This year’s Summer School

Soooo, it’s been a while since I last posted.  Life has gotten in the way with 3 ER visits (nothing too major, crutches (me not the kids), trips to Mayo for Christian, summer sickness, and the general summer craziness.

I’m hoping the “exciting” part of summer is over and we can settle into just the general summer crazies.  July will be busy with visits to my parents’ farm to visit with my sisters, church camp, fair, and Totus Tuus (a.k.a.  fabulous Catholic Bible school).

I’ve had requests to share what we will be doing for school this summer, so here are all the details for those of you who asked.

Our Summer School Philosophy

We “school year round, but only do not do a full load of coursework in the summer.  I’ve found some form of summer school creates a more peaceful routine, helps us shore up weak academic areas, takes pressure off our academic school year, and prevents wasting time in review every fall.

Our summer school focuses on the 3Rs plus any work where I feel the student needs extra practice before the coming year.

We start our academic year in early August and finish when we have completed the material (which is usually early May).  I don’t sit down and plan out all our school weeks on a calendar.  Instead, we are finished when we are finished.

This philosophy or rigorous flexibility has served us well for those unforeseen events.  And even though I know that every 3 months we’ll spend 3 days at Mayo for Christian’s follow-ups, I cannot plan ahead for them.

How much time is spent during summer school?

In the summer, we aim to school 4 days a week and then the 5th day is for shopping/gardening/nature study.  Obviously, some weeks there is little to no formal schooling.

For instance, in July my oldest will miss three full weeks of schooling for visiting the farm, church camp, and Totus Tuus.

I’m not hard lined about any of this, but, as Husband always says, I just try to advance the ball down the court.

Our Summer School Plans

Lowell (soon-to-be 6th grader)

Typing this, I realize it looks like a lot, but (ideally) this can all be completed well before lunch time.

• Saxon math
  • 30 minutes (he will work through an entire lesson in 2-3 days, ideally)
• Writing
  • Lepanto Grammar 6 (using just the sections on writing a good paragraph)
  • Nature Notebooking
  • Writing 4-H reports (he has several projects that need reports)
• Latin
  • Using Classical Academic Press Primer A (this is mostly review since we’ve already completed Memoria Press’s Latina Christiana
  • This is definitely not something we do every week but pick up about every other week.
• Reading
  • 1 hour or required reading during our family quiet hour
  • You can see more about our required reading list here
• Music
  • 30 minutes of practice/lesson from Hoffman Academy online
• PE
  • Family Time PE 4 days per week
  • Train for a 5K with mom
  • This subject was added after we realized how much Christian’s last two years of illness affected his physical aptitude.  The importance of this subject was further confirmed when his doctors suggested it for helping him learn better.  Unfortunately, with my broken toe, we haven’t accomplished a single lesson.  I think I’m just now up for it!
• Typing
  • We are correcting some bad typing habits that snuck in because I was not monitoring his typing lessons enough(we use Typing.com)
  • We want to be fairly solid on this going into the year so that some of his writing edits can be done on the computer.

Christian (soon-to-be -sort-of-a 2nd grader)

Christian is now totally off of anti-seizure meds and he continues to brighten each and every day!  We praise God every day for this blessing- thank you so much for those of you who said you were praying for us!!!

It has been such a miracle to see his body and brain recovering from the trauma of the last 2 years.  Just a few months ago, he couldn’t add 1 to any number without a lot of help and just this morning he worked 6 problems in his math in 45 seconds!  His reading has made progress too instead of just holding steady.  He amazes us daily with his development!!!

If you don’t know Christian’s story, you can read more about it here.  I obviously need to update that post as so much has changed!

• Math
  • Abeka K (Looks like we’ll finish this before August- yah!)
  • Math Seeds (This comes with his Reading Eggs program.  We allow him 45 minutes to work on either program.)
• Reading
  • 100 Easy Lessons ( We are picking this back up since he has begun to make progress again.  I hope to finish this before August too.)
  • Reading Eggs (We will keep practicing the first 100 lessons of this program.  The lessons after that encourage too much sight reading for my comfort!)
• PE
  • Family Time PE 4 days per week
  • This subject was added after we realized how much Christian’s last two years of illness affected his physical aptitude.  The importance of this subject was further confirmed when his doctors suggested it for helping him learn better.  Unfortunately, with my broken toe, we haven’t accomplished a single lesson.  I think I’m just now up for it!
• Penmanship
  • Seton K

Lila (age 5)

I’m not to rigid with Lila’s school.  Sometimes I just let her play with Michael while I school the others.  Other days, she begs to do her lessons and then I am more than happy to oblige.

• Math
  • Abeka K
• Reading
  • 100 Easy Lessons
  • Seton Phonics K (I’m not crazy about this book, but Lila loves the workbook!)
• PE
  • Family Time PE 4 days per week
  • This subject was added after we realized how much Christian’s last two years of illness affected his physical aptitude.  The importance of this subject was further confirmed when his doctors suggested it for helping him learn better.  Unfortunately, with my broken toe, we haven’t accomplished a single lesson.  I think I’m just now up for it!
• Penmanship
  • Seton K

That’s all!  Do you have questions about our school or want to know more about curriculums or what we’re doing?  I’d love to answer your questions.