Friday, April 24, 2015

SUMMER Like WE USED TO DO Before HOMESCHOOLING

SUMMER CAMPS that fill the SOCIALIZATION void

Yeah, you've  heard it before. Homeschoolers need socialization. Yes, they do. My kids spend more time at home now than they ever did.

The bad, the good, and ugly of friendships built in school wasn't always a positive for my younger son and daughter. My oldest kids for some reason seemed to make better choices in the friends they had.
HOMESCHOOL TRADE OFFS

Since I spent most of my child raising years, involved in the traditional school options, getting used to the homeschoolers I'd met opinion of 'mixing with public school children' took some getting used to.

I'd realized that many of my homeschooling peers stuck to 'homeschool' focused extra-curricular activities. But we find that to be to restrictive to our schedules and our kids opportunities to meet and build friendships.

Well because both my husband and I worked outside the home, formerly utilized and enjoyed the options available to mainstream kiddos, we pursued those avenues for our kids.

But when we started homeschooling, it was a real commitment to have time to do Summer Camps, Spring Break Camps, After-school Sports and enrichment activities. It seriously competed with the time we had available to administer homeschool.

The last 2 summers we cut short on the 'summer camp' phase in order to start school in July. Since I had a lot of material to cover to fill in major gaps in my kids learning, and it worked with our working schedules.
NEW FACE TO OUR SUMMER PLACE

This summer the kids begged to have the one part of the traditional school schedule they'd loved the most.  A summer filled with fun and enrichment camps that envolved sleeping away and day camps.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Since the kids are homeschooled, we are able to take them on a LONG Summer Vacation to Hawaii at the end of May with their sister Rose who is scoping out Hawaii as her first stop after graduating from college next year.

After our trip to Hawaii, the kids will have a combination of 4 weeks of various types of sleep away camps, 4 weeks of day camps that focus on trips, a Game Developer's Camp and more short trips to New York, Myrtle Beach and the Cayman Islands.

INSTRUCTION DOESN'T END

They will still be keeping up to date on Math (using Teaching Textbooks as a supplemental math refresher course).

COMBINING THE BEST OF HOMESCHOOLING AND MAINSTREAM ACTIVITIES
Is having the best of both worlds. I'm loving it!

WEEKLY WRAP UP

Two Weeks and Counting! Woot! Woot!


Speed Racer, 6th grader

Math, he is in the middle of his Teaching Textbooks Math 6. Saxon is finished! Language Practice (IXL) is getting done independently and he will be using this for extra Math practice next week and through the summer. Writing, Spelling, Reading and Fractions, are all workbooks this week. He's doing a good job of completing 1 page a day per subject. Vocabulary (Wordsmart) is getting ditched this week. I plan on using a different tool next year.
Lacrosse season is in full gear, and we are squeezing in breakdancing and Martial Arts weekly.

Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader
Had her cellphone taken during school hours as it's been a BIG distraction for her.
Tiger Lilly is happy to realize that she will not have a Test for her Final Exam in either of her classes, but a long paper and a project in Community College in Interpersonal Communication and Art Appreciation are picking up. Finally she's caught up with Web Design with Currclick.com and Python (with Landry Academy). Her Digipen-Animation with 3D Maya YouthDigital.com using Blender Animation is still her favorite classes. The Psychology class with Currclick on Monday was interesting and prompted her to share. Her scores in US History to 1877 using Instantcert are improving, now over 51% and shows she is ready for the test. Pre-Calc is still going well with the integrated IXL for extra practice.
WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. My oldest daughter made a homemade cake for us. I got dinner on the table from Mon-Friday by enlisting the help of Tiger Lilly who prepped food and put it in the oven per my phone call directions.

Cleaning. Didn't get around to cleaning this past weekend, so, I'm moving the task to this coming weekend.

Work & Life Balance. I am behind on work ours this week. I don't want to use my vacation time, so I worked two extra long days this week.

Lesson Planning. Done quickly now that we are in the final weeks of school.

Rest. I actually got 7 hours of sleep 3 days this week. Only 6 hours on the other days though. Saturday I plan to sleep in.

Marriage Check Up. Hubby and I are working on a plan for our 'Big Future' and following a great blog called Go Curry Cracker. We hope to have 2 mini-retirements and fully retired by 56 years old. That's what we did on 'date night' during dinner out - dream up what we want to do in the next 5 years.


2 comments:

  1. Lovely date! Making plans with my gorgeous husband is one of my favourite things to do! Being retired by 56 sounds fab. I hope it works out for you.

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  2. I work outside the home too so summer camp is not an option for my boys. The oldest started summer camp when he was 3 years old (now 15). This summer he will summer camp abroad and my youngest (age 9) will attend his first sleep-away camp. I'm excited for them both. We have never limited social interactions to just homeschool kids. I am an urban homeschooler, so it really wasn't possible. Both boys are members of our neighborhood Boys & Girls Club and it has been a tremendous help to me. I use to build our homeschool around it. A successful day meant that at 3 p.m. they could both head over to the "Club" for games, sports and fun. I got a little peace, could make dinner and decompress. I would love to hear more about the summer camp in the Cayman Islands. That sounds awesome!

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