And that was August – This Homeschooling Life #13
August!
It does us all the world of good to take a break from our studies and work, to enjoy some lazy mornings, catch up with friends we don’t get to see through the year enough and just recharge our batteries. Without any formal work or projects, the kids fill their days with books, craft projects, science experiments, baking and lots of skype dates with their friends. Now our batteries are fully charged back up, we’re feeling refreshed and we’re all excited to get stuck back into some projects this week.
Having a car, for the first summer in years gave us a freedom we don’t usually have. We’ve been off and explored little corners of the beautiful Welsh countryside. We’ve paddled in rivers, explored castles – both ones still standing as well as ancient ruins, swum in the sea, climbed hills, had picnics surrounded by cows, BBQed down by the river, been to festivals, read a pile of books, found treasure {rabbit skulls and sheep teeth}, hung out with old friends and made new friends.
I always think these summer weeks really give the kids space to process all they learnt last year, and to think about what they want to learn next. I talked last week about my homeschool planning, and while we’re not totally the ‘sit down, do school’ kind, I like to have some basic plans in place as to what we’ll be focusing on. I’ve been collecting ideas, unit studies, lapbooks, possible courses ready to put some plans in place for the next year. There are a few big changes on the horizon. G goes back to college tomorrow, meaning it will be just me home, again, with four kids, to homeschool, look after and also, work! It’s going to be a busy year, so I’ve been trying to simplify things, not overload myself and just ease us back into our new routines.
Miss Lola is also starting to consider her options for next year. She’d be about to enter Year 9 if she were at school, and she’s thinking she might like to try school/college for her GCSE years. So we’re looking at possible options and seeing what is on offer, and what she would like to do. We’ve always made it clear to all our kids, that if they ever wanted to try school, then we would be totally supportive of that. While I love homeschooling, I’m not ‘anti-school’ and I do think for some kids it can be a great option – either full time, or part time, for their whole school careers or just for a year or two.
I did set the girls the task of learning a couple of poems by heart over the summer, and then writing and illustrating them – as well as doing lots of reading! Kept those little brains ticking over!
You can see all previous months ‘This Homeschooling Life’ posts HERE
This Homeschooling Life is a linky for you to share either a week, a day or just a moment from your life as a homeschooling family. We are hoping it will be a really nice way to discover new blogs and learn how we all do things differently.
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Molly
September 5, 2016 at 21:02You’ve packed so much fun into the month. August was great, wasn’t it?
Jess @ Along Came Cherry
September 6, 2016 at 07:20Ah it’s making me miss summer already! August was a great month for us too, I kind of miss it already but I do love Halloween! xx
laura redburn
September 6, 2016 at 15:50love these photos! sounds like you had a fully packed august ..mine was pretty dull, bah!
Lottie | Oyster & Pearl
September 6, 2016 at 19:11Yes! A skull! My dad always used to find skulls for us and we LOVED it x
katie albury
September 7, 2016 at 09:27I do think you are amazing for homeschooling. Your children are so lucky to stay at home and go on adventures and explore the world outside a classroom with you. Sounds like you has a brilliant summer…good luck with your new home-school year, I’m sure it will be a fab one x