Short Summer

Summer is going to fly by so fast.  Due to our upcoming move and home sale, I've decided to start our school year August 1st...meaning we've already started our last month of summer vacation! Yikes, it feels a bit like getting the short end of the stick, but I know it will help in the long run after taking breaks mid-year for selling and moving...  I've been going through our curriculum and preparing things so it will be as easy for me as possible to stay on track and get school done in the midst of home showings and packing up.

This year I've tweaked our routine a little.  Instead of "bible time" we will have time set aside for Faith & Character Building.  We'll be reading about the life of a missionary once a week and having a morning set aside for Worship once a week.

In Science we'll do a semester on Zoology before moving on to Earth Science.  I'm also excited about History this year.  We'll be continuing from the Revolutionary War that we learned about in depth last year to early American History of the pioneers, abolishing slavery, and how our government works!

We're going to try a new Language Arts program this year, I'm excited for it, but uncertain of how it will play out as we do it.  Only time and experience will tell.  For math, we found a good program last year and are sticking to it.  We've already finished the first 30 lessons during our summer school session and will continue it through the school year, hopefully starting the next math book in the spring.  Since both of our girls are in the same math book, it will push our younger daughter ahead in math (she catches on quickly anyway), and help to catch our older daughter up to her public school grade level.  She had some gaps in her learning due in part to her brain injury and in part due struggles with how math was taught to her previously.  Math has never been easy for her, and I've enjoyed watching her grasp concepts this past year!

Next week we have VBS and I volunteered again.  This year my oldest will be my co-teacher.  She and I will lead a group of up to 10 elementary kiddos around to the different activities and my little guy will be in the nursery everyday for 3-ish hours.  He goes to nursery during service now, so he'll be familiar with it.  Going so many days in a row will be interesting to see how he handles it.  My middle one will get to participate in all the VBS fun!