June 23, 2010 11:01 a.m.
We're out of sync with the rest of the world!
Summer has a full grip on us these days. I mean, it is as summer as summer gets. Long days, stepping out of the house at 6 a.m. to walk our dog, feeling the humidity envelope me and getting soaked feet from the heavy dew on the grass. In addition, I have to be more vigilant when walking under the oak trees to make sure I don't walk into an orb weaver web. They are difficult to see until the sun's rays begin to illuminate them. The cicadas are still making noise at 6 a.m., too, which is the truest reminder that we are in the throes of summer. So there it is.
By now, all of our homeschooling friends are on summer break. I am starting to wish I were, too. As many of you know, we are year 'round homeschoolers, and due to the climate of our state, we plan on getting more school accomplished in the summer than we do during the cooler seasons of the year. The brilliant rationale behind this is because right now it is too darn hot to do much else, with the exception of swimming. The plan sounded so practical, and some of my friends would comment on "what a good idea" it was. But as the children get older, I find that we are out of sync with the world, and summer is not so simple as I expect it will be every year.
During the traditional brick and mortar school year, all of the outside activities are kicked up into full gear. We are out of the house doing P.E., music, field trips and other activities so that we end up just managing to complete four Calvert Lesson-days per week per child. Some weeks even less. So it becomes all-important for us to do a full five lesson-day per week schedule during the summer, when most activities have ceased. However, here's the deal.... when it comes to social days, visiting one another's homes for play dates and such, everybody is too busy to fit them in during the traditional B&M school year, and they are only free for such gatherings in the summer. But summer is when we are trying to get most of our school done. So we are out of sync, and again we are not fitting in those five lessons a week. In fact, every Friday this summer, there will be a get together that will prevent us from doing school. It is great, because I prioritize friends and getting together, but we are out of sync with the world, even the homeschool world. Also, since there are fewer activities at this time of year, I have chosen this time to schedule all our medical, dental, and eye doctor checkup visits. Then, subtract a week of Music Camp, where I volunteer, another week of VBS, and a few days of standardized testing, and before you know it, summer is gone.
So in a way I am busier these days than I expected. Not what I expected from summer. The cicadas I expected, the schedule I didn't.
Well, I won't be complaining this fall when our family takes a 23 day vacation trip (sans schoolbooks)! But I'm afraid we won't be getting as many days off at Christmas time as I am used to. Oh well. Complaining about the trivial stuff, I guess.
So, why do I have time to write this boring blog post, you might ask?
That leads me into a discussion about Calvert. As I expected, I find that teaching Calvert 5th grade, and Calvert 2nd grade, in the same year makes for a pretty teacher (mommy) intensive year. I look forward to, and wonder, what it will be like next year when Chips is in 6th grade with Calvert. For 6th grade, Calvert writes the lesson manual to the student, thereby giving them an opportunity to begin true independent study. While I have heard of Calvert parents who haven't been able to pull this off with their 6th graders, I am holding out hope that we will when that time comes. Then I will be able to concentrate on my 3rd grader more, earlier in the day, and hopefully have more efficient school days. We shall see.
Which brings me to today, and why I have time to write this blog post. Chips came to me this morning and said he wanted to try to navigate the lesson manual himself, today. He wanted to go through each subject and teach himself the material, working through all the homework as he goes, no mommy needed. I looked through his assignments for the day and said, "Okay, let's give it a try". He might be on to something, and I don't want to squash his desire for independence in this area of life.
I will write my next post with a discussion of what my daily Calvert schedule has looked like up until this point.
We're out of sync with the rest of the world!
Summer has a full grip on us these days. I mean, it is as summer as summer gets. Long days, stepping out of the house at 6 a.m. to walk our dog, feeling the humidity envelope me and getting soaked feet from the heavy dew on the grass. In addition, I have to be more vigilant when walking under the oak trees to make sure I don't walk into an orb weaver web. They are difficult to see until the sun's rays begin to illuminate them. The cicadas are still making noise at 6 a.m., too, which is the truest reminder that we are in the throes of summer. So there it is.
