First Day of Summer School

Today marked Day 01 of our summer school session. I made the mistake of referring to it simply as a summer session and my middle child said, "Huh? What's that mean?" so I went back to the long version. I'll have to remember to tell her to look up the word. Anyway, if a first day of any activity can be any kind of indicator in this household of ours, summer school should pan out fairly well. I have to say we did really well today and I'm proud of my baby goats for sticking with it and getting their work done on time. I put a little more effort into forming a plan of action for the weeks I wanted to be doing school by modifying the use of a Unit Study Planner that I found through Newbee Homeschooler's blog. I used Unit Study planner page 4b but I used it as a basic curriculum planner, not to plan unit studies. I like the idea of unit studies but I am having a hard time wrapping my head around it so we still use textbooks, literature books and workbooks. I only make a basic plan because I like to retain some flexibility and I also have to plan for 3 students, one of whom will be graduating soon. I find it extremely frustrating when I take tons of time and make a meticulous plan only to find it gets tossed aside after the first two weeks because one child got sick or we had to make an unplanned trip. Those kinds of things are detrimental to my sanity so using the KISS method is the best for me.

I really am looking forward to having lots of fun-filled learning experiences with my baby goats this summer, especially since the first day went so well. We'll probably have some bad days but with a good start, we have a better chance of succeeding. My two youngest will tackle 4 subjects and my oldest will tackle 5. We'll just be brushing up on our skills and keeping what we've already learned fresh in our minds. Now some people say, "Well, they /need/ a summer break." Really? If that's so, then why are so many other kids complaining of boredom already? Besides, by only taking a 3 week break, I'm certain my kids will be ready to go when the next school year arrives. And I'm equally certain that more of the skills they learned throughout the previous school year will remain intact. So without further ado, tally ho! Onward to a vast wealth of knowledge!

Laugh a lot and remember to breathe!