Summer Break?

It’s officially summer! Time to kick back, relax, play outside, and enjoy a break from school. Right?

Nehemiah certainly thinks so!

Not for us this year! We’ve been pretty relaxed, and that’s been fine, but our family is needing a bit more school structure than we’ve had in the past. I still have no desire to do “school at home”, but I think I need something a bit more then, “Hmm, what should we do today?”

We’ve taken a few weeks almost completely off, but over the next few weeks we are going to start easing into more of a routine.

Math:

Both girls are using Khan Academy, which they really enjoy. Makaylah will also be working through Math-U-See Beta Instruction Pack , and Sophia will be working through a leveled math workbook that we already own.

Reading:

We will continue using Starfall for both girls. With Sophia’s speech disorder (apraxia), I am still not worried about rushing reading with her, but we will continue learning phonics through flash cards and attempting some readers. I would really like to see Makaylah reading more fluently. It’s been a constant struggle for the past several years. We’ve backed off for awhile and then come back to it, but she has stayed frustrated with it. I think we are going to do our best to have her reading several times throughout the day, even if it means pulling back from some other areas. We are going to stay very positive about it, while still trying to work through whatever is giving her issues with it.

Science:

I purchased Apologia Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day, and I am so excited for us to start it! I still want to order a Junior Notebook to go with it.

History:

I am still trying to make a firm decision about history. We will either be continuing our president’s unit study, or we will be doing one of the Simply Charlotte Mason modules.

Read-Alouds:

We are a little behind on our twelve read-alouds for 2012, so we need to get caught back up!

Geography:

We incorporate this with our other studies.

Speech therapy:

For us, this is a constant part of school. Sophia has been in speech therapy for three years, and it is unlikely that will end any time soon. However, she is in between therapist with the therapy center we receive services through. We’re not sure yet when those will resume. She also receives services through the local public school, but she is off until school resumes in August.  This all means that will be even more important than normal that we work with her at home. With apraxia, most therapy involves lots and lots of repetition and drill. Thankfully, that makes it easy for us to work with her on it.

Now, we will still be having lots of fun! I’m going to be working on a summer bucket list (look for a 5 day series about this in July!), and once a week we will be doing a park day with homeschool friends. My goal in schooling over the summer is to allow us to get a solid start on school for next year, while still allowing us the extra time we need to take advantage of opportunities that arise throughout the year.

Do you school year round? Does it depend on how your year went, or is it the same year to year?