Well, this summer is almost over for me. I’ve been working on getting us ready for our next school year (starts Monday, July 15th). We started a new schedule last year. We worked 4 weeks and took 1 week off. I really liked that break. It seemed that by the time that fourth week came along we were all ready to take a week off. We did take 2 weeks at Christmas Time and we took 2 weeks in February. So, therefore, we have a shorten summer. I actually prefer that because my kids are electronic addicts and I can’t get them to do anything else. They’ve done quite a bit of camps, VBS, but on their down time computers, iPads, TV and iphones call their name. Unfortunately, I am not a very outdoorsy person so I don’t readily say “Let’s go ride bikes” or “Let’s go on a hike”. Besides, its been over 100 degrees where I live. So 7 weeks is all I can take of idleness. Here are my pros and cons of a short summer:
Pros of a short summer:
- Kids don’t spend 2 months idle (I know, I probably should have never allowed electronics but what do you do when your spouse is a gadget guy?)
- They don’t “lose” what they learned. (My sons already forgetting spelling rules we’ve worked on…..)
- I am forced to be organized and get all my curriculum and things ready. I usually don’t work on this until late July/August but I’ve been working on this all month
- We get more school in since we are starting early, we may be done with our curriculum by March 2014 and go on to the next year’s curriculum
- I crave schedules & structure….
Cons of a short summer:
- We made a summer bucket list that may or may not get done
- It went by so fast, I didn’t get any projects done that I wanted to accomplish
- Kids are bummed
- Friends don’t start school for 2 more weeks so they are bummed that my kids will be in “school” already
- We usually go to our amusement park 2-3 times a summer, this time? None
- I am cramming all my work into 2 weeks instead of taking my time until mid August.
Most of my friends follow a traditional schedule and don’t start until AFTER labor day. I think that is insane. I would go crazy. So for our family, tomorrow will be our last Friday off.
Ligia
