Summer Schedule–How We Roll

We only have one more week of this academic year.  Woohooo!   While others are gearing up for a long summer break, I’m working on my summer school plans.  Yes, really, I am that mom.  

Language Arts: 

At the beginning of the 2013-2114 year, I somehow overlooked purchasing the writing curriculum that I typically use.  Then I just kind of kept forgetting about it, until I saw Lindsey’s handwriting getting more and more sloppy.  This summer she will be working her way through the Cursive Writing Skillbook from Abeka.    Olivia will be working through Penmanship Mastery II (she completed Mastery I in 4th grade).

Reading will continue to be a main focus.  Over the summer I’ll be adding a new routine of finding 5 new vocabulary words per chapter and writing the word and definitions out on index cards.  This will help their vocabulary, reading comprehension and handwriting.

Math:

Lindsey will work through several of the Math Mammoth individual worktexts in her grade level.  She will focus mainly on multiplication, division, fractions and geometry.

Olivia will be following the same routine, working with integers, ratios, geometry and percent's.

Science:

The goal here is to do a lot more nature walks.  In addition we’ll be working our way through Evan-Moor’s Planet Earth.   I think this is going to be a lot of fun, and very hands on!  Olivia is also taking a one week robotics class at our local community college.

History:

We plan to continue our study of the Civil War with field trips to Gettysburg, Bull Run, Fredericksburg and a few local small battlefields.  In addition, the girls will also be attending a Civil War Reenactment Camp.   Lindsey is also taking a one week American History class at the local community college.

Physical Education: 

Bike rides, back yard volleyball, swimming at the local pool and long nature walks fall under my “P.E.” heading.  However, it will also include several weeks of ballet intensives and a basketball camp for Lindsey.

Music:

Both girls will continue with their piano lessons over the summer months.  In addition we’ll go to some of the free local concerts and let the girls enjoy (or critique) some of the local talent.

Finally, since Olivia will officially be “middle-school” come fall, I decided to have her spend some time this summer learning about research papers, and actually doing one.   She’ll work through the Christian Light Education, Research Paper 1 worktext, and then I'll let her pick her own topic for a paper.

Lest you think I’m absolutely no fun at all, we’ll only be doing school work three days a week, mostly during the blazing hot part of the day.  We’ve just entered the world of year around schooling (6 weeks on, 1 week off) and it’s worked wonderfully for us over the cold months.  Now we’ll giver it a whirl during the blazing days of summer in the south.   We’ll still have lots of time for sidewalk chalk and chasing fire-flies in the cool of the evening.