Thursday, July 02, 2015

SUMMER Days

No Brain Dump for these students
We use "summer"  to fill in any gaps we let slide during the "school year," read a lot of good books and continue on with "table school." This works for us.  As of 1 July we have officially begun our new school year....the years morph.  Schooling this way allows us to school the number of days the state requires (usually more - we had 205 days this year), take breaks when it fits our schedule (12 weeks this year - allows for the natural rhythm of our family) and still cover all we want to cover in any given year.


For us, "104 Days of Summer," equals brain dump and fog in the fall. We had a couple of weeks of NO SCHOOL at all in June and we take complete breaks here and there during the year - 3 weeks in December. The rest of the summer we do "table school" - finishing last year's work; getting ahead in next year's work - this includes math, language arts and reading.  It takes about an hour a day. The older two are continuing with their Japanese lessons. The younger two get to pick their own reading material for our mandatory 30 min of reading a day.

"Any book on the shelf?"

"Yes."

Stacia told Arielle, "Mom gave us the privilege of choosing ANY book on the shelves we want to read." 

Sometimes it's SO easy to be cool. ::wink::

Alex has been choosing science text books. Stacia is reading a story about children immigrating to America to join their father.

The routine and a bit of structure is nice - and this greatly helps with the brain fog that used to accompany the start of each school year. It also gives us a legitimate reason to stay in the air conditioned house during the "hot hours."

We did get behind on the experiments which accompany our science text. We are doing them now and have discovered it's  perfect for Summer School. It anchors our day and is serving as a great review. I don't think I'll save them all in the future - but a few from each unit would be fine.
 
We made lava lamps today.

 
Science is serious business - you never know what will blow up

 
 Moments like these (above and below) make homeschooling fantastic!

Everything but the Epsom Salt in a basket for tomorrow's fun. I don't want to BUY a big thing of Epsom salt when we are SIX WEEKS away from moving into the trailer. I may skip the Epsom Salt....which may be why we have iffy results so often. LOL 
 
*Note we used vinegar instead of water for a stronger reaction. I think the results would have photographed better with a lighter color oil - but I had full body olive oil and I'm moving in SIX weeks. LOL  

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