homeschool: summertime homeschooling

I really love updating our homeschool room shelves with seasonal changes. Our spring books are tucked away, we’re in the thick of summertime in Minnesota!

Can’t beat narration of Aesop’s with a side of cherry tomatoes as a snack!

Thrifted baskets continue to be my only homeschool organization strategy.

After finding out we were going to add another baby to our family early next winter, I decided to begin Priscilla’s first grade homeschool lessons this summer. I think in hindsight, had I known this would be our path I would have reoriented how I scheduled our summer. In spring, I signed up the kids for several different camps, more than I usually do, thinking it might be fun. I still plan on going to a few in the future, but I found the hectic, broken up pace a little bit of a drag to our usual slow, spontaneous summertime vibe. It has also mean that I’ve needed to homeschool in the margins, but we’re doing it, and I’m actually sort of elated by the challenge of seeing where I can fit things in. I told myself that if I could manage homeschool during the summer, with our schedule, all the kids at home, and first trimester, plus Penny’s PT appointments– I was proving something to myself!

Our autumn plans are still up in the air, but it’s looking like Cilla will likely go back to traditional school for first grade. I am learning that it’s prudent not to make big, far away plans with my children’s education, instead be open to God’s providence and provision. I’m learning so much through this journey of home education, even if our journey has felt more hybrid than traditional homeschool. I am humbled, grateful, excited, and hopeful for infusing more learning at home.

So here’s how summer homeschooling has felt and looked for us, and despite its uniqueness and challenges, I love teaching at home from my dining room table.

yard treasures labeled with their English and Latin names.

I keep these binders for treasures I want to save. Pretty alphabet cards just waiting in the wings for teaching the boys phonics soon.

I’m following a few curricula as guides: CMEC, Mater Amabilis, and The Children’s Tradition. I’m inserting books here and there from a few others places– swapping out things, it’s feeling more us but I love having the guides and learning from moms who have gone before me.

I am heavily influenced by the brilliance of James Senior. His books have had a profound impact on me. He is worth reading and learning about. His books, Destruction of Christian Culture & Restoration of Christian Culture may be purchased from Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey for much less than Amazon. Alongside Charlotte Mason, I’d say his philosophy has formed the backbone of my homeschool ethos. I’m sort of thinking I might dip my toes into learning more about Waldorf as well after really enjoying our celebration ring for Penny’s birthday. I still have so much I want and need to learn to better prepare myself as a mother-teacher.

This summer we’re focusing on reading The Everyday Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, math Simply Charlotte Mason, Arithmetic 1, science Burgess Bird Book, and history Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. Some copy work (Brighter Day Press & Beautiful Italics) and beginning our “book of words” notebook where Cilla writes down words she knows from reading. I’m also peppering in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness by way of Aesop’s (positively savage when read through the lens of our era), Shakespeare, stories of the Saints, Old and New Testament (following the CMEC Bible readings for this one). We journal and narrate in notebooks and have just started using our nature journals.

Somedays were focus only on math and reading, other days we are fortunate to hit all the subjects. I haven’t been very diligent about keeping my log book, but I am convicted of that now and hoping to get into a better habit of keeping a record. Most of the time our lessons take place in the dining room so the boys can do legos and Penny can play nearby. I’m keeping a few baskets of our essentials on top of our piano. I love having our homeschool room upstairs as a learning library to come and collect or deposit materials as needed! I’m hoping to use that space more in a traditional sense going forward, but I do appreciate how portable homeschooling is.

One new math manipulative I’m so glad I found was a small thrifted set of Grimm’s 100 blocks. These are beautifully, and are paring perfectly with our arithmetic book that is focusing on numbers 0-100. Like all Grimm’s items they’re made with such excellent craftsmanship, I am hoping we’ll have them forever. Cilla has also liked using my mom’s old jar of buttons for math work, too.

We have been very consistent with our term novels, working our way through Charlotte’s Web in the evenings, and our special Sunday night read of Little House in the Big Woods. While not officially enrolled in our ‘Classical Catholic Hybrid Homeschool,’ as I’m calling it, the boys and I are still working our way through The Wind in the Willows and now a newly gifted antique copy of King Arthur. I’ve also really enjoyed the William J. Bennett books (The Children’s Treasury of Virtues, The Children’s Book of Faith, and The Children’s Book of Heroes). Langston was especially enamored with the story of Jackie Robinson and was able to beautifully narrate back that history after I read it to him and Teddy. A homeschool friend recently told me she has about a thousand books in her house, and I can see how it easily gets out of control. I love finding thrifting beautiful, living books for our homeschool library. As more time passes I feel more purposeful about having our own copies of books, music, movies. I miss when we all owned our own media.

This summer has met us with many beautiful out of doors learning opportunities. We have picked strawberries, visited the Raptor Center, played at our local favorite beach, and attended a beautiful art class with our forest school friends.

I think some of biggest challenges have been trying to fit in all I have planned into pieces of time in our day, and really learning how to best teach Cilla. I’m still new to homeschooling, and am learning what our limits are and when to put the book down and take a break versus push through. I find so much comfort and wisdom in homeschool mothers who are years ahead of me.