Summer School

We do school year round in our house.  But our summer schedule is much more relaxed then during the colder months of the year.  In the summer, we have a basic schedule that we are free to disregard if we decide to spend a day outside in the sun instead.  We sleep in a little longer, stay up a little later, etc.  The only thing set in stone during the summer is morning devotional.

The day starts when everyone is up.  At the latest, I let the girls sleep until 10AM, but we're usually up around 8AM.  We get breakfast and wake-up enough to do our summer devotional routine.

Summer devotional starts with prayer and a hymn.  Then I read from the scriptures to the girls for 10 minutes.  Next we do our memorization boxes.  Finally, we read from our movie book we're currently working on.  That is the only part set in stone.  From our movie book, depending on how we're feeling, we'll typically read anywhere from 10-45 minutes.

The rest of the schedule changes depending on the day, but follows this general format.

The older girls that can read do personal scripture study and from literature I have assigned them for about an hour, while the younger ones spend time reading scripture stories and picture books with me.  If we already have our math curriculum for the next year, the girls do three lessons a week so they don't lose what they've already learned and have to relearn it in the fall.

We also like to do unit studies during the summer that coincide with fieldtrips we're planning or subjects the girls want to study.  We've already done a Japan unit study this summer (I'll post about that later) and plan on an art one next.

When we decide we're done with school for the day, we work together to get chores done quickly and have lunch around noon.  Then we have the rest of the day to pursue whatever perks our interest that day.  Swimming, walks, water parks, arts & crafts, etc. 

After getting the idea from another homeschooling mom in the community, we plan to also try to let the girls have more say in our daily activities this summer.  At the beginning of devotional each day, after prayer, we want to let the girls each pick something they really want to do.  We will try our best to work it in that day or week.

Memorization Boxes

To memorize, we use memorization boxes.  I got the idea from Simply CharlotteMason.com's Scripture Memory System.  The main difference is that we do ours daily (not just Monday-Friday) and we use it for things other than scriptures.  So far, Rebekah & Rose have used it to memorize all thirteen of the Articlesof Faith.  Rebekah also memorized the Young Women's Theme using it.  While I plan to use it for scriptures like the Articles of Faith and Scripture Mastery, I also hope to use it in the future with things like the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, poetry, great literary passages, etc.

 

To put together the memory box, you need index cards, a box for the cards, and something to use as tab dividers.  I've used stick on file folder tabs before.  In this picture, I was using sticky tabs that you can find in the post it section of Wal-mart.  You're going to have four sets of tabs.  The first set is just one tab labeled "Daily."  Then you have a set of two labeled "Even" and "Odd."  The third set is the days of the week that you plan on working on memorization (Monday - Friday for most people).  And the final set is labeled 1-31.

 

Choose the first item you wish to have your child memorize and write it on a card (or have them write it on the card).  Place it in "daily."  Read the card out loud to your student every day.  As they memorize it, have them say it along with you.  Once you feel they are comfortable with it, move it back to the next set.  So, starting out, you'll only have one thing to say at a time.  As you fill it up, you will have more things to go over each day up to a total of four.

Each day, you will read four cards.  One card under daily.  A second card from even or odd, dependent on what day of the month it is.  For example, the 13th of July is an odd day and May 2nd is an even day.  The third card is the day of week and the fourth card is the day of the month (pretty self explanatory).

We do our memorization boxes each morning during devotional.