Summer Vacation in November?

Alllll-righty! Enough messing around with the computer. I have decisions to make. You see, we are officially finished with the second term. So, we could take a break until January. Gives you a shiver up your spine, eh? Me, too. I picture kids sleeping 'til ten, running amok, with large callouses on their fingers from the video game controllers. We need structure, discipline, books, structure, books, structure ... I think you get my point. So, in the interest of fairness to my children, to whom I foolishly explained my reasoning about school during the summer months with promises of an extended break around Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have decided to reflect on what we have done thus far - and what we have learned. And then I will think about what I would like to have be the focus of our infra-session. (You know, like in graduate school, when you had a one-week class, eight hours each day for five days straight. You drank copious amounts of coffee, popped Vivarin pills in your Coke bottles, and just didn't sleep for the entire week. Now, I will amend this structure for the children, but the idea is the same - we will study something we don't have the chance to do during the regular year. I am leaning toward science, which normally gets much less attention than history.)



In history, we are more than half-way through SL Core 4. This includes lots of supplementation, videos, extra readings. I hated history in school. Blech, yuck, yawn ... Now, it is my favorite subject, and easily takes up the majority of our day. We have also learned all the states - geographical locations, postal code abbreviations, vital industries, major bodies of water, etc. And the twins have learned the presidents through the end of the 19th Century, along with pertinent events that marked their presidency. This is helpful for them in constructing a time-line of American History. We have also -very informally - been studying World History with SOTW Volume 4. We have completed some narrations and some note-booking along with that. We will be finishing some studies related to Canadian History this week, but they do not know that yet. Shhhh!



Math varies from child to child, but I am proud of what they have accomplished. I want to loosen up the reins and have them do some exploratory type lessons related to using the metric system, and I have a few other ideas. I also want to continue with the Teaching Company Basic Math videos, up to the point of fractions. I believe this will serve as good review, and does not require much on their part.



Latin has been comprised of review of last year's Latina Christiana's vocabulary and grammar. I also added Lively Latin, and, while I tried to add Little Bear and the Younger Twin, I just felt it was more geared toward the Older Twin. She is approaching Lesson 5. We are supplementing with Ludere Latin, and some on-line declension exercises and vocabulary word searches.



Art is going very well, with their portfolios filling out nicely. Art appreciation has been sporadic, but I plan on planning it better for the third term. The same goes for music appreciation. The girls are working on the recorder on their own. Ballet, tap, and jazz continue as usual.



In science, we did finish The World in a Drop of Water last term. And we have done a good deal of nature study. They have read a dozen or so books about inventors and scientists, etc. The John Hudson Tiner books were popular. The Younger Twin is now reading Pagoo. The Older Twin and I were working our way through The Elements, but we stalled. Now I will begin using Real Science-4-Kids, Chemistry, with History & Philosophy supplements. We did the introduction of all three parts of this program already, and will try to accomplish Chapter 1, at the very least, this week.



Our memory work has consisted of the following:

The Pater Noster, in Latin, & the Our Father, in English

The Table Blessing in both Latin & English

The First & Second Declensions

Numbers to ten in Latin

The story of the founding of Rome

The parts of speech

Conjugation of the being verb in Latin

Mathematical Operations and their constituent parts

The Presidents (up to number 24)

Gettysburg Address - speech itself as well as why it was written

Preamble to the Constitution

United States Government

Name of Lincoln's plan for unification following the Civil War, as well as the competing plan

States that comprise certain geographical area (such as, name the Mid-Atlantic States)

Tell me about the advent of catalogs, department stores, and unions in the United States

Discuss the development of cities and tenement homes

Tell me about the railroad, its development, and the beginnings of suburbs



You know what, this list is getting too long. Obviously, the kids have earned a break. I have not even touched upon our language arts program. I guess I will just plan to focus on some fun science projects for the younger ones, and give the Older Twin time to focus solely on her science course. Of course, I believe we should continue to do some math each day. And if Latin is left to flounder until January ...