Do you do school in the summer?....Yep, because school is life, and life is school and since we are not taking the summer off from life we will be continuing school. And for a few of my friends just starting to homeschool this summer I thought that I would share with you a bit of wisdom I have learned in my three summers of schooling. Summers are my time to learn.
Now, I learn all the year long, lets be honest, I also cook, clean, work, practice, run errands, and worry all year long too. But not in the summer (just kidding) I do all those things in the summer too, but since we eat outside and we play outside and we go and do and see the world we are home a lot less and so the cooking, cleaning, working and practicing decreases, and actually so does the worry....everyone else is getting the summer off from learning so anything my kids get to learn is extra credit right?
The kids love living in the summer and so do I. I love that I put a blanket in the back of my car and an armful of books and where ever we end up will be enjoyable...provided someone filled the stainless steel water bottles :)
I once heard the DeMille's say that summer is for family and for relationships. What is better than playing, reading, sitting, working and exsisting together all summer long. So while they are playing and running and living and learning I will sit on my blanket and read and read and read....minimal cleaning up involved.
So here is our summer schedule...which will ofcourse last about a week.
5:30 Wake Up'ish
6:00 Milk Goats/Animal Care (dude takes over for Dad, Chip feeds, Chipper waters)
6:30 Breakfast Outside on the deck (made by marvelous moo)
Devotional (right now we are reading the Book of Mormon, The Illustrated Story of the Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and The Old Testament
Stories)
7:30 Family Chores...8 jobs for over 8 year olds, 6 jobs for 6 year olds
8:30 Devotional (right now we are reading poetry, and library books)
9:00 Family work....deep cleaning each part of the house
10:30 Reading Time (I read a biography, I read a chapter in a book I want to read and I read a
chapter in a book I want them to read. Each day I finish the biography...these are not too
long. In about two weeks I finish the and the book I want to read, and I never finish the
book I want them to read...if they want to finish it then they have to pick it up and read
it :) ..although sometimes I sneak back in and finish it myself)
11:30 Mommy Time. Once a week each of my kids get an hour to pick what they want to do
with me...all by themselves for the whole hour. Moo and I have been reading some books
together, Dude and I have been working on scouts and playing games, Chip wants
swimming lessons and so I gave her a goal to be able to work on holding her breath to
show me she REALLY wants lesson and is willing to work hard to do it, and Chipper he
just likes to spend time together reading, talking, coloring, playing, anything.
12:30 Lunch...Picnic taken to wherever we will be spending our afternoon.
Free Time at an undisclosed outdoor location where there may or may not be mommy
directed activities but there will be lots of running and climbing and chasing and
exploring and mommy will be reading and reading and reading all my stacks of books.
4:00 Dinner, outside on the deck and clean up.
5:00 Family Activities....too many of these in the summer. These summer evernings are the only thing that makes me wish for winter, going to bed early, snuggling up on the couch, reading a book together. Summers look like work, and fun and others....those things are good too, but sometimes I'm going to sneak a blanket and snuggle up with someone.
8:30-9:00 Way, way, way, past my bed time. Good night.
Looks great! What do you eat for breakfast though that you can last that long until lunch? We eat breakfast at 8:30 and we are all straving by 11:30. We have green smoothies.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a goodreads account? I'd love to see what you are reading.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that at Reading Time every day we have a snack. We usually have fruits and veggies or popcorn or chips and salsa ...and if we need motivation to get our family work done then we sometimes have a treat. Last week when it was warm one day we had ice cream....yummm. I think I'll learn how to make homemade ice cream this summer from our goats milk. The snack holds us over until lunch and also encourages the kids to hurry and finish up their work, and come to reading time.
ReplyDeleteI like your schedule! However, my 12 yo DD and 11 yo DD are saying "Please Mom, don't use her schedule!" lol The thought of 8 jobs plus deep cleaning a zone is making them cower in a corner! :-)
ReplyDeleteQuestion- What do the other children do while you're having one on one Mommy time?
Also, how many children do you have, and what ages?
I have 11 at home, ages 3, 4, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 12, 14, 16.
Thanks.
p.s. - Another question, Do you make dinners ahead of time? In a crock pot? Being gone in the afternoon usually sets my dinner out later. We like to eat at 6, but I'd really like to eat earlier.
Cowering in the corner sometimes happens at my house too :) Our jobs look like cooking, wiping off the table, loading the dishwasher, unloading the dishwasher, hanging up laundry to dry, folding and puting away laundry, sweep, wipe out bathroom sinks, sweep bathrooms, etc.
ReplyDeleteMy other children play independently while I am having mommy time. Sometimes they want to come and interrupt and I remind them.."do you like to be interrupted during your mommy time?"...they always promptly leave because they know how they feel when someone uses up their time. They are allowed to stay in the yard, or the house and do whatever they please as long as it is not rough-housing, disturbing anyone else, or making a mess that they can't clean up. Usually they play the piano, read a book, or play outside with the animals, or play with each other. My oldest like to play "little school" where she is the teacher to the younger children...and they love that too, so they do that while I am having mommy time with my son. When my oldest daughter is having mommy time my son usually leads out and initiates something with the younger children.
I have four children. I wish I had 11...how wonderful!...and challenging I am sure. 10, 9, 6 and 6. We have not been able to have more but we continue praying about it :)
Dinners....I usually soak my dinners so I start my beans or rice or breads in the morning or overnight and then about an hour before dinner time I start them cooking. We don't eat a lot of meat so that saves on cooking time. Everything else I make...other than the soaked ingredience takes about 30 minutes to cook so I can do that when we return home before dad gets home. It just takes a little more planning from me. On the days I didn't plan very well we have breakfast for dinner....and at my house no one complains about that. Happy Summer to you!