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What are your summer plans? Do you continue academics over summer, but maybe lighter or different? What fun activities do you do?

 

Our plans include:

ds finishing Conceptual Physics (at his request, because "why should (he) limit his learning to a school year?")

some field trips related to our current study of California history, and some for fun

listening to Ian McKellean reading Fagles' translation of The Odyssey, and reading The Glorious Adventure by Richard Halliburton

Dd (my slooow reader) has pledged to read Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away over the summer break

lots of swimming, fun with friends, lazy mornings, some camping if dh can get the time off from work....

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Robotics, sewing, music, DD may assist with a 2 week drama camp, hopefully a family trip, etc.

 

For the more traditional academic side, we will take a couple of weeks off at the beginning and end of summer plus a week off in the middle if all goes as planned.  We won't be doing a full thing, but math will continue 3-4 days a week as will reading.  Anything else will be interest led...

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We school year round, so we will be continuing more of the same, lol.  Doesn't that sound fun?  :P  I'm actually really nervous about the neighbor kids playing outside all day while my kids are stuck in the house doing schoolwork.

 

(Although, seriously, with the heat and the mosquitoes here, why would you want to be outside in June when you could be outside in April or October?  Maybe my kids will see the sense in that.)

 

We do at least have a one-week music day camp to break it up.

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fun plans:

 

Swim lessons - boys

Family camp (church)- all of us

teen camp/ photography camp  - dd12

VBS - younger three

Visit family in AZ

summer basketball league - dd10

 

 

School plans:

 

Piano lessons

Continue with - MUS, SOTW, and finish up any odds and ends of their textbooks/workbooks we didn't finish during the year.

 

 

 

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(Not a homeschooler here, but we school some during the summer.)

 

Kids will attend weekly math camp; week-long camps centering around science, geography, arts; one-week back-to-school academic camp.

 

We plan to travel for about 2 weeks, this year in Canada.  Will try to make it educational.  :)

 

Plan to informally go through some Beast Academy, MCT, Story of the World, and a variety of other books related to school skills.  Will probably complete a "bridge" workbook and wrap up stuff we / the school didn't finish during the school year.

 

Lots of reading.  May or may not do the library summer reading club.

 

Plan to learn chess so the kids can join the school chess club next fall.

 

Musical instruments - continue piano / refresh guitar.  If school orchestra is an option for 4th grade, we'll start new instruments to get ready for that.

 

Visiting museums, maybe the zoo (if we're not too old for that ;) ).

 

Camping with scouts / 4H.  Also thinking of trying a regular outdoor activity at the nearby national park conservancy program - either volunteer or just for learning.

 

Working on some badges for scouts.

 

Swim team, TKD, gymnastics, horse riding, archery, bike riding in the national park.

 

Learning life skills.

 

Moving into their new bedrooms.  Possibly getting a couple of new fish.

 

Lots of free time outdoors.

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My rising tenth grader (:eek:) will spend four weeks at an Arabic immersion camp, earning her second high school credit in Arabic.

 

She will also visit her best friend out-of-state for ten days.

 

Other than that, I predict a lot of fiction reading, eating of berries and peaches, and general relaxing. She has a strong schedule this year and an even-stronger one next year.

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My 7.5yo will go to a week long overnight camp in the woods with the YMCA, and the same week 4yo will go to a week long day camp at the local YMCA. The 7.5yo will also go to a week long day camp at the science museum a few weeks later, learning about things that live in the oceans, including doing some dissections of sea creatures, and the same week my 4yo will be going to a week long day camp at the science museum as well, learning things about water and playing at the water table. So those two weeks are going to be my sanity breaks for the summer and are already paid in full. I'm still considering if I want to do a camp the first week of September (the last week of summer break), or not. There are fewer choices for that week, and I don't know yet. I'll probably decide on that in August, if there's still place somewhere we like, and we decide we're willing to spend the money, and if not, oh well.

 

They will both continue their TKD classes during the summer, as those are year-round and they're each supposed to attend 2+ times a week. I'll probably have them in swim lessons as well, but it's too early to sign them up yet (they're currently taking swim lessons, so it would make sense to continue during the summer, whether through lessons or just going to the pool).

 

I'll probably start working on phonics with my oldest again. He also wants trumpet lessons, so we may give those for his birthday in August, which means he may start those in August (but we'd still need to find a teacher - I don't know anything about trumpets other than that they're not *my* first choice, but he's been talking about trumpet for over a year now).

 

Other than that, not sure yet. Summer break here doesn't even start until the end of June anyway.

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My rising first grader will continue on with her regular school load for the most part.

 

No set academics during her two week road trip/camping trip with DH. Obviously she will learn camping stuff then. And the route takes them through Montreal for some French exposure.

 

One week of 1/2 day science camp and two weeks of 1/2 day art camp, we'll with skip academics or keep them brief during those weeks.

 

Lots of time at the pool with hopes of getting her over her fear of going underwater. Lots of books, especially during the part of summer when it's too hot to be comfortable.

