It has been a LONG time since I have posted on here. My intention in starting this blog was to share our adventures in homeschooling and thus encouraging others in their homeschooling pursuits. Here's the deal, I have not posted in a long time because homeschooling this year has just been THAT successful. This year has been our most awesome year yet...full of fun, learning, fun while learning, social highs, and so much more. In fact, it was SO successful that we find ourselves at the beginning of May and we are just about done with the school year.
My son, Daniel, and I work closely together...he is 8, afterall. Somehow, we managed to just zoom through the work...it was not our goal to go quickly. This was just how it came to be. My daughter, Sierra, works pretty independently...she is 13, afterall. I had doubts about her finishing early...had a goal of maybe mid-May for her. It looks like she will be finishing up next week, though. We are all on a high.
Truthfully, though, I struggled a little bit with ending so early. We are hard wired to think that school runs from the end of August to the end of May (or beginning of June). It was hard for me to let go of that mentality and to just celebrate with my son as he is so excited to get an extended summer holiday.
Many parents I know do school year around...taking long breaks here and there. This appeals to me because the summers here are SO hot and HUMID, there is little you can do but complain about being bored because it is too hot to even drive to go somewhere. I am slowly trying to work that into a possible upcoming schedule. For now, we are enjoying freedom that has been hard earned!!
So, what is on the agenda? What does one do when one finishes up so early?? Can you say FIELD TRIPS!!!??? Oh, am I ever excited. The field trips will be mainly for my son and I (with a friend and her son dragged along with us). We are looking forward to taking a trip down to the SpaceCenter Houston, going on a Crocodile Encounter, visiting the Houston Police Academy for an open house day, possibly popping into the Children's Museum and maybe a trip to the Blue Bell factory....we have even considered a trip to Huntsville to tour the prison museum (and a stop at the Sam Houston statue).
I am a homeschool mom, of course, so my focus has been, for the past couple weeks, the next school year. I have already been packing up this year's work...picking through what I want to keep (Daniel's many poems) and what I want to throw away (worksheets galore). I have already decided on curriculum choices for both kids and am currently trying to sell old curriculum to buy new curriculum.
This summer break will be loaded with new challenges. First of all, my daughter will be starting High School next!! HIGH SCHOOL!!! Could someone please explain to me how that happened?? I was just discussing with Sierra her future. She has all these HS credits she needs to graduate and we have to consider dual credit courses to go towards her college education. I have listened to several parents (support systems are FANTASTIC) and discussed different options with Sierra and she has agreed that after a shortish break from school, she will dive right into high school material. I am very proud of her for making this decision. The reason for this is getting as much of her regular courses done so when it comes time for those cumbersome dual credit courses, she can concentrate on those solely.
The other challenge for the summer is Sierra will be going on her first mission trip!! She will be headed to Germany with her church student ministry group. So, while saving money for curriculum, we are also saving money for Germany. But, as her student pastor said...Joshua only needed heed God and step into the river Jordan and the waters parted.
So...for now, we will enjoy the fact that school year 2012-2013 is done (just about). We will look forward to having some fun. I will post later on our past school year and our school year to come. I will make a concerted effort to post more often. In the meantime, what better way to celebrate the end of the school year than with a nap...yes, I think I will.
My son, Daniel, and I work closely together...he is 8, afterall. Somehow, we managed to just zoom through the work...it was not our goal to go quickly. This was just how it came to be. My daughter, Sierra, works pretty independently...she is 13, afterall. I had doubts about her finishing early...had a goal of maybe mid-May for her. It looks like she will be finishing up next week, though. We are all on a high.
Truthfully, though, I struggled a little bit with ending so early. We are hard wired to think that school runs from the end of August to the end of May (or beginning of June). It was hard for me to let go of that mentality and to just celebrate with my son as he is so excited to get an extended summer holiday.
Many parents I know do school year around...taking long breaks here and there. This appeals to me because the summers here are SO hot and HUMID, there is little you can do but complain about being bored because it is too hot to even drive to go somewhere. I am slowly trying to work that into a possible upcoming schedule. For now, we are enjoying freedom that has been hard earned!!
So, what is on the agenda? What does one do when one finishes up so early?? Can you say FIELD TRIPS!!!??? Oh, am I ever excited. The field trips will be mainly for my son and I (with a friend and her son dragged along with us). We are looking forward to taking a trip down to the SpaceCenter Houston, going on a Crocodile Encounter, visiting the Houston Police Academy for an open house day, possibly popping into the Children's Museum and maybe a trip to the Blue Bell factory....we have even considered a trip to Huntsville to tour the prison museum (and a stop at the Sam Houston statue).
I am a homeschool mom, of course, so my focus has been, for the past couple weeks, the next school year. I have already been packing up this year's work...picking through what I want to keep (Daniel's many poems) and what I want to throw away (worksheets galore). I have already decided on curriculum choices for both kids and am currently trying to sell old curriculum to buy new curriculum.
This summer break will be loaded with new challenges. First of all, my daughter will be starting High School next!! HIGH SCHOOL!!! Could someone please explain to me how that happened?? I was just discussing with Sierra her future. She has all these HS credits she needs to graduate and we have to consider dual credit courses to go towards her college education. I have listened to several parents (support systems are FANTASTIC) and discussed different options with Sierra and she has agreed that after a shortish break from school, she will dive right into high school material. I am very proud of her for making this decision. The reason for this is getting as much of her regular courses done so when it comes time for those cumbersome dual credit courses, she can concentrate on those solely.
The other challenge for the summer is Sierra will be going on her first mission trip!! She will be headed to Germany with her church student ministry group. So, while saving money for curriculum, we are also saving money for Germany. But, as her student pastor said...Joshua only needed heed God and step into the river Jordan and the waters parted.
So...for now, we will enjoy the fact that school year 2012-2013 is done (just about). We will look forward to having some fun. I will post later on our past school year and our school year to come. I will make a concerted effort to post more often. In the meantime, what better way to celebrate the end of the school year than with a nap...yes, I think I will.
RSS Feed