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Summer Planning
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Am planning ahead for summer and would love to glean from others on the creative ways they have scheduled their summer — have you “educated” all summer long with a schedule? have you planned special summer projects? how have you approached this large chunk of time?
My children thrive within a schedule and I’d love to continue with some structure throughout the summer, but am excited about doing some outside-of-our-norm activites. Would love ideas!
We take summer off from our ‘official school schedule.’ Unless we have plans, last summer I made a list for the kids(they’re 9 and 12) to each do the following before playing w/neighbor kids (or that could be all day:)
1) Devotion
2) 30 min. reading (from a basket of my chosen books)
3) 30 min. something creative (piano, art, etc.)
4) 30 min. something physical
I don’t know how old your kids are or if that’s helpful:) We do lots of other things like swimming w/friends, free summer movies at the theatre, etc. Have fun planning! :)Gina
I’m looking forward to seeing what others are doing too! Personally, I am ready for a break!! We love to read, and my children are both crafty and love to be outdoors, so I expect books, art, and nature study will continue unplanned. I need to reorganize some areas of our house and intend to enlist their help!
I’m no help as we school 3 weeks on, 1 off year round. We take 2 weeks at Christmas and in the spring and 4 in the summer, but not all at once necessarily. Thought I’d throw it out for those contemplating a year-round kind of different.
You know for summer we school in the morning (or they like to do independent studies at night before bed). The summer doesn’t really change that other than having less to do. We have chickens, ducks to tend to and we do a weekly playdate every wednesday. Then we have project time and swim time. We like to be outside! But we school all year so there is always something going on. Also, this is the time to do more field trips. Boy that sounds like a mess of summer doesn’t it? Well in the end it is very organized as I don’t live without organization. :0)
Well, for 1 glorious week (well, 5 days) my 2 school-aged kids are going to be at camp!
Other than that, there will be 2 different 2-week sessions of swim lessons every morning, 4 days a week…
I haven’t planned otherwise, but will probably have them do some math games, a little bit of copywork (maybe a couple of times a week), and some reading…. Nothing too much
We take 6 weeks off in the summer and I use that time to plan, schedule play dates, and do stuff I tend to not get to during the year (like arts & crafts-type things). Because we are in TX and summers can be miserably hot, I encourage free play in the mornings outside and we go work in the garden early in the mornings. Then, we read, do a project, paint, go swimming, have friends over, etc. in the afternoon to get relief from the heat.
This is all helpful — thank you! I have another question to propse, off of this: how do you determine how many “weeks” to school based on the CM method? So much of what we do that is “school” wouldn’t necessarily line up with our state requirements. I know their hourly requirements but am not sure how to, then, plan mine. (My children are 4, 6, 6, and 8 — so we’re not into college prep stuff yet or more intense curriculum).
Charlotte scheduled her year as terms – 12 weeks each I believe. I do the same. Since in y state we are required to do 180 days that works out for me on both sides 🙂 We do half a term, then take two weeks off. We also take off 4 weeks in June. Our final half term is July and the first two weeks of August then we break again and begin our new year at the beginning of September.
This summer I will definitely schedule lighter days and we will do school in the afternoons during the hottest part of the day.
Tara
I used to school all summer long when my kids were little. Lately, we just do math and reading. This usually takes about an hour. I like having that little bit of structure and they keep moving forward on their skills. This also gives us a little flexibility during the schoolyear to take off a day here of there as needed and not feel like we are behind.
My plan this summer is to be more intentional about playing (educational) games on a more regular basis. There are so many great games out there now that build skills without the kids really knowing that they are learning.
I know I already posted above that we will be doing Swimming for sure… and I am hoping to do more school this summer than in the past….
I was thinking of doing a little unit on drawing that will hopefully be fun for everyone, as well as helpful… Maybe I’ll be brave enough to use the “Drawing with Children” book I own… lol
I’m planning on doing lots of nature study to make up for being cooped up all winter. We did some nature study, but with little ones that can’t handle the cold, it was limited.
I want to take advantage of things like the zoo, nature centre, gardens, farms, hiking trails, etc. in our area. I think we should be able to visit one about every 2 weeks. Then we can do follow up nature journalling and other related activities.
We are going to take advantage of http://www.kidsbowlfree.com on a regular basis, and we’ll take a few weekend family camping trips. We also like to travel all over the city at least a couple of times a week, visiting all the splash parks and our favourite playgrounds. We spend most of the summer outside!
We will continue a family read aloud or two as bedtime stories and continue to hold our regular morning devotional. We’ll read a few living math books and play with math a bit, playing store, measuring with sand or water, etc. I haven’t decided about copywork yet. My oldest is just year 1, so we are just figuring this out. We will probably also do some of the “Outdoor Secrets” lessons that seem more appropriate in the Spring/Summer. DD and I will continue with Burgess Bird book, because we’ve been wanting to get outside and see if we can find some of the birds we are learning about.
I also just got one of those plastic quilt frames, so my daughter and I may tackle a small quilting project. Of course, I’m starting some 1yo twins in my dayhome in July, so we’ll see how smoothly that goes before taking on too many projects.
Joanne
We are also doing kids bowl free! It’s a great opportunity for a family with 7 children! Going to the beach at least every other week, and don’t forget DQ!!! :0)
I plan on doing a “lite” schedule. Keep mathfacts, reading and copywork going. If I see that they get bored I will just throw some other things in. Other then that they will go to VBS, Choir Camp, Missoula’s Children’s Theatre and a sports camp.
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