With this last year being our first year of home schooling it was a matter of learning and adapting as we went. I fully intended to take the whole summer off like a public school but in the end we decided on doing what I refer to as modified school during the summer. We did this for two reasons. The first reason is that being from a family with a lot of educators I have heard often how much information students tend to loose over the summer and how teachers have to play catch up and review each fall when school starts again. They have no choice but to have to do that in the schools who close for the summer but with us having a choice to avoid that it saves a lot of time. Also, there were some things we didn't get finished during the school year and we needed to finish up over the summer. While I felt we covered a lot of material and we did well for our first year trying it, there were areas we fell behind that needed to be finished for me to feel comfortable passing the kids on to the next grade. Luckily we had the summer to accomplish this.
For us our modified school during the summer consisted of doing three summer reading programs with the kids and of doing math and spelling two to three days a week. It actually worked out great and the kids have been able to fall back into school this Fall more easily and we still had plenty of time for fun during the summer.
There is no way I can go into detail on all the fun things we did this summer because I would be here posting all night but the highlights of the summer included visiting both sets of the kids' grandparents, a pool party for the end of religion classes at church, a hike with the Cubscouts, lots of activities at the library such as game days, zumba classes, and cookie contests, Landon's First Communion and party afterwards, tons of soccer games, a trip to the Science Spectrum for their Critter Fest where we saw all sorts of animals including a reptile show and a tiger show, a trip to Colorado that included miniature golf, go-cats, bumper cars, Tiny Town with a train ride, lots of swimming, Elich's Amusement Park, the Minions Movie, Dart Warz(Nerf Gun Wars), and tons of time with cousins, and a trip to Dallas that included the Dallas Zoo and Six Flags Over Texas and a friend's birthday party that included bowling, laser tag and video games. We had so much fun!
I have seen my kids blossom in the past year more then I could have imagined. Looking back at this time last year my oldest was sad and somewhat broken from all the bullying, my middle son was worried about not returning to public school and not sure what home schooling would really mean and my youngest was just along for the ride. Watching how much they have grown in the past year and the true joy they have with life and the excitement they have now is astonishing. I now have a super confident son in my oldest who really has his feet on the ground with his faith, knew massive amounts of information and really took his First Communion seriously, and is now an altar server at church. My middle son is thriving in the home school environment and many of the gaps he came in with in his education from the public schools have been filled and he actually really enjoys lessons at times with our schooling. My youngest has really developed a personality of his own and is excited to try new things daily. We have been blessed the last year in ways we couldn't even imagine with this choice to home school and I am so thankful God led us to this decision. I am looking forward to this school year more then ever!
There are too many pictures to even begin knowing that to post so I will leave you with just one as this was by far the most important event that happened all summer. Congratulations on your First Communion Landon! We are so proud of you.
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