:: Tell us a little about yourself and your family, as well as how long you have been homeschooling.
I am a mom of 4 fun kids. We like swimming, sledding, and roller coasters. My kids are Lindsey (13), Jenna (12), and Daniel and Jack (both 9). We've been homeschooling for 5 years.
:: Do you take the Summer off from homeschooling, or do you continue year round? If you continue, do you do things any differently?
We do take the summer off and can't wait for it to start. It is a great motivator to make that last push to end our school year. I try to continue some flash cards, piano practice, and some forced (for some) reading, but even that, I have to admit, usually gets pushed out by mid July.
:: What are some of your favorite Summer activities to do with your children?
We spend a lot of time in our pool in the backyard and meeting our cousins at the Batavia quarrey. We also have season passes at Great America and go every other week or so. On good weather weekends that are free we try to go camping in our pop-up, but free weekends are hard to come by. My husband loves to line up all the local fests we can attend so he can listen to music and just enjoy being outside altogether.
:: Do you have a favorite Chicagoland spot for Summer fun?
For camping we either go to Yogi Bear Jellystone Park in Millbrook, IL or Caledonia, WI. Our swimming spot would be Philips Park or the Quarrey in Batavia. Hidden Lakes Trout Farm Park in Bolingbrook was a hit for some fishing last weekend.
:: Do you have a special way of storing and organizing your homeschool at the end of the year?
The curriculum I was using for the past 5 years was mainly workbook based. Incorporated in the lessons were 2 quizzes and a test in each workbook. I keep the quizzes and tests in a folder for each child and also save a few art pieces, one or two writing samples, and maybe something significant they did for Science or History and put it all in a tub that sits untouched and forgotten in the basement. I am switching to a different curriculum this new school year so not sure how it will look in the future. I almost have a high schooler so I need to probably have a better system when that comes along.
:: As you reflect on the past school year what is something that you felt was a success, and what was something that you would like to change for the coming year.
Mostly it was all a success, except for 7th grade science which was a snoozefest and never finished. We have used CLE for LA, Reading, and Math since we began homeschooling and it was a good fit up until this point. The kids liked being able to just open their workbook, do the lesson for the day, close the book and go to the next. We both liked the independant nature of it and also it was easy to take on the road if needed.
But now, the older two are getting tired of the workbook format and so we are switching to The Good and The Beautiful for all but Math (which we will continue on with CLE). We'll see how it goes. TG&TB will cover LA, Writing, Geography, Art, History, and we will pick up some of their Science unit studies.
Last year for History, we used Story of the World CD's that we listened to whenever we were in the car and watched documentaries to supplement for that time frame if we stumbled across any. That seemed to work well and was enough for us. I have used various different things for Science-Apologia, Rod & Staff, Abeka all with various success.
Thank you for taking the time to share these great resources with us Jeanine!
Channon
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