And that was August – This Homeschooling Life #13

This Homeschooling Life #13

August! It came and went in a flash, but it was one of the fullest, most fun months that we have had in a long time. While the weather might not have been the best, we’ve filled our days with no end of fun and adventures. August sees us put down our books, pack away our ‘official’ homeschooling and instead fill our days with holidays, play dates, trips to the river, picnics, beach days, days out and no end of other fun.

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.

This Homeschooling Life #13

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.

This Homeschooling Life #13

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.

This Homeschooling Life #13

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.

This Homeschooling Life #13

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!

This Homeschooling Life #13

 

This Homeschooling Life #13

This Homeschooling Life #13

This Homeschooling Life #13

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.

The linky will open at 8am on the first Monday of every month and throughout the rest of the month the hosts will share your posts on their social media channels.

The Hosts:

Adele who blogs at Beautiful Tribe
Polly (me!) who blogs at Enchanted Pixie
The Rules:
1. Link back to one of the hosts. You will find the code for the badge at the bottom or if you prefer you can use a text link.
2. Link up a post from your month, no more than 3.
3. Link directly to a specific post, not your main blog.
4. Follow each of the hosts on at least one of their social media platforms.
5. Visit and comment on some of the other blogs linking up.
6. If you share on social media then you can use the #thishomeschoolinglife so we can all find each other.
This Homeschooling Life

An InLinkz Link-up

5 Comments

  1. Molly

    September 5, 2016 at 21:02

    You’ve packed so much fun into the month. August was great, wasn’t it?

  2. Jess @ Along Came Cherry

    September 6, 2016 at 07:20

    Ah 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

  3. laura redburn

    September 6, 2016 at 15:50

    love these photos! sounds like you had a fully packed august ..mine was pretty dull, bah!

  4. Lottie | Oyster & Pearl

    September 6, 2016 at 19:11

    Yes! A skull! My dad always used to find skulls for us and we LOVED it x

  5. katie albury

    September 7, 2016 at 09:27

    I 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

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