our studies over here ššš
Ooh, I'll have to look into an audio version for next year. I need a little hand holding and that may help, hah!
Congrats to you and your kids. I get into the same rut with art. My boys love it but it's so easy for me to just let the week go by within it when I'm so focused on getting through the fundamental lessons. Enjoy a well deserved summer break!
Same. We had co-op every Friday and I always felt like I had to cram all the "important" stuff into Monday-Thursday. I hope to find a better balance next fall.