Summer Term School Planning

My biggest project this month was planning our summer school term. I am playing a little bit of *catch-up still, but that is one reason why we are doing school this summer. My goals in planning were these: keep a lighter than normal schedule, finish Joel's and James' respective terms in 10 weeks to allow a slightly shorter Summer Term but also not rushing - thus defeating the purpose of the way we learn, add in definite times for Nature Study and art lessons (not Artist Study, which we already have covered). I hope and pray that these goals are achievable in real life and not just on paper.

Here's what it looks like on paper. Basically. Monday-Thursday lessons. No Friday lessons!!!! I am saving Nature Study and art lessons for Fridays. More on that later. Morning Time and math in the mornings, read alouds afterwards.

I ended up having $0 for books, but was able to find all 5 books I needed at the Library. Yea! I grabbed Good Queen Bess even though I also had grabbed Shakespeare's biography. She was just a favorite of Joel's last term and thought he would enjoy reading it on his own. He read it already. That and a few other factors have led me to decide to let him read The Children of the New Forest on his own this term. I have been listening to it on Librivox, and I really don't like most of the readers, and I really just don't have the time to devote to it 3x week. So this will be interesting and hopefully really great, too.

We will be studying trees in Nature Study. Very exciting. There are more varieties of trees here than anywhere we've lived in awhile. We will also do a mosquito study, and a bird count.

I really had to put art lessons in, and make them a priority because the boys simply love it. It has taken a year and a half, but we finally have pastels, pastel paper, and You Can Paint Pastels by Marie Blake. I will do a 15-30 minute art lesson with them (all three boys) quasi 1-on-1 each week. I think it is very doable, and I am excited to see what we make. I think it helps to simplify and focus on just one thing - such as just pastels, or just sketching, or whatever. Also, thinking of it as only 10 lessons really makes it seem very doable. Also I hope to remember Sketch Tuesday every week.

The bulk of my actual planning was for Morning Time. I plan exactly what is going to happen every morning (if you don't take charge, THEY will), so it takes a good bit if planning. Here's the jist of what we're doing:
Folk Songs: Simple Gifts/Click Go the Shears
Hymns: Sweet Hour of Prayer/Rock of Ages, also a variety of Patriotic Hymns
Bible: Genesis, Gospel of John
Memory Work: John 10:27-30, Ps 67, a poem per child
Manners: Hat etiquette, interrupting, more to come
Artist Study: Albert Bierstadt
Composer Study: Mendelssohn
Shakespeare: Pericles, Measure for Measure, As You Like It
Read Alouds: Buffalo Bill, James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Blue Fairy Book, American Tall Tales, Pilgrim's Progress
Poetry for respective Terms

*Feeling like you are behind schedule is a part of homeschooling. It. Just. Is. I say I am playing catch up because I am not quite where I want to be. That's just a part of life, and so I almost don't feel behind, it's more of a "slow and steady wins the race" feeling.