Our town wants to make sure that kids learn the names of things...see?
Or....maybe we have some "taggers" that are learning to read?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
It's happening! We're doing it!
Talked to hubby and he was on board with us switching to schooling year round! When I talked to the girls and asked what they thought about five weeks of school, then a couple weeks off, you would have thought I had told them we were going to have ice cream for breakfast! They love the idea! We will even be able to start now, won't have to wait till next school year.
So how did I figure it out? I looked at what our normal school schedule has been and counted how many weeks of school there are in a typical school year. Then I took a calendar, I highlighted the normal times we take breaks such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, three weeks in summer when my parents are in town. Then I figured out what weeks we would have school and where we would have a couple other breaks. I am really happy with the outcome. I think this will be a better fit for our family. Looking forward to seeing how it works out over the next few months!
So how did I figure it out? I looked at what our normal school schedule has been and counted how many weeks of school there are in a typical school year. Then I took a calendar, I highlighted the normal times we take breaks such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, three weeks in summer when my parents are in town. Then I figured out what weeks we would have school and where we would have a couple other breaks. I am really happy with the outcome. I think this will be a better fit for our family. Looking forward to seeing how it works out over the next few months!
Fred, George, Mac and Bob enjoying a walk!
Do you follow your local school district's schooling days?
Currently we "loosely" follow the local school district's schooling days. For two reasons: 1) When my kids' public school friends have days off, we are able to get together with them for playdates without missing any school. 2) I like that my kids change grades at the same time as everyone else. I am not sure how I would keep track otherwise. Does that make sense?
When I say "loosely" follow the local school district, this is what I mean: We generally start about the same time, after Labor Day, sometimes a week or so before if we are getting bored with summer. We take the same Christmas and Spring Breaks. We take the same summer breaks. However, we are usually done a couple weeks before. We do not, however, take the same "lack of funding days", "parent-teacher conference days" or "snow days". Oh, and we also take all the federal holidays off.
We have been doing this for the past eight years....but.....for the past couple years I have been tossing around the idea of year-round schooling. I have several home-school friends who school year round. One family literally schools every day, year round, taking short breaks every now and then. Another family does five weeks on, three weeks off. Or maybe it is five on, two off....? At any rate, the mother told me that it works out perfectly for taking Thanksgiving/Christmas/Spring breaks.
Now here are my thoughts on why I think this "might" work for our family.
When I say "loosely" follow the local school district, this is what I mean: We generally start about the same time, after Labor Day, sometimes a week or so before if we are getting bored with summer. We take the same Christmas and Spring Breaks. We take the same summer breaks. However, we are usually done a couple weeks before. We do not, however, take the same "lack of funding days", "parent-teacher conference days" or "snow days". Oh, and we also take all the federal holidays off.
We have been doing this for the past eight years....but.....for the past couple years I have been tossing around the idea of year-round schooling. I have several home-school friends who school year round. One family literally schools every day, year round, taking short breaks every now and then. Another family does five weeks on, three weeks off. Or maybe it is five on, two off....? At any rate, the mother told me that it works out perfectly for taking Thanksgiving/Christmas/Spring breaks.
Now here are my thoughts on why I think this "might" work for our family.
- After about 6 weeks of summer, we get BORED. We love the summer, playing outside constantly, not a tight schedule, free to go when we want to do something....but we LOVE the structure of our school days.
- This would allow us to not feel constricted by the public schools' idea of what the school year should be. And since we home-school, why not?
- It would give us a little catch up time for those of my children who struggle in certain areas.
- If I planned it right, we wouldn't be doing much different than what we are doing now, just longer breaks and schooling during the summer for a couple times.
So I am curious as to what your family does! Do you follow a "normal" schedule or do you school year round?
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Music Teachers Rock!
We are a very musical family! I wouldn't say that we are pretty to listen to...LOL But we love music! My hubby plays the trumpet and the mandolin. I play the clarinet, a spot of piano and the autoharp. My girls are all taking piano lessons and my oldest also plays the cello. My son bangs things together at this point and pretends to play his "guitar" made out of cardboard and rubber bands!
If there is one thing we ALL love to do, it is sing! Love, love, love! Give us a few minutes in the car or van and pretty soon, someone starts singing a song or requesting the CD player or radio to be turned on so we can sing along! I love hearing my girls humming and singing as they do their chores around the house, doing schoolwork or playing. I don't know if they even realize they are singing sometimes!
A few years ago, our oldest girls were taking classes out of a local music store/community. However, the classes were so expensive, that after a year we could no longer afford them. In the past couple years we have had different people from church helping out with their music education, which was a blessing! We are a very musically inclined family and we are heavily involved in the music ministry at church. After a lot of prayer,we felt that we needed to find a teacher who could give weekly lessons that were affordable. It took about 6-9 months, but we have been incredibly blessed with a wonderful teacher who is just a dear! She takes the time to make sure each child is learning at their pace and is very heavy on Music Theory, which was something that was a requirement for us when looking for a teacher. We are so grateful for our piano teacher! Thank you, Miss Amy!!! You ROCK!
If there is one thing we ALL love to do, it is sing! Love, love, love! Give us a few minutes in the car or van and pretty soon, someone starts singing a song or requesting the CD player or radio to be turned on so we can sing along! I love hearing my girls humming and singing as they do their chores around the house, doing schoolwork or playing. I don't know if they even realize they are singing sometimes!
A few years ago, our oldest girls were taking classes out of a local music store/community. However, the classes were so expensive, that after a year we could no longer afford them. In the past couple years we have had different people from church helping out with their music education, which was a blessing! We are a very musically inclined family and we are heavily involved in the music ministry at church. After a lot of prayer,we felt that we needed to find a teacher who could give weekly lessons that were affordable. It took about 6-9 months, but we have been incredibly blessed with a wonderful teacher who is just a dear! She takes the time to make sure each child is learning at their pace and is very heavy on Music Theory, which was something that was a requirement for us when looking for a teacher. We are so grateful for our piano teacher! Thank you, Miss Amy!!! You ROCK!
Miss Amy and Bob
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