Summer Homeschooling: Carrying our Classroom With us and Learning Outside

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Since this summer is going to be different from summers past (thank you pandemic), and since I’m due with Baby #4 at the beginning of September, we decided as a family that homeschooling through the summer, and then taking a break when he arrives, would be best for our family.

Mark is finally on a M-F schedule consistently (with the exception of one weekend a month when he is on power call and works pretty much 24/7), and that makes it much easier to get the kids on a consistent schooling schedule.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the flexibility it gives us, and I am taking full advantage of that this summer. Instead of spending our mornings in the classroom, G and I load up with our bag and basket (more on that below), and head outside first thing in the morning. It’s been hot here lately, and mornings are undoubtedly the best time to be outside. Moving school time outdoors allows me to work with G and William while Charlotte plays. It also gives them a little more incentive to get their work done.

Bag It Up

I inherited my mom’s teacher bag when she retired, used it daily when I was teaching, and have pulled it back out now. This sturdy tote from L.L. Bean is my perfect bag- it’s sturdy, stands up on it’s own, and holds a ton of materials. Sentimentally, I can’t remember my mom without this bag (or at least her current version of it, she always replaced it with an identical copy). She carried it back and forth to school each day and had it out at home while getting her work done in the evenings and on weekends. I kind of love following in her footsteps in that way.

It’s currently loaded up with our current curriculum materials, everything I need for a morning of schooling outside. So what’s in it these days?

• My Blessed Is She Planner: This thing is worth it’s weight in gold. I wasn’t sure it would be worth the money, but dang, after a year of using it daily, I’m sold. It has space for notes, meal planning, grocery lists, prayer intentions, and daily schedules. School-wise, I use it to keep track of lessons for G and William.
• Tape, scissors, and extra pencils: because if G has a reason to go back inside, she will take it, get distracted, and not come back for a half an hour. I try to keep any and every item we might need on hand to avoid distractions.
• Box of counting items for William (not pictured, the jar of pennies): William does great at one-to-one counting, but he is struggling with recognizing the numerals.
• A spiral notebook: in case Charlotte wants to color, G needs a word spelled, or I’m working with William on recognizing numbers or letters.
• Around the World in Picture Books Teacher Guide and whichever book we are reading right now from the curriculum: We loved our Early American History from Beautiful Feet Books last year, so we’re using their geography curriculum this year. It is remarkably thorough, engaging, and just plain well-written. G learns best through literature, so this is perfect for her, and the curriculum includes lessons on geography, botany, zoology, and cultural history, with lots of options for extensions laid out.
• The Story of the Bible Teacher Guide and Activity Guide: This is a new addition for us, but I’m happy I pulled the trigger on it. We typically listen to the chapter via Audible, which my kids prefer to me reading. Then we talk through what they learned, and we choose some activities from the book. I’m impressed by their one room schoolhouse model, which works great for us (and we even include Gram, who loves the crosswords and word searches).
• G’s reading books (you can read my review of early readers here). She is on the second to last book in the set, and is beginning to transition to reading “real” books as she calls them. She’s incredibly proud of herself.
• William’s Doodle Book from The Good and the Beautiful: This is a great pre-writing journal for little people who are just beginning to work on pencil grip and could use some extra fine motor practice before they’re ready to write. William loves it. It’s sweet and whimsical, and each page is different, so it holds his attention. He really feels like a big kid when he gets to sit down with it with me.

A Tisket A Tasket

One of the things that I’m working with G on is her sense of responsibility. To that end, she has her own homeschool basket with all of her work in it. Here’s what’s in her basket currently:

• Her journal for geography: One of my favorite pieces of the geography curriculum we’re using is that it comes with a beautiful journal in which she can record what she’s learning, paste in pictures, drawings, maps, and flags. She enjoys the process of creating a record of our “journeys” to different countries.
• Her composition notebook: I’ve found it easiest so far to have G record most other subjects (grammar, big math problems, etc) in one notebook. We title and date each entry to keep track of what she’s been working on.
• A box of colored pencils, scissors, and glue stick: Both the geography and religion curricula we’ve chosen have lots of art/craft activities that we can do. I find it helps for G to have all of the items she will need in one place.
• Her math workbook: We use the Montessori method for math, but for seatwork, I prefer to tailor make our math books over purchasing a set. That way if she needs extra practice on a concept, I can adjust as needed. Sometimes I use The Math Worksheet Site, but we are currently just working through memorizing basic math facts, so I made my own pages. One page per number, and then I print as many copies as we need. Also, making my own math books gives me my a chance to use my amazing book binder.
• A set of bead bars: These are a quintessential Montessori material, and incredibly helpful for children learning math. We’ll use them for addition, subtraction, and even multiplication.
• Her handwriting book: I like teaching children D’Nealian handwriting because the slants and curves make it easier for little hands to replicate. It has the added benefit of being closer to cursive, making for an easier transition down the road. This particular handwriting book has children writing Dolch sight words, which gives G extra practice with those.