Home school, public school, private school, preschool, unschool. It doesn't matter where it is, if you're kids are excited about learning then you're doing it right. Our kids were incredibly excited about getting back to school. We had a fantastic summer, in spite of the heat. I figured they would rebel and suggest that we continue summer indefinitely. However, they've been asking for a few weeks when our start date would be. Ummmm...hadn't thought about it. Oops! Hubby and I looked at the calendar and picked a day that he'd be home to run interference (a.k.a. entertain Punky): August 29th.
That meant I had to get serious about figuring out what they needed to learn, what they wanted to learn, and what we could fit in to our calendar. Let's face it, we have lots of fun activities and we don't want to scrap any of them.
On Saturday, we sat together and made a list of all of the girls' activities, and this is how it breaks down:
With SAIL (our homeschool group):
Co-op
American Girl Club
Needlework
Book Club(s) (separately)
Girls' activity
Park day
Chemistry lab (Sunshine)
Art club
Math circle (Sunshine)
Robotics (Sunshine)
Classic Movie Night (separately)
Preteen Movie Day
Various Field Trips
On our own:
Soccer (separately)
Gymnastics (Belle)
Girl Scouts (separately)
Church related activities
MOMS Club Activities
...and other things that have escaped us.
Plain and simple, we're busy. We don't want them to miss out of any of the great activities and they don't want to cut anything. I did make them rank these in order of priority, just in case we need to make some changes. We're always on the go, and we don't always sit at a table and learn the way you might assume...but look at al of these wonderful learning experiences!
We do some car schooling activities. This basically means that we take our lessons with us. If we have an appointment or one of the kids has an activity, we'll take books, small games, puzzles, workbooks, etc. in the car. We also listen to a lot of audio books and read to each other in the car. We practice spelling words, play trivia games, do math problems, tell chain stories, etc. We do not have a DVD player in the car and rarely do the girls take their electronics on trips around town. We are never bored in the car!
That meant I had to get serious about figuring out what they needed to learn, what they wanted to learn, and what we could fit in to our calendar. Let's face it, we have lots of fun activities and we don't want to scrap any of them.
On Saturday, we sat together and made a list of all of the girls' activities, and this is how it breaks down:
With SAIL (our homeschool group):
Co-op
American Girl Club
Needlework
Book Club(s) (separately)
Girls' activity
Park day
Chemistry lab (Sunshine)
Art club
Math circle (Sunshine)
Robotics (Sunshine)
Classic Movie Night (separately)
Preteen Movie Day
Various Field Trips
On our own:
Soccer (separately)
Gymnastics (Belle)
Girl Scouts (separately)
Church related activities
MOMS Club Activities
...and other things that have escaped us.
Plain and simple, we're busy. We don't want them to miss out of any of the great activities and they don't want to cut anything. I did make them rank these in order of priority, just in case we need to make some changes. We're always on the go, and we don't always sit at a table and learn the way you might assume...but look at al of these wonderful learning experiences!
We do some car schooling activities. This basically means that we take our lessons with us. If we have an appointment or one of the kids has an activity, we'll take books, small games, puzzles, workbooks, etc. in the car. We also listen to a lot of audio books and read to each other in the car. We practice spelling words, play trivia games, do math problems, tell chain stories, etc. We do not have a DVD player in the car and rarely do the girls take their electronics on trips around town. We are never bored in the car!
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