So, now that baby is older and my brain is beginning to function properly again, I am full of ideas for the kids' education... seeing things they need to be learning, and excited about fitting them into our summer. No apologies to them for making them keep learning this summer - they had a fairly easy school year academically.
History Dates
In our pursuit of a classical education, we read a lot of great history books written for children. We do not spend much (any) time memorizing dates. And the Book of Centuries that Charlotte Mason prescribed is not something that I have found time to do with the children, nor have any of the other timelining efforts I've come up with through the years been done with any consistency for the long run. The one thing I have learned to do fairly well is to teach all the children together a simple body of information, like passages of Bible verses, and Latin grammar. If I come up with extra funds to purchase a book that teaches important dates from history, I will gladly use it (I would get one from Memoria Press), but in the meantime, I'm beginning with some existing sets available on Quizlet.The younger children, middle and elementary grades, are learning one date a day this summer. That means I have to tell them the event, briefly explain what it was and why it is important (wikipedia is handy for this), and help them memorize it. We usually do this at breakfast, or at the swimming pool. At dinner, I am checking to see who remembers it and what they have retained from the explanation. A small candy prize for each right answer makes this fun for them.
Our highschooler is doing a US history date and an English history date, so he is learning two per day. Again, I haven't gotten together any good materials yet, so I am working with a couple of Quizlet sets and hoping to find time soon to go through his Churchill history books, Birth of Britain and The New World.
French
During the school year, all the kids study Latin. I love it, the kids, to varying degrees, like it, and a couple of them tolerate, or, at times, hate it! I have yet to find time in anyone's schedule to teach Latin and a modern language side by side, although I have tried and failed more than once. I have some background in Spanish, French, and Greek, and have tried all three along with Latin. I still have hopes for managing it another school year, but for the summer, while most of the students are on a break from Latin or finishing up their book from this past year, I am going to try teaching them a little French.I love the First Form Latin series from Memoria Press and they have recently come out with a First Start French book that teaches French grammar and vocabulary in an organized way similar to the First Form series. I haven't yet gotten a First Start French book, but there are flashcard sets available on Quizlet so it's super easy to just start using them. If it goes well, I'll order the book on Amazon later. I may not need it at all for the summer.
Bible
We used to memorize a lot of Bible verses through our church's Wednesday night AWANA program and the summer program that our pastor teaches the kids. In recent years, life has been so busy that our participation in those mid-week activities has dwindled down to nothing, but we continued to memorize a little here and there, and review the things we learned when the older kids were younger. This summer we have begun to review John 1(KJV), which we learned through about verse 29 several years ago. The younger children don't know it and the older ones remember it only vaguely. So we are reviewing, and progressing at a pace of a new verse each day or two. Again, we do these at breakfast, at the pool, dinnertime, and any other time I think of it, like while driving somewhere.
Fitness
The rest of my plan for the summer is to spend lots of time riding bikes and swimming. We don't have a pool but we know several families we can swim with, so we are able to swim about every other day in the summer. I'm still working on collecting working bikes for the entire family, but most of us have bikes now, and we hope to be able to go for family bike rides at the Canal soon. In the meantime, we ride around a lot in the neighborhood and are building up muscle strength and learning to repair and maintain our bikes.Loose Ends
Highschooler (rising 10th) is still working on almost all of his subjects. He plans to be finished by the end of June.Artist Girl (rising 7th) is still finishing her Ambleside list for this year. Shouldn't be much longer.
Bike Boy (rising 6th) has quite a lot of Latin left to do this summer and is still finishing up his Ambleside list.
At this point, I start to forget who has what left. Maybe I'll write a separate post on this subject. I know it's not much for the next couple of kids and the kindergardener is just beginning to learn to read. We probably won't do reading lessons again until the fall.
Character Development
This, too, could use its own post. Anytime we drop our normal busy schedule in favor of a less structured way of life, a bunch of ugly behaviors quickly become visible. I hope to take that in stride more gracefully this year - at least I'm expecting it. I also hope to purposefully work at some of the unkindness, bossing, and criticism that seem to happen more often when the older kids aren't as busy with school. Maybe it's just that I have time to notice it. But I also have a little more time to deal with it, and I'm trying, again. I'll keep you posted.So, what are you doing this summer? Do character issues raise their ugly heads in your house in the summertime? Am I the only one whose kids are never finished when their public school friends get out of school?