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My younger will do a couple of weeks of horse camp (day camp) and swimming lessons.  My big girl will do a week of sleep-away advanced horse camp. This is the first summer they won't do theater camp or any theater-related stuff - we've got a family reunion & camping trip planned in July.  Other than that, I do want to continue with Math and Spanish, and I want to do Natural History/field observations/Nature journaling and some goofy science kits dd8 loves - stuff it's hard to find time to do during the year. That's all I'm going to shoot for - trying to keep expectations low (and realistic) this summer.

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Summer is when the temperature hits 100degF here so we actually do more school work. This year my kids are kind of bored with summer camps so they have picked none.

 

Academic

- finishing their CTY online class in June

- starting their AoPS class in June

- memorise German vocabulary and verbs that they covered in their German school

 

Fun (tentative)

- do the experiments in Make Electronics book that we already have components for first, then top up on what we need.

- splurge on a chemistry kit and have fun. Haven't decide on whether to buy the TK C3000 or the microchem kit.

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1 week residential summer program (science/math)

1 week family vacation

1 week music day camp (DD attends, I teach)

5 day international herpetology conference

4 day cheer day camp

 

Interspersed-

Lots of bio field work, math review, and DD's special topic for the summer, which this year is "what happened after the end of SOTW 4" (Her choice-I think it's going to involve reading lots of old magazines and newspaper articles). She'll also continue tumbling classes and cheer practice.

 

 

 

 

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Spanish -- We're doing a whole lot of Spanish.

Reading -- We're going to be reading in Spanish and English.

Math -- We're just going to keep on, keeping on.

Composition -- Guided Analysis from Treasured Conversations approach.

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We will be reading some Shakespeare in our book club and then the kids will each take a part and rewrite it in their own styles and then perform. I think that should be fun!

 

We will also participate in a couple of summer book clubs.

 

Find more time to go to our local Makerspace and work on individual projects.

 

Middle DS needs to finish his math for the year and older DS needs to continue with his math at a slower pace.

 

Spend some time on Scottish history and writers/poets in preparation of our trip to Scotland! So excited.

 

Temps are easily around 115 degrees here and high humidity, so we mostly stay indoors.

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We usually take off from Memorial Day to July 1, completely, and then we take three or four weeks in July to start work, just a few subjects the first week, then a few more the next, and so on.

 

Kids will have a week of karate camp in June.

 

Next year, we are trying something a little different with school. We will be starting in early July, but we will be doing just art, music, picture study, literature, and science. I might include geography in there too, haven't decided. These are the things that are hard to get to every week, so we will do them in a big chunk in July. I'm really looking forward to giving art and music study the time they deserve; they get squeezed in here and there, and they need some time.

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Schedule from now until September:

 

Continue with regular schedule until the end of June (we have a week off as a late spring break around the 1st week of May).

 

June 27 to July 6 - break

 

July 7 to August 10 - Summer School Schedule: math, writing, Spanish, and Latin - 5 days a week; history - 2 days a week, science - 3 days a week; swim lessons

 

August 11-18 - Audubon Family Camp

 

August 19 until the day after Labor Day - OFF

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I'm trying to school year round because I work full time and our weeks are often incomplete as it is. But i'm finding with it FINALLY being nice out that we just aren't keeping up as well with the school work :/ We do a lot of gardening (OK mostly me, but the kids are around me when I do it anyway :) hiking, swimming and anything outdoors to soak up the few precious warmish months we get in the North! So we will try to keep plugging but I'm not kidding myself into thinking we will get a ton done!

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I'll probably make sure math and reading keep happening.  Whether we end up doing more schoolish stuff depends on what I end up finding to fill our days in June.  If we don't have a whole lot of other stuff to do, we'll probably keep doing the next thing for school, just because everybody gets cranky at our house if there's no structure. ;)

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We take summers off from formal schoolwork. We typically wrap up mid May, and by August DS is ready to hit the books again and get back into routine. Last year we had four separate week long visitations from friends and family AFTER we'd planned to get back to schoolwork, and he was really upset. This year I refuse to let that happen. Why can't people understand that our schedule deserves respect, just as they wouldn't question a ps schedule?

 

Anyway, we have some fun things coming up:

 

 

 

Possibly a week long sleep over running camp (first time)

 

Weekly birding outing with a group

 

Sports--track, swimming, and a full schedule of triathlons, 5 and 10ks, and road bike racing

 

Lots of time at the beach soaking up our short but very awesome summertime

 

Plenty of visits from out of state family and friends

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We usually wind down over the summer. After we finish something, we don't pick up anything new until Aug except with math and reading. Once we finish our math texts, the girls will do LoF until Aug and reading is just on going.

 

We are planning a lot of mini-trips over the summer, though. Helen Keller's birthplace, Huntsville Space Center, Rosa Parks Museum, Harriet Tubman Museum, Civil War Naval Museum, Aviation Museum in Warner Robins, Providence Canyons, Cloudland Canyons, Ruby Falls, etc... I hope to go somewhere every week until Coop starts up in September. I really wanted to do a RV year next year, but we just cannot make it work financially, unfortunately. So we're going to spend a lot of time in tents, hotels, and at friends and famiy over the summer.

