weekly wrap up 6/15/18 Summer school schedule

We do all year round schooling here but our summer schedule is much lighter and we take plenty of days off to do fun things.  We use this time to try to catch up on things we fell behind on during the school year or to continue subjects that I don't want the kids to forget such as Math skills!

Firedrake (going into 11th grade in September)  has decided to go to school almost full time (6 out of 7 classes)  So this summer she is going to only do a few things that we fell behind in during the school year as well as a few things to prepare for the upcoming school year.

World History-- completing unit 6 of Crash course curriculum (should only take a couple of weeks to complete)

Geoscience -- she told her Dad (who does science lessons) she wants to continue and do a unit about the planetary systems.  We did this in the earlier grades but she wants to use the high school text to delve more into the subject:)

Japanese --  continuing with her private tutor once a week and independent study

Piano -- private tutor and she is participating and preparing for the Midwest Music Association at the end of July

Driver's ed -- gulp it is that time:)  I gotten the DMV book for her to study and found a homeschool father who is also a police officer who does student driving on the side.  We are hoping to get her learning permit in the fall.  How we will afford to get her a car and the insurance to go with it is completely unknown to us at the moment;).

ACT/SAT class -- looking into several options for summer classes to review for the exams.  I also bought a computer based program called College prep genius.

On her own Firedrake likes to work on her creative writing and art during the summer!

MarioFan (going into 9th grade in September) who will continued to be homeschool next year

Grammar -- finishing up the last unit in his grammar book (only have half a chapter to complete)

Algebra -- finishing up pre algebra and then moving onto algebra using Teaching Textbooks (only have one more chapter to complete in pre-algebra then moving straight into the next book)

World History -- continuing with our textbook

Piano -- private tutor and preparing for the Midwest Music Association event at the end of July

Spanish -- we are continuing to self study Spanish and I am looking into a few options.  I may even hire a Spanish tutor if I can find one that won't break the bank:)

I checked this program out of the co-op library and will be looking at it to see if it will work
we will also be working on games online and using a work book I found just trying to keep our understanding of Spanish up throughout the summer.  I also found a bunch of simple Spanish readers that will will be working on to help with our spanish vocabulary.

Projects -- For Christmas he received three Kiwi kits and he wants to work on them this summer.  He keeps saying he wants to be an electrician or a video game designer, so we thought these electrical projects might help him decide.

Reading-- I will be encouraging him to read throughout the summer, which is not his favorite thing to do:)

Lastly, MarioFan will be working on his cooking skills.  I am trying to get him to plan and cook at least one meal weekly for the summer.

So that is the plan for the summer for both kids! Again we don't do these things everyday and we have lots of fun activities planned as well.  We got 6 Flag season passes again and will try to go every week for a day.  We also have a trip to the South west planned that we are all looking forward too.

We never accomplish it all but I always have a plan:)

weekly wrap up 6/8/18-- Birthday, Baskets and Graduation from 8th grade

Happy Birthday to MarioFan who turned 14 a few days ago!  Oh my goodness time goes so fast, I still remember the baby I brought home from the hospital so many years ago.  Not only has he grown in size (now the tallest of the house) he has grown in maturity.  I am so proud of the young man he is becoming.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Recently my husband took MarioFan to a baseball game.

Somehow I am two weeks behind on posting, not sure how but things get busy.  Two weeks ago MarioFan officially graduated from 8th grade, sniff sniff!  Our Co-op held a ceremony and my parents flew in to attend.  It was a small class this year only 8 graduates but a nice ceremony.

Cake at the ceremony

a parent made a candy table

and a fun photo booth 

It was a small group only 8 this year:)

We were able to hand our son a diploma and a 2018 medal of congratulations

MarioFan couldn't wait to just get to the cake!

happy sigh we made it this far!!!

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My parents were visiting and bought him a cookie to also celebrate.

Always nice to have my parents visit and celebrate this special moment with them

We also got together two weeks ago to finish our baskets.  Here are the finished baskets.  I thought everyone did a great job!

learning how to put a rim on the basket.  Takes lots of finger strength

MarioFan only did a minor about of complaining;)

Everyone's baskets turned out great!

Art class is officially over for the summer!  

I am working on our summer schedule (we homeschool year round) although first we are taking a mini break from all things school.  We all need a break to go to the pool or just veg out a little:)

weekly wrap up 6/1/18 -- Baskets, Caesar, and co-op ends!

MarioFan has completed his Science for the year.  We finished Evolution and this semester have been concentrating on human evaluation.  We are going to take a short break on science and then we will do some more hand on activities as MarioFan prefers science experiments and he feels this past semester, in science has been lacking in that area.  Hard to recreate a lab on this evolution!

Last week was the official end of  coop so Art (for both kids), Spanish (MarioFan)and Literature are finished for the year!  IN one week MarioFan will be participating in his 8th grade graduation ceremony with our Coop!  My parents are flying in to visit and attend:)

Firedrake has her finals next week for her three classes in public school.  Since we ended the semester with all A's she once again was allowed to drop one final exam.  She chose to drop Algebra final this semester!

For our last literature session on Julius Caesar we had the boys play out many of the famous scenes and practice using the type of speech Shakespeare was known for.

found a great free resource on line that we used.

For our last session in Art the boys worked on weaving baskets.  No artist was chosen for this lesson but we thought it would be a fun last project.  

I brought in a few different types of baskets I have around the house.  Two on this table I made myself:) the other baskets are from parts of the world we have traveled too over the years.

Then I got to work teaching the boys how to weave a basket!

Once the base was made it got easier and even one of the boys (not mine) said it was actually relaxing and fun!

We ran out of time on this day so we agreed to met up again to finish our baskets!

I bought the boys a large cookie as a surprise for their last Official coop day.  They wolfed it down:)

Firedrake decided she wanted to dye her hair to celebrate finishing her first year of public school.  I love her gorgeous red hair so would only agree to having the ends done.  She loved it

she is getting lots of compliments:)

Next week is MarioFan fans 8th grade graduation and my parents are flying in to attend.