School's out for...September?

We just finished Term 2 exams today! I wish I could say we finished the term with a bang but it was really more like a whimper. That was more of a parenting with a chronic illness issue mixed with a few bad attitudes than a homeschooling issue but whatever the reason our last week of regular school was rough. Exam week is proving to be a favorite of Lucy's though, partly because exam days are short and sweet and partly because its just very encouraging to both of us to look back at all we've learned together and do a bit of sharing with daddy too. I'll finish transcribing them and post it soon.

And despite last week's trials, overall this semester has been great. I'm loving this age. Lucy and I have had some really great discussion about deep topics. She asking wonderful questions and really coming up with insightful ideas. I'm really excited to start next term! Just not yet :-)

I will admit, it feels a bit odd to be getting finished right as everyone else starts but not in a bad way! It feels great actually. So far, I'm really loving the break schedule we have. The weather should start cooling off a bit soon (please please!) and we've got a whole bunch of stuff planned for this month. The kids and I sat down and came up with a list. I don't think we'll get to it all but we'll sure try. This week we've been stuck at home though as the car a/c went out. We tried going out Monday anyway but it about killed us so now we wait for the shop to finish up with it. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll at least be able to have a adventure on Friday.  I'm so excited to be able to go to the zoo when it isn't crowed and sweltering out. The kid's have handle the lack of "adventure" just fine so far though, right now they have have pulled every blanket and pillow we own into the living room to make a giant burrow.

One thing I'm loving about this schedule is that it really breaks up the changes. That helps me because I don't have to plan everything at once. When we start back, we'll still be reading all the Ambleside Online year 1 books but we will be adding in a bit more formal nature studies as well as a curriculum for French (instead of just french folk songs). And I've been working on getting the pictures and songs ready for the next few terms but since the basic schedule is the same, I'm not feeling a whole lot of stress. And when we start next term, the books will change but everything else will be the same so. Lucy seems to struggle with big changes too so, for now at least, this plan seems to be working well. And the low planning level right now means I can make this a bit of a vacation for me too. Just yesterday I wrapped up my reading of The Betrothed. In theory, I could start my next Back to the Classic Challenge book but have decided to wait so I'm free to read some lighter books. I do find that the more harder books I read, the better my "lighter" books start to be. I just can't read actual twaddle anymore. But I've got a stash of public domain fun reads that I am completely willing to devour without regards to slowly savoring. Not exactly beach reading but pretty close. Ah, Summer September!