Summer....it is time to take a break? or time to delve further?

Many of us who attended public school as children have fond memories of languishing summers free of teachers, schedules and homework.  Today my homeschooling family also has fond summer memories of bike riding, camping, fun at the beach and lazy rainy days spent reading books.

Does this mean that we don't continue our studies through the summer?  It does not.

For us, summer is a time when the rest of our obligations disappear.  No more trips to the violin teacher, no more swimming lessons, no more karate class, no more hustle and bustle.  Our days are our own to carve in whatever way we choose.

Because we love to learn and are creative people this means that we enjoy continuing to pursue learning through the summer.  And without the need to drop things and drive to "lessons" it means that we can truly take things at our own pace, reading for hours or getting really messy with some kind of science or kitchen project.

I also like the kids to get a daily dose of math and writing.   We do this in a relaxed manner and not every single day through the summer.  There are weeks that we do no structured curriculum studies at all because we've chosen to go on vacation or take a little break.  And there are weeks that we get so fired up about something new that we dedicate 30 hours that week to it. But to be honest, this is no different than the regular school year when we allow our life to be flexible -- and thank homeschooling for our ability to do so.

How do you spend your homeschooling summer?  Do you like to continue studies through the summer months?  Are you happy to take a few months off?  We'd love to hear your ideas and experiences.

This Blog Is For Women

For a long time people have told me that I should write about parenting.  I put them off, saying that I didn't think people would be interested in reading what I had to say.

Recently, I decided to take their advice and I started a blog.  Easier than writing a book, for sure!

Well, it seems from the viewer-ship I've been getting that people do indeed want to read my ideas about family and relationships.  Here's a recent comment one of my readers has posted:

Susan Steadman, RN, BSN | February 22, 2012 at 10:46 am

I have never seen so much good, old-fashioned, common sense in one place…..well, since my parents raised me. Your insight into what to do illuminates what is wrong for so many families; they just don’t know what to do!

….I hope they’ll listen to YOU!!

 If you'd like to check it out, here's the link. http://thisblogisforwomen.com

Documentaries for Free

In our school we treat the core subjects as academic and the others as elective.  Let me clarify what that means.  For me it means we study math, reading, and writing on a daily basis using curriculum materials for the most part.  The other areas such as world studies (history and geography) and science are explored in a free fashion.

A large component of our elective studies are documentaries and lectures.  My eldest has a penchant for Astronomy and our family has purchased the Great Courses Lecture series  Understanding the Universe: An introduction to Astronomy taught by Professor Alex Filippenko from California Institute of Technology,    Berkeley.   Our 12 year old is on lecture 44 of  96  30 minute lectures  This is a pricey series.   Right now they have a 70% off special on many of their courses. 

There are also numerous high-quality documentaries available to view online for FREE.  Such as Planet Earth presented by the BBC.  We have started to catalogue documentaries of interest to us on our documenary blog.