It is June, and so we are done with the 2014-2015 school year.
Sounds simple, right?
Not so much.

I have a lengthy to-do list, not so much number of items but more the time involved on some of the line items, including:

1. Turn in grades and attendance to our cover school by June 15.
2. MAJOR clean-up in library
3. MAJOR reconfiguration of *some* areas of our library (namely an area for Li’l Bit that will actually keep her interest and ENGAGE her)
4. Archive school notebooks/papers/reports I will keep. Throw out what we won’t keep.
5. Begin planning for next school. I will have a 10th grader, two 3rd graders, and one PK4 student.
6. Purchase needed curriculum for next year (I’ve already begun this thanks to my TpT success and my PayPal account–thank You Jesus!).

In the meantime, we do have some plans for this summer. I’m not gonna lie. Some of my students, including the ones who will attend public school next year, are not necessarily excited about these plans. However, it isn’t up for discussion, so here goes with the plan.

They aren’t thinking this image is very representative of their days this summer, and if I’m honest, I’d rather be at the beach too. But that isn’t in the cards, so we have some plans lined up that will work for our family this summer!

Our Summer School is simple by design: we have a mandatory Study Hall every day Monday through Friday. I’m all about choices though, SO the students can choose from two different time slots: 9–11 a.m. OR 1–3 p.m. So far, no one has chosen the latter, though I often have students in the library during afternoon hours voluntarily reading and/or playing games.

As far as curriculum, we do still have a few students, who are finishing up.

My oldest Curly, completing 9th grade, is still working through:

• Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance with The Prez. They are taking a slower pace with his other workload, but they will finish it this summer. He is doing very well with it, and The Prez highly recommends it. Being that he is the businessman in the family, I can’t speak to it personally but if the Prez is impressed I would recommend it on his recommendation. It is currently unavailable at the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op, but they offer it at a great discount usually in the summer.
• Has finished Algebra I, but he will be taking a final exam tomorrow. He is studying today in-between working at the Prez’s office.
• Speaking of the Prez’s office, Curly will be working PT this summer for his Dad, which we are all excited about, and have I mentioned lately how proud I am of this kid? He is such a great young man, seeking after the Lord, working hard saving money, cleaning up a really old work truck that the Prez has loaned him (he knows he could lose the privilege of using it at anytime), and looking ahead to his plans for college. He might want to follow in his Dad’s footsteps with an Engineering degree!
• He is also reading some more living history books this summer. This is easy for him as he loves history, but we are trying to fill in his gaps in preparation for him to take the AP US History and AP World History exams next spring.

Both Larry, finishing 7th grade, and Mo, finishing 6th grade, are working on the same things over the summer during Summer School. I gave them all a one-sheet “suggestion” of what they could do during the daily Study Hall.

• IXL Math Practice Problems on-line (this has served us so well for several years now; highly recommend!; intuitive and generates weekly reports for the teacher; reward system and certificates for those who need that type of motivation)
• Typing practice using Typing Island software
• Wordly Wise on-line subscription (ends in July; we liked it A LOT but the technical issues would prevent me from buying an on-line pass again; it often was “down” due to maintenance, which was very frustrating)
• Word Roots CD-Roms from Critical Thinking (A2 for Larry and B1 for Mo). We really like these and they do work on a MAC, and they can be used for multiple students. The CD-roms track students’ progress and reports can be generated.
• Math Lessons with Mom and/or Dad
  *This is a must as I will readily admit that in some others I feel like they are “behind” where public school peers may be. This hasn’t been an issue for our oldest as we introduced math concepts as he reached math maturation, but obviously the public school teachers have to follow a set plan, which doesn’t match up to our plans. So … we need to focus in on some concepts.

My two eight-year-olds had an excellent 2nd Grade year. They have grown so much physically, emotionally, spiritually, and have soared in their educational pursuits this year. I am so proud of them too! My goals for them this summer are actually simple: READ! READ! READ!, write and master those math facts. They will begin multiplication this year, so we really have to get this last one done, which brings me to their plans:

• IXL Math Practice Problems on-line (this has served us so well for several years now; highly recommend!; intuitive and generates weekly reports for the teacher; reward system and certificates for those who need that type of motivation)
• READING some read-alouds {The Trumpet of the Swan currently) and independent reading
• Continue writing creatively in their notebooks with themes of their choice. I’d like to add in more things like book reports on books read, letters, articles, etc.
• Use of games, namely a lot of the ones I’ve created, to review number sense, money, time, place value, fractions and other concepts we learned about this year
• Typing practice using Typing Island software
• Some gentle introduction to Parts of Speech with a forever pass for up to 5 students to on-line Grammaropolis through Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op. So far we like it, and my favorite part is that it works on the iPad! I’m in no hurry for them to memorize parts of speech. We talk about it and they are learning them, but honestly, the push to memorize these early really makes this Momma, with an English degree, scratch her head.
• Reflex Math On-line Math Facts Fluency
  I’m really excited about this very recent purchase! I just got it today from Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op with my SmartPoints! It is highly recommended, and it will be hands-off for me and hopefully motivating to them. We shall see! I don’t need 3 student passes, but it is $59 for 3 or $70 for 2, so I went with three! I will probably set up the 3rd student for Larry and Mo to use, since both like video games. They have all the facts mastered, but it can’t hurt to review multiplication and division.

For Li’l Bit, who is 4, I plan on using games and hopefully a form of busy bags/trays/sensory boxes that will actually keep her interest. I really need to figure out a system that will work for her. This has been one of our epic “fails” this year as far as keeping her occupied in constructive ways when I need to work with an older student. This was SO EASY with Li’l Miss and Li’l Bro that I’m kind of at a loss as to why Li’l Bit hasn’t gelled with this.

I did score a FREE app of Hooked-on Phonics on Teacher Appreciation Day thanks to the lovely teachers at the TpT forum. So far, it is a nice tool for use on the iPad in small increments. She is definitely learning with it, and it keeps her attention. Did I mention this $50 app was FREE?! If you go HERE, you can download a sample for FREE now, but the full app is no longer free. I got it on Teacher Appreciation Day, so like I said, watch for this next year in early May if you’d like the full app.

Other than this, we plan on spending time at the creek everyday, Thursdays in town for Li’l Bro’s speech therapy and swimming at Papa’s Pool, Boy Scout camps for Curly and Mo, a dude road trip for The Prez and the boys to a popular theme park. I’m not sure yet what us girls will do, but we are talking about some fun plans for a staycation!

How about you? What are your summer plans? Summer School? No? Vacation? Please share!