Thursday, June 4, 2009

School's Out!!! (Well, Kind Of)

Sweetheart officially completed 3rd grade yesterday!!! Yeah!!!

Here's the strange thing about homeschooling---you decide when they are done. Some moms set a date and wherever they are in the curriculum by that date, that's it. You know, in public school we never once finished a text book so it's kind of like that.

Other parents live in states where they have to count the days so when they reach their allotted number---done! I decided we would be done when we finished math and history. We finished math last week and history yesterday. Yesterday was also the last day for a lot of kids around here so it worked out well.

Since we sort of just fizzed out, finishing one subject at at time, there is no dramatic feeling of "wow! we're done!!!!" So I decided to have a special dinner to celebrate the end of 3rd. I found this free certificate and printed it on nice paper. We are having Sweetheart's favorite meal. I'll also give her the certificate that comes in the back of her Math U See book. And THEN, she will officially be a 4th grader.

Sniff. My baby will be 10 soon!

We are planning to have a great, fun summer. I am going to start using my workboxes in a modified way as I try to figure out how I'm going to use them next year. We will have a theme each week, just like last year.

This year we have chosen:

watermelons--to kick off the summer

First Aid--we wanted to do some biographies and Clara Barton and the Red Cross came to mind. Probably because I did book report on her several different years when I was in school. Why read a new book if you have a new teacher, you know? Plus it's a good thing to study First Aid at the beginning of the summer.

butterflies--there are so many art projects to go with this, we couldn't resist! We will be attending a butterfly display at the museum too.

dolls--this one evolved from a lot of ideas and we mushed 'em all together. The girls love their dolls, there are dolls in every country of the world and throughout history little girls have played with dolls....this is coming up around the week of Independence day.....we have American Girl dolls....why not dress the dolls up in 4th of July costumes and celebrate with them? Whew!

dogs--My niece Gnat loves dogs right now but sister and I didn't really want to focus on "dogs as pets" as Sweetheart wants one really badly but is not getting one anytime soon and neither are her girls for that matter, so we decided to focus on working dogs and famous dogs.

artists--art as a career, famous artists...plus we will try out every kind of art we can think of. Sculpting, painting, etc.

imaginary creatures--My other niece Moose is still on her mermaid kick and the older girls wanted to study horses--again. We said no more! So we decided to study unicorns (our horse alternative), mermaids, fairies, etc. We will be focusing on the imaginary part as some of these things are presented to children as being real.

So every day a theme activity will go into one of the workboxes. In the other boxes will be math practice, handwriting, astronomy (not quite through with that one yet), and fun stuff.

So, what are you doing for "summer school"?

15 comments:

  1. You're right I don't think I ever finished a text book in school. Huh.

    So...you won't mind if I just join you at the butterfly display will you? I'll just pop over...several states over...it sounds so lovely! :)

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  2. On the butterfly thing...

    We're thinking about getting this. Little Princess really enjoyed the butterfly garden when we visited the local botanical gardens this spring. So I think she'd really enjoy this. Basically, we're doing a bunch of (hopefully) hands on projects. Our tomatoes are starting to grow (yippee!) so we have a big summer lined up on the education front. All fun stuff.

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  3. One time in a magazine I saw bandaid art... they took all different size and shape band daids and made art pictures with them. It was cute!

    I love themes!

    Your summer looks so fun!!!

    I have the butterfly house, you can order just the chrysalis if you want and they are about 16 dollars. There are a few differnt to choose from. If you wanna use the house let me know and you will need to order with your date in mind, so it might need to be soon

    as for dolls, in Old Town Spring there is a doll hospital, it might be neat to take a "field trip" there! adds on to your first aid too!!!

    I have a video from American girls on how to do differnt hairstyles for dolls--- let me know if you would like to borrow it!

    at our gymnastics they have a dog and he is a therapy dog! He goes to TExas children once a week... Also for George Bush they used to have the dog- MIllie??? go around with a camera on her back--- it was neat to watch.

    Okay I am out for now!


    For this summer we are actually doing all the school work that we didnt do during our "school" year!!!!!!!!!! WE are doing a unit study in July about How things are made, I plan on booking some tours of factories adn things like that. but mostly we are doing what we put off these last few MONTHS!

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  4. Carrie, you're like an idea factory!!! My niece actually had to send her American Girl doll to the doll hospital a few weeks ago b/c her leg came off! It was so traumatic. She came back with a hospital gown on. :)

    And for how things are made....I have the Childcraft books from World Book Encyclopedia circa 1960-1970 something...one is called "How We Get Things" might be fun to use.

    Also you gotta watch "Unwrapped" on the Food Network! I love that show. If you don't have cable I can tape it for you.

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  5. we have cable I have already started DVR'ing a few of them. I also have requested reading rain bows from the library becasue they visit factories and have recorded the Magic school bus too! I have heard a lot about the child craft books lately. I remember them from child hood I guess ALL parents had them! I wonder if I could find one? I think I have seen them at the home school store in teh used section before!

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  6. I would rather let my kids enjoy NOT being in school, instead of seeing it as yet another opportunity to make them do school when everyone else is off.

    Most kids I know whose parents did stuff like that are mad about it now, because they weren't allowed to do stuff with their friends because they had to do school in summer.

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  7. Mrs. W--did you see my links from last summer? We had so much fun!

    As for doing school--Sweetheart HAS to have math practice every day. I don't want her forgetting all the facts she learned this year!

    And while my kids might do more days of school than other kids, they only do a few hours a day. They know they've got it good. :)

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  8. We are doing swimming lessons, the reading club at the library, and working in our garden! Maybe would do more...except I've got a slavedriver making me clean my house! :)
    -Kathy

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  9. We actually will not get out of school until September. I have our school calendar to end in beginning of September and have our break during Oct. , Nov. and Dec. This works better for us since the holidays are so hectic for us and filled with so many other obligations. Once Jan. comes around we start our new school year.

    I love your summer plans, how cool is that! And your right, Carrie is full of good ideas : )

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  10. As always, your summer is full of fabulous ideas! I know your girls will have so much fun! Must share pictures!

    As for us, we will school throughout the summer simply because we take too many breaks throughout the year to warrant a "summer break." Plus, it's so stinkin' hot here, what's better to do than school inside? And, besides, I imagine August will be a bit busy around here and we will take a break around then, too. :)

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  11. Giovanna and Karly, I so agree. I wish we could get on a schedule of schooling during the summer and having off during the fall, but we just work better this way. It DOES make sense!

    Molly--come on. Hop on a plane! You'll love it! :)

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  12. Sounds like TONS of fun. This "summer" (in quotes because we're really going into winter) we are going to focus on home made projects. I ordered two DVDs for us to learn from.

    One is cake decorating (Not every week!) and the other is for crochet. My daughter's friend taught her to crochet with her fingers, and she can sit for a LONG time and make chains.

    I am ready to move past the chains.

    That's what we'll be doing! Also, lots of trips to the library. Long winter nights around here are just around the corner.

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  13. We are down to just math and the kids should finish by the end of next week. We are going to take a break until mid august.

    I can't believe I am done with my first year of homeschooling and we all survived. I can hardly wait until next year.

    Julie

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  14. Congrat's on finishing third grade!

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  15. can i attend your school? it sounds so cool!

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I don't get to talk to a lot of actual grown-ups during the day, so your comments make me really happy! :)