Moving on and Keeping Going

Megan moved up to her first grade Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read program. She was very proud of herself.  Then she started the work, and it is a bit more difficult than the Kindergarten level.

She grew frustrated at first, but we will stick it out and take it slow.  I have decided to do school through the summer at half pace.  If we take two weeks to get through the phonics lessons at first, I'm not worried.  That will keep skills processing forward over the summer instead of slipping backwards.

Half speed through Heart of Dakota and other programs gives me a tad bit of structure in our summer days, but still gives lots of fun times.  Wednesdays will be full with activities, so we won't do any bookwork on those days.

I have similar plans with my older girls too.  I haven't worked out all the details yet, but I would like some things to be worked on daily.  My main thing I want to continue daily is Bible time. My feeling is that we should be in the Word daily because we desire to spend time with the Lord daily, not because it is assigned in the curriculum.

I want to make it light for all the girls.  Burning them out, frustrating them with more and more work, is not my plan.  My plan is to keep building skills, not lose ground, and keep us growing in Christ.

Heart of Dakota is such a wonderful program for summer work.  We simply just keep moving on to the next page in the plans.  Megan is currently at the end of week 13 in Little Hearts for His Glory.  We began Little Hearts after Christmas.  Since Heart of Dakota's programs are age-based, not grade-based, they can effectively be used for more than one grade.  We move at our own pace in math, and it doesn't always line up with the HOD schedule.  

I look forward to a slower pace over the summer.  Gardening, VBS, swimming, reading all the books I put off through the year.  Summer is my recharge time.  It's the time the kids relax and enjoy just being kids.