By now, all of our homeschooling friends are on summer break. I am starting to wish I were, too. As many of you know, we are year 'round homeschoolers, and due to the climate of our state, we plan on getting more school accomplished in the summer than we do during the cooler seasons of the year. The brilliant rationale behind this is because right now it is too darn hot to do much else, with the exception of swimming. The plan sounded so practical, and some of my friends would comment on "what a good idea" it was. But as the children get older, I find that we are out of sync with the world, and summer is not so simple as I expect it will be every year.
During the traditional brick and mortar school year, all of the outside activities are kicked up into full gear. We are out of the house doing P.E., music, field trips and other activities so that we end up just managing to complete four Calvert Lesson-days per week per child. Some weeks even less. So it becomes all-important for us to do a full five lesson-day per week schedule during the summer, when most activities have ceased. However, here's the deal.... when it comes to social days, visiting one another's homes for play dates and such, everybody is too busy to fit them in during the traditional B&M school year, and they are only free for such gatherings in the summer. But summer is when we are trying to get most of our school done. So we are out of sync, and again we are not fitting in those five lessons a week. In fact, every Friday this summer, there will be a get together that will prevent us from doing school. It is great, because I prioritize friends and getting together, but we are out of sync with the world, even the homeschool world. Also, since there are fewer activities at this time of year, I have chosen this time to schedule all our medical, dental, and eye doctor checkup visits. Then, subtract a week of Music Camp, where I volunteer, another week of VBS, and a few days of standardized testing, and before you know it, summer is gone.
So in a way I am busier these days than I expected. Not what I expected from summer. The cicadas I expected, the schedule I didn't.
Well, I won't be complaining this fall when our family takes a 23 day vacation trip (sans schoolbooks)! But I'm afraid we won't be getting as many days off at Christmas time as I am used to. Oh well. Complaining about the trivial stuff, I guess.
So, why do I have time to write this boring blog post, you might ask?
That leads me into a discussion about Calvert. As I expected, I find that teaching Calvert 5th grade, and Calvert 2nd grade, in the same year makes for a pretty teacher (mommy) intensive year. I look forward to, and wonder, what it will be like next year when Chips is in 6th grade with Calvert. For 6th grade, Calvert writes the lesson manual to the student, thereby giving them an opportunity to begin true independent study. While I have heard of Calvert parents who haven't been able to pull this off with their 6th graders, I am holding out hope that we will when that time comes. Then I will be able to concentrate on my 3rd grader more, earlier in the day, and hopefully have more efficient school days. We shall see.
Which brings me to today, and why I have time to write this blog post. Chips came to me this morning and said he wanted to try to navigate the lesson manual himself, today. He wanted to go through each subject and teach himself the material, working through all the homework as he goes, no mommy needed. I looked through his assignments for the day and said, "Okay, let's give it a try". He might be on to something, and I don't want to squash his desire for independence in this area of life.
I will write my next post with a discussion of what my daily Calvert schedule has looked like up until this point.
2 comments:
I've not been terribly successful with letting my boys have the manual. I find that I always need to go over it with them, and lead discussion. As for the Algebra manual teaching Ryan? HA! Good thing I remember and even liked Algebra (I confess, I'm a sick individual). Looking forward to hearing how your experiment goes!
I'm so impressed by your home schooling and all the thought and effort that goes into it on your part.
Interesting that your schedule is coming under pressure from external activities. Even tho my children were/are in school, I've found that I needed to change several things about our tempo/my expectations of what we would be doing when in order to make family life work. The most difficult thing for me, because it seemed to come out of the blue, was when my children started being independent about getting themselves to and from places in town for various activities, and suddenly I wasn't needed! That happened mid teens, around 14-15, when they had the confidence to work out where they needed to go by public transport, or to arrange things among their friends to that one set of parents would do the drop off and another the pick up.