Summer School?

Hard to believe that this is week 2 of our summer vacation already! Yup, the boy have finished their school year and we're already into "summer school". Early on I told the boys that we'd have two 2-hour sessions a week. One likely on the boat on the weekends and one during the week. Figured we'd shoot for the rainy day of the week so no set schedule.  Skip began the school year as K-6 student using a Grade 1 curriculum and Harry began as a Pre-K student using a Pre-K curriculum. Both boys did really well and managed to finish the required curriculum long before the year ended. Harry, who began the school year recognizing only a few letters, succeeding in learning the entire alphabet; recognizing, writing and phonics. He breezed through math as well as it quickly became his "strong" subject. Just like his brother!  By the end fo the third semester he was doing some Kindergaten basics. I didn't press him, wanting instead to really inforce the basics. 

Skip finished both Science & Heritage Studies before the fourth quarter as well. Math, though not challenging for him, and phonics (the subject he doesn't love, but does well in anyway) both took til almost the end of the school year to finish, mostly because I had choshen (and swear by) Saxon for those subjects. Saxon is an advanced, highly detailed curriculum and it required daily drills in both subjects. As a result, Skip can now read on his own, and has a solid knowledge of phonetics.  Once Skip's curriculum was finished we actually began next years work. I had already decided on a BJU curriculum and had already purchased (or was able to borrow from a friend) what I needed, so we began first with Science since it was the subject we finished first. Subsequently we began Math, Reading and also Language.

So why summer school?

Simple. Both boys do best with consistency. After each vacation this year they took a few days to get back into both the swing of things mentally & academically - forgetting what they had studied before the break and resisting the "push" back to reality! It was worse for Harry, but that's to be expected.

Anyway, early on I decided that weekly "bridge work" would help keep their minds going in the right direction and prevent any real backsliding. Since I let them in on my plan months ago, it came as no surprise, and they actually don't mind.  Skip has already managed to cover the first 15 lessons in Math, completed the first Science Unit and aced the Unit test, and is making steady progress in both language and reading. Harry is simply doing basic K worksheets - enough to just keep his mind on track. He also follows along with Skip in Science since it's very much a hands on curriculum. He does the hands-on, the oral work and then does some coloring sheets to parallel what we're studying while Skip does the written workbook portion of the lesson. 

My goal is to keep them thinking all summer, and start the school year off in August with about 1/5 of the required curriculum completed. That will make our school year much more flexible and leave more time for hands on learning/field trips.

But don't feel bad, this 4 hours a week is a drop in the bucket when you consider how much time we have to enjoy all those activities that summers are meant for: time on the boat, riding bikes & scooters, camping, mini-vacations, water parks, amusement parks, or just plain catchin' toads or lighning bugs.,. Yup, it's gonna be another fun summer!