Summer of Socialization!

WHAT SUMMER CAMPS DO FOR HOMESCHOOLING!

This year we are going into our 3rd year as homeschoolers. Now we are at a point where we have realized our freedom to do it our way.

I've given my kids a lot of say so in their educational and social experience and they've greatly surprised me and blossomed with the power of having an 'opinion'


DAY CAMPS

This has been a great tool in gaining my kids new and lasting friendships. They see the same kids everyday. Get cellphone numbers and connect on video games in the evening. These friendships have even evolved into weekend play dates.

SLEEP AWAY CAMPS

Both kids participated in 4 weeks of sleep away camps this year. They loved it. It got my shy Tiger Lilly out of her shell and gained her some friends with like interest that she now skypes online with. My little guy was able to run, play and do lots of fun things he can't do at him.


THE DECISION GOING FORWARD IS

To always do summer camps. Trying to do at least 2 months of it will fulfill my kiddos need to socialize. However, we have agreed that starting back at the beginning of August is a good thing and will help them from not losing all they've gained in their learning.

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.

Sibling Rivalry and Quarrel Mediation

How to get kids to get along

Sibling Rivalry is a big issue - especially for homeschooling kids that spend A LOT of time together. I've fought this in several ways:

(1) Have Rules Posted (like: Say it nice. Give Space. Respect Each Other. Apologize.)
(2) If they both bicker, they both pay the price (We have warnings and chores. If they break the Posted Rules - they have to do a chore, spend time facing each other until they laugh and hug)
(3) Don't allow hitting or physical agression (have a stiff punishment for this - like removal of game system
(4) When they break the rules - punish them both. (in some cases this doesn't work but most times it makes them draw closer).

What another crazy week

Another Wonky Week! This has got to stop! Lol! I can't seem to nail down a set schedule to save my life. I think we must have the winter willies.

I had some appointments on Monday, so the kids pretty much did their work independently.

Black History Month Kick-off! We are doing our African American History by watching movies this month.

SELMA was wonderful! The kids loved it and stayed glued to the movie for the duration. It had a lot of great discussion points for us.

A chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.

Snow Boarding Planned for the weekend! My kids love to snowboard, snowtube and tons of other cold weather stuff. I hate it, but am squeezing in another snowday adventure with all the kids (including my college ones Razor Ray and Rose)

Summer Camp Planning and the ending of our Year Around School. Speed Racer and Tiger Lilly requested a fun summer. You know the kind they had before homeschooling, lol! Well I decided to book them a ton of summer camps. Tiger Lilly will be going to Landry Game Design Camp and will attend Camp Wabanna, River Valley Ranch and Highpoint sleepaway camps with her brother Speed Racer. In addition, in between sleep away camp they will go to a fun day camp that is action packed with trips to amusement parks, museums and tons of fun from June 14th til Aug 8th. It's what I did with them while they were in traditional school. Now it's time to bring it back.

Unexpected drama. My college kids got their car towed and had a dispute with the college apartment complex because of it. Hubba went to check it out, pay for the car to get out of tow. The same day, late that evening, Rose went to a class she is taking at another college, left her car lights on, and killed her battery. She called her dad who walked her through getting a guard to help her at the school (it was 10pm at night and she was scared).

This Week's Scoop
Back to a 5 day schedule

Speed Racer, 6th grader

He worked pretty well independently this week. This month though we'll be finishing his Abeka curriculum O_o so I will have to come up with an easy, independent and fun curriculum for him this Spring. (stay tuned)

He didn't work on his MOD Design (Java beginner curriculum) because he had some technical issues and I didn't have time to walk him through the directions sent from Youth Digital to fix his programming code. Clever Dragons - he did this a few times this week but he doesn't like their math so he's sticking with the Spanish and Literature. WordSmart (vocabulary software program) he actually likes doing independently.

He is making it successfully and independently through Time4Writing [Paragraphs] now and making a high 'B'.

The evenings (we've been starting late this week - around 4pm) I worked with him with Saxon Math, Spelling You See, Abeka Academy [Bible, Language, Reading, Penmanship, Science & History]. We did a few days of copywork for Anatomy, Fraction Practice Review Sheets and he practiced Piano with Simply Music and I had him write down the notes for each key he played in the song for the week.

He did two days (2 hours) of dance and acrobatics practice as well as 2 days of martial arts.

Tiger Lilly, blended 9th grader

Tiger Lilly finally confirmed her 'B' in her college English 121 she took this winter.

Some of her classes ended this week. This was the last week of her Currclick, Money Doesn't Grow on Trees class that ended her Economics course study this year. She finished her Chemistry with Abeka but is now doing it with Education-Portal (yeah, she wanted to since she will be taking Chemistry next year in college).

She basically works on these classes four days a week. Her online college courses are in their 2nd week and she's getting in a rythm (Sociology, Interpersonal Communication and Art Appreciation) although we both agreed she'd need to start on her reading for each class on Sunday's since its so much reading in a week. 

Two days this week she worked on Web Design with Currclick (she just got her book for it and has some projects to make up over the weekend), Python class (she's finishing up her program and it looks good! Her sister reviewed it with her on Thursday), Psychology with Currclick was great this week (she doesn't get much homework from this class - just reading). Blender Animation with Youth Digital.

One day this week she has Digipen-Animation with 3D Maya (started last Saturday and she LOVES it! There were 7 other students loggin in for all over the world).

Her daily Pre-Calc with Abeka is doing well and she's been making high grades on her test and quizzes. US History to 1877 Review with Instantcert she is doing well on memorizing the facts off the flashcards since she plans to take this CLEP in May. She did a Diagnostic Test with CLEP Professor Algebra and did better than we expected as she works through a lesson a day.

She does two days of martial arts and 1 day (an hour) of Hip Hop dance.

WORKING PARENT's LOG

Meals. I'm on a roll again! I had a hot dinner on the table every night (even though I worked 2 long days). Thank you crockpot.

Cleaning. Have to find time to paint, but don't know when. Still putting away clothes. The floors have to be mopped, walls washed down and carpets cleaned - but that will not get done this weekend.

Work & Life Balance. Not working this week. I took off Monday for some appointments and had to work 2 - 12 hour days to make up that time. Let's just say - exhausted - this week. Saturday here I come (I sleep in on Saturday's).

Lesson Planning. So much easier now that I don't have to put as much Abeka lessons and homeworks in for Tiger Lilly. I finished next week's.

Rest. Got 5 to 6 hours sleep this week. Also, I didn't get my power naps in because I worked long days. Grrrrrr.

Marriage Check Up. Hoping to get one this Saturday. This week we were ships passing and tagging each other to do homeschool. I did text him to tell him he's great and that I love him.