And we're done...

We had our last meeting with our Resource Teacher this morning. Turned in all the books, math manipulatives (M is making a set of wooden base 10 blocks and some pattern blocks for us), and so forth. Tomorrow there is an optional beach gathering for friends and family of those in the charter school, but I am not sure if we'll go or not. It might be nice to just have a day off at home! Besides, most of the parents I knew there have moved on. We were going to go roller skating today, but somehow I misunderstood the times - thought it was 12 to 4, and when we called, they said 2 to 4, so instead we'll go out for an ice cream treat at a very small place that makes all their own ice cream by hand, from local ingredients - yummy!

Anyhow, we're home now (obviously), and enjoying summer freedom! I'm giving the kids this week and next to just hang out and have fun, then we'll start on light summer work - just (a little) math and reading. Which brings me to my next rambling point... as my faithful readers know, I got Oak Meadow 4 recently for Elf. We have spent the last couple of days looking at it together, and, while he likes some of it (namely the integration of art), he does NOT care for the rest of it. His commentary went something like this...

"But Mommy, there is a lot of writing, and I don't like writing. I thought we were just going to do nature journals, and that's not in here. And what happened to that other writing thingy you showed me? Can't I do that one? And I want to learn about knights and castles!"

Crap. Sorry, but crap. I spent weeks looking for Oak Meadow at a good price! But he got me thinking too... with everything else we have on our plates, do I really have time to coach two kids through entirely seperate programs? Oak Meadow is one curriculum I have found that does not lend itself well to combining ages. Again, crap. Anyone want a 4th grade OM syllabus and teacher's guide? ;)

Anyhow, here we are, free from school, and I am worrying about mid August! I think I'll worry about it later, and just enjoy summer right now. Besides, I always have my back-up Plan B! And I do have my summer plans cemented... see below...

Elf's Summer School
Bellworks Mathematics Series, book 3 (4-8 problems daily)
The Ralph S. Mouse series

Fairy's Summer School
MathSteps 1 (1 page daily)
The Reading Lesson (aiming to finish lessons 1-10 over the summer)

Both
Since we won't be getting to U.S. History any time soon if we continue with chronological history, I thought we might read through The American Story series over the summer. We'll also read various library books and are considering Swallows and Amazons, The Princess Bride, and The Neverending Story. For audio books, we're going through a bunch of Roald Dahl's writing.