Summer Learning

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We’ve had our vacation and are back at work, doing a lot of necessary learning.

The girls are all behind in some areas and if they don’t catch up this summer they will be negatively affected in the school year, whether due to CEMC competitions, an extreme work load, or missing high school credits.

Miss 11, who is behind in her math, spends 45 minutes a day working on Key to Decimals, and also does 5-10 pages of Key to Metric Measurement.  She also needs to write a book report every week and is reading a fair bit of historical fiction as well as the occasional Nancy Drew  mystery.

Miss 14, who needed to take a few weeks off last year due to a concussion and who had already fallen behind before that, is working hard to finish Apologia’s Physical Chemistry this summer.  She also has work to do in math, computer, Bible, Grammar of Poetry and church history.  This summer she has already completed The Complete Career, College, and High School Guide for Homeschoolers which has given us a lot to think about. Her goal is to work 4-6 hours each day in total, including schoolwork, gardening, and other work.

Miss 16, who is behind due to two years of health struggles, is finally her old energetic self again.  In her daily 8 hours of work, she is diligently finishing up Apologia Chemistry, doing some of the experiments with her ‘lab assistant’, Miss 11. She also spends time on math (Singapore’s New Elementary Math 3B) and Omnibus V (Dante essays).  This summer she also hopes to finish Canadian geography as well as last year’s portion of Canadian history.  Yesterday she had the first oral test on Canadian history (aboriginals, exploration, and the fur trade) using Charlotte Mason’s narration technique.  Examining this way is intense because both of us really need to know what she is talking about and I need to be able to guide and evaluate any rabbit trails she goes on, too. On the other hand, this method is very effective both for evaluation and learning.

Of course, there is more to life than book learning.  Almost every day since our vacation we have spent time weeding or doing extra household tasks such as polishing our antique Dutch furniture or washing the walls in preparation for painting.  Miss 16 also volunteers and has a small part-time job.  These activities are included in the daily hours of work and they are every bit as valuable as formal learning.

And then, of course, there are summer activities:  hanging out with friends, going to Shakespeare in the park, swimming, having camp fires, wandering through the woods, and going on outings.  Today we are all planning to go to IKEA together.

Our summer is not as slow as I had hoped it would be, but we are really enjoying it and also meeting some of our goals.