Brandy at Afterthoughts has a post up about planning for Summer Term. I was just starting to do that a bit in my head, too... but hadn't gotten my thoughts into any kind of order yet, so it was helpful to read her post.
I talked to Kieron today about the things on our weekly schedule (see sidebar) that we haven't been getting to consistently. He is pretty good about getting the "checking-off" things done -- Latin, math, language arts. He's been letting some of the independent readings slide, though, and I have to take the blame for the fall-throughs on the things like Art Study, drawing, piano. When you can't just go on to the next page, I tend to get lost in the details.
Kieron suggested that maybe we should address the more arty-musicy things during the summer. We'll have more time. It won't seem so much like slogging through to get everything done. I thought maybe that was a good idea. I'm hoping that once we build up a habit, it will seem more like a part of normal life and not so much one more thing on the school checklist.
I'll do this with the younger ones, too. By fall it will feel to them like they've always done picture study and music. That's the nice thing about little kids.
I do intend to start informal nature study this spring though -- ie as soon as the snow finishes melting. That's a tradition of ours so it will come easily.
What else? I'd like to get Kieron more off the ground with handwriting. I've written before about his dysgraphia. I have seen progress just since Christmas, though. His older brother was almost exactly that age when he started improving with his writing.
Again, a similar goal with the younger ones. We'll keep working on the handwriting.
One more thing I'd like to start off is a Memory Time.
This summer I'd like to have a loose routine of some sort. This isn't so much for the children as for ME. I drift way too much off into my own world if I don't have temporal anchors. And they suffer from the lack of mom-focus. Today was a bit like that, in fact.
I am not stopping Aidan's reading practice -- we'll keep up with that. And I'll try to find time to make him some more Montessori type games since he enjoys that so much. Recently I have been hands-off and he's been still cycling through the various activities, but I ought to be more involved in the whole thing than I am at present.
That's all I can think of for now. If we start getting ready to move, I vow to try to get them involved. Once again, this is a discipline for ME -- I tend to prefer doing things on my own, but I know they would rather be involved if I would draw them in.
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It sounds like a good plan! I like the way Kieron came up with a solution to the problem of fitting in the arts.
ReplyDeleteI loved that you said the loose routine is for YOU! I am a lot like that, though for most of his life, my younger son has desperately needed routine. He is learning to loosen up a little. But that was what happened to me during our term break last week. There wasn't much routine beyond morning chores and I was basically a slacker mom (if you don't count nursing the sick). I was actually thinking of drawing up a time chart to keep me on track during the days we are at home all day...
ReplyDeleteI learned the hard way : ). I actually do generally draw up a summer schedule or timetable. But the hard part is getting myself to follow it!
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids were younger and I had more pregnancies/ life events etc we almost always had things we almost HAD to catch up on during summer, so it was easier in a way to stay on task. Nowadays things are easier so I have to do some planning to keep myself somewhat attentive.