Spring has Sprung

early flowers

It's hard to believe that we are only fifteen days from the end of our fifth year of schooling at home. The weather has been gorgeous and I am having a hard time cracking the whip to keep these boys working. I've cut back a bit on what I expect them to accomplish each day to allow them more time outside.

In all honesty, there is very little I feel we need to do yet to have a full year of learning. We will wrap up our American history with a book about the 13th president, Millard Fillmore. EM will finish off his Singapore Math 4B book. JT is writing a short research project on an animal he knows little about, the Tasmanian Devil. EM will take a four week pottery class at the local Y.M.C.A. arts center. I also plan to take a field trip to see a planetarium show in Harrisburg to complete our astronomy unit for science.

crocus

But most of all, I want the boys to enjoy the outdoors. It always seems such a shame to me that children are stuck inside so many hours a day when the spring weather first hits. By the time June rolls around, it's starting to get too hot to play outside all day. With our last day being May 3rd, the boys will have a full month of freedom before summer comes along. This will also give us more time to work on our gardening projects together. We are not planting as many vegetables this year since we joined a local CSA. However, we do want to experiment with some container gardening. I went to a program at the library with my daughter last weekend and came home with new ideas.

As homeschooling has become a more integrated part of our daily routine it seems there is less of a line between summer vacation and the school year. Sure I like having an open chunk of time where I won't be actively planning for the next day's schooling, but I also don't mind that planning part of my life so much anymore. Maybe some day I'll give up the planning completely.

Would that be so bad?