set up for summer!

Well, here it is 2:30am and I'm wide awake with Jordan. She woke up about two hours ago with a bad dream or something, so I'm sitting up with her until she falls back to sleep. After an hour awake, I decided to go through and get my file box set up for summer with the kids. (background if you don't know it: we use k12 through a virtual academy and I keep all our papers to do in a hanging file box, one hanging folder for each kid and then a file folder in that folder for each subject, within the subject folders I keep the current unit we're in for that subject so that we can go 100% their pace without worrying about pulling more materials in the middle of a lesson) So here's what I have going on.

Melissa and Lydia both will continue to work on math this summer, as well as phonics. Melissa just has a couple units from phonics K that I want to go over one last time before she starts phonics 1 (and the grammer parts of lang arts 1) and we need to work on a few skills in math over the summer with her, while Lydia will continue to do phonics K to finish it and will continue forward with math 1. That alone is the bulk of my formal work with the girls. I'm adding in Explode The Code for some extra practice this summer, and we'll also add some math workbooks for Melissa to work on her struggling skills (time and money) and both girls will start Spanish if they are interested in it.

For science, this summer we are going to do something really fun. I found a lapbook for the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over at Homeschool Share in the preschool stuff, and after looking it over I decided to beef it up a little for my oldest two girls and turn it into a study to introduce some astronomy. So, Jordan and Kimmy will do the unit pretty much as written, modified slightly for their abilities, while Melissa and Lydia are going to do every piece of it along with some other stuff that I'm creating to make a nice fun astronomy study. The local library is putting together some books for me to use, and I have a list of several books to add that they may not pull but I know I'd like. We are going to learn the planets in order, talk about the different kinds of stars and their life cycle, learn some of the common constellations in the sky (along with the zodiac ones), and talk about other things like nebulas, black holes, meteors, and the different galaxies (among other things, we're just going to see where this takes us over the summer). Our theme for this summer is "shoot for the stars!" and we will be decorating our living/dining/school area with stars, the planets, and other things that we'll make. I ordered a free DVD about the life cycle of stars that I found through my homeschool group, I think it was made by Discovery with NASA or something like that. Oh yeah, and we will talk about space exploration including telescopes, satellites, astronauts, and space shuttles. I have a full blueprint of the Challenger straight from NASA that a relative got me as a kid, and I plan to dig it out to show the girls all the stuff it takes to make one shuttle. Maybe I'll even see if I can get hold of some of that freeze-dried "astronaut food" for the kids to try out, I know Rainbow Resource sells it and I'm sure there's a store in Columbus (or 20 LOL) that does also. I've even seen some at the gift shop at the Columbus Zoo if I remember correctly.

And as always, we will incorporate lots of creative play, crafts, and other activities to our homeschool. I'm still finishing off the details on my astronomy study for this summer, but once I get it all done I will be sure to put up my plans for you all to see, and as we do the unit I'll get lots of pictures as well as making a few videos to show off the girls' completed lapbooks. I just have to remember to go to the library on Saturday morning so that I can pick up the books that the children's librarians are gathering for me.............