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Taking a break from formal mathematics, ramping up Language Arts, and staying the course with Konos-inspired unit studies with my rising second grader.

 

 

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Daily math drill

Intensive spelling instruction!

Summer reading

VBS x2 (once with my church and once at grandma's)

Church camp

 

Each summer we do some fun science. Last year we did a chicken dissection/mummification and Egyptian study for 6 weeks (it was great!) This summer, more dissections (we also have the chicken we'll bring out to look at, why not?). Owl pellets, worm, frog, and... one more (suggestions?).

Possibly a literature study. Possibly.

 

ETA: I love having fun summer school. I'm also looking forward to planning next year and taking time to work on some coursera classes!

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As a family we will have 10 days vacation and the girls will do the woodturners convention with grandma again. The 3 of us will do 1 wk Chamber Music day camp together (I may help teach again),

 

My older daughter is my child who does not know how to relax and just chill. She wants to: finish Biology, do Fred Trigonometry, finish Second Form Latin, MP Lit class on Midsummer Night's Dream and 2 week long local teen Shakespeare workshop, 1 wk figure skating camp, and lots of ice skating and piano.

 

Younger daughter knows how to chill. She plans a 1 day kayak adventure at local nature reserve, 1 wk digital photography day camp, and she will continue AOPS algebra, piano and violin. She may volunteer at some of our church's summer day camps (older daughter wants to do this too, but I don't see how she can add anything else).

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Piano lessons stop by Memorial Day, and I think the activity group does, too. Regular school through June 26.

One week of little or no schoolwork.

Summer schedule July 6 - September 4: math and reading as usual, handwriting, Song School Spanish (CD only), the Private Eye, MBtP Economic Cycles, poetry, probably some grammar, and some art.  It'll probably take about as long as school does now, or a little less--that is, not very long. I imagine we'll get to the pool, hang more with the PS friends, and relax.

 

Second-grade work starts on Labor Day (although legally the new school year starts July 1).

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Spanish -- We're doing a whole lot of Spanish.

Reading -- We're going to be reading in Spanish and English.

Math -- We're just going to keep on, keeping on.

Composition -- Guided Analysis from Treasured Conversations approach.

 

If you add in Bible and switch out the Spanish for Latin, this is pretty much our summer plan.

 

Academic Core:

Bible Reading -- continue with our Essential 100 Challenge (read 100 passages aloud)

Latin -- plodding along with Latin

Reading -- we call this Book Club, and we are going to keep reading through our book list

Math -- keep on, keeping on

Composition -- WWE & WWS, keep making progress

 

Other Stuff:

Swimming in the pool

Physical fitness -- aim to get all of us in better shape

VBS #1

VBS #2

Music theory & piano lessons

Christian doctrine

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We school year-round, so we will be keeping up with LA, math and music, but I'm pondering taking a break in science, geography and history and starting up again in August. If we get a chance, I've compiled a bunch of poetry resources I'd like to get to, but haven't yet.

 

As far as extracurriculars...I'm still working on it. Originally DD wanted to take a break from tumbling, but now she wants to continue. If she takes a break, I'm considering putting her in voice lessons (her request) and circus arts (aerials - to build her arm strength, which is holding her back with tumbling.) The neighbors do more horseback riding in the summer, so she'll likely do that, plus as many trips to the pool she can talk me into. 

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We school year round especially since the summers here in Houston are crazy hot and humid. none of us want to be outside and we don't have access to a pool on a consistent basis. We are taking lots of time off during April before the heat hits in May and we'll take lots of time off in the fall as well. However our summer stays about as busy with extracurriculars as it is during the school year.

 

Vacation to visit family in Arkansas (late May-early June)

Vacation Bible School (2nd week in June)

Swimming lessons for Sophia (end of June)

Four hours of ballet for Grace each week (3 weeks in June and 3 weeks in July)

Children's theater production of Charlotte's Web (June)

 

We'll keep our regular academic schedule as much as possible as well.

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We will break for 10-12 weeks, beginning mid-May. During that time we will do some math review games, word problems and puzzles. My kids always read lots and our summer RA will be LOTR. They have about 1/3 of VP sp history to finish, but they do not consider that work! Scienice kits too fall into this description. Piano practice still happens here most days, even in summer and we do a lesson every three or four weeks just to keep them in new stuff to work on.

 

Our summer activities include lots of swimming, VBS, a week of camp for each (the same week so I can finish up my school year prep with them elsewhere) and an out of town wedding Memorial Day weekend. Dd and I will be going to the AHG convention in late June. Ds has asked for some tennis lessons. Dd will get some horseback riding for her birthday gift.

 

Lots of staying up late with friends, grilling out, catching lightning bugs, gardening, a minor league baseball game or two, bike riding, creek wading, homemade popsicles, golf with Dh, spending the night at my mom's, a trip to the science center, nature walks and programs at the park - pretty standard summer stuff, but fun and relaxing.

 

We hope to take a vacation in September so not much traveling in the summer.

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