Summer school

There is no real consensus amongst homeschoolers regarding the issue of summer schooling. I know several families in our co-op take a break right along with conventional schoolers, or spend the summer months catching up on reading or revisiting topics they found difficult during the school year. Since Calvin has only just turned six we don't have a set yearly schedule as yet, but we've never considered taking the summers off. I believe I've written about this decision before, mentioning that we see no more reason to take a break from "schooling", or learning rather, than from life itself. But while we still hold to this philosophy, we have made some changes in our daily schedule, and the issue of summer schooling warranted a second glance.

Until very recently we've been dedicated unschoolers, traipsing from one curiosity to another as the day wore on. I found, though, that Calvin responded better to having more direction in his day, so since early May we've been leaning further and further into the classical education world. We spend a little time each day on math, reading, grammar, handwriting, and spelling, throw in history or science to go with it, and spend the rest of the day exploring whatever else we wish. Calvin now has workbooks that he loves for both math and spelling, and I've been combining the other subjects with the history and science in order to tie it all together. We also hit up the library at least once a week, taking home each time a well-rounded collection that includes books of Calvin's choice on science, history, art, poetry, biography, and music. This has been a happy change for us, especially since we aren't actually following a strict curriculum, but are, I believe, combining the best of two great homeschooling methods (those being unschooling and classical).

So how has this change affected our view on schooling in the summer? Actually it hasn't, because we still believe that learning is a way of life, but while the new methodology hasn't altered our view on summer, the summer has changed our methodology somewhat. At this time of year, with buzzing insects, calling birds, and brightly colored and odorific blooms, nature is practically standing on tiptoe and demanding extra attention, and it simply is not to be denied. It seems only natural that in the summer we spend less time on worksheets and more time in the field, less time on history, more time on science. So when we went on vacation last week we didn't take workbooks of any kind, but we did take our wildlife handbooks (and we love the Stan Tekiela series for our state), our hiking shoes, and our innate curiosity. We also took books about Michigan, and Mackinac Island, plus lots of other reading for quiet moments. And I figure something is going right when, on the beach, the boy is making a sand model of Bilbo's Shire.

And when we are worksheeting, we are often doing so from the breezy comfort of our deck while sipping lemonade.

Reading the Mahabharata in the shade

Downtown, the beach, and more

Lunch at New Holland, a must do tradition.

Watching Dutch dancing in the streets...an unavoidable tradition.

The carnival...a new tradition? Ugh.

Back on the beach.

And after bedtime for the little one, we watched an old favorite: Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Tuesday

Over breakfast Jon called my cell phone so that we could find it, and that started a conversation about the difference between cell phones and land lines, which required a thumbing through David Macaulay's The New Way Things Work.

After breakfast there was piano, and reading. After revisiting Charlotte's Web the kid is now re-reading The Wizard of Oz. We found a 1980s copy of the original at a library used book sale this past weekend, complete with Denslow's original illustrations and color plates, and he just dove right in.

A little later we were in Egypt learning about mummies, transportation, and gods and godesses.

Over lunch, a game of Totally Tut. Calvin has graduated into Math-U-See's Gamma book and is starting to master multiplication, so we're adding those functions into the game as he goes.

Then a discussion of matter, molecules, and atoms, solids, liquids, and gases, and a few experiments just to demonstrate some principles. I think it's time to break out the microscope again.

Then a trip to the vet with the dogs, just for simple boosters, and then a traipse around the yard to check on our trees. After the weird weather we've had, early warmth, late deep freezes, some of our trees were looking a little worrisome, but with the steadily rising temperatures now they seem to be improving.

And lastly grilled cheese for dinner, because Jon had a late piano lesson and I had a meeting after dinner, so the overlap was brief. In my absence the guys walked the dogs and played more games before bed. They finished Raggedy Andy and started a new book, but found it less than interesting, so I think it's time to break out Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales.

And that makes a full and successful day in my book.

Looking back

Saying goodbye

We have learned lately that there is little limit to the amount of change that a day can bring. Less than twenty-four hours and our lives have been changed forever.

I used exactly this title five years ago when we had to say goodbye to Diamond, and now we lost have another beloved member of our family in saying goodbye to Moose. He'd been getting old, but the loss was still sudden. He woke up yesterday acting a little under the weather, and by midnight he seemed to be suffering from vertigo, but after an emergency vet visit first thing this morning, we learned that a cancer, which we weren't aware of, had caused sudden catastrophic damage. And again, as with Diamond, we found ourselves having to make the decision to let him go.

We had twelve wonderful years with little Moose, and not one of them would we trade for relief from the sorrow we feel now.