Summer Plans...

I have been trying to figure out exactly what Haley will be doing for school through the summer. I don't like to let the kids' brains turn to mush so always have a few educational ideas for each to break up the down-time. A couple hours 2-3 days a week for school is about all I plan on.

The boys are now in public school but, even so, I plan for them to do a bit of math- Alg review for Newt since he spent the last year doing Geometry and will be doing Alg.2 in school next year and Pre-Alg review for Dylan. They will also have reading...summer reading for school and do some vocabulary building activities.

My plans with Haley include continuing through Saxon 76 and Thinkwell Pre-Alg. We used a number of supplements this year to slow her down so still have a little less than half the book to finish but she seems to be moving more quickly lately like some things have clicked. The other possibility, because Saxon teaches a concept then adds to it later, is that she already understands the adds to it later parts from learning it the easy way the first time...that whole parts to whole learning style she has going on.

She will also be reading and working on her Artists lapbook. She is doing a unit on poetry at the moment and is enjoying it so we'll continue. It is a warm up so she can do the Best Poems book we have that goes a little more indepth into poetry but we'll wait to start that in Sept.

We have finished most of our readings on Colonial America...yes, it took us the entire "school-year" to do American History up to the Revolutionary War. We did a lot of activities and extra readings and followed many "bunny trails." My plan is to not get into the Revolutionary War until Sept. but to finish up the Colonial Times lapbook we began.

We are also going a bit more indepth with the Human Body at Haley's insistence so will continue working on that for the summer.

Other than that, we have some arts and crafts projects in the works. She is going to have violin lessons only once a week for the summer, most weeks anyway. I think her teacher will let her do repertoire only for the summer as well which she always loves...none of those technique books to worry about. Fiddle lessons will continue to be regular to get ready for the All Ireland in August.

That's our summer....lots of swimming at Grammy and Poppop's pool, cousins coming to visit (including the new baby twins), Celtic music camp in July, and Ireland in August! I love summer!!!