Our online classes ended the first part of May as well as our home school co-op. My kids were thrilled thinking they were done for the year! I explained that we still had lots of learning to do before we officially ended the second week in June with all of their public schooled friends.
A few days later at breakfast devotional I introduced the Brimhall University Honor Society. I gave them each a copy to hang in their cubby and to check things off. It is based in BYU's Honors Program, that our daughter is pursuing with gusto!
It was a little ambitious but I thought, if we only do half of it, it will give us something to shoot for!
Today is June 15th, our last day, and I am pleased to say we've done it all! Each of the topics kept us moving forward in exposing us to great things, reading and asking questions.
Some highlights:
- Going to the play: Meet Mark Twain, where we came face to face with Ryan Clemens, an actual relative to Samuel Clemens! He gave a wonderful one man show and we all came home and each picked up a book by Mark Twain (without my asking or assigning!).
- For Science we watched a documentary called "Tales from the Hive." Then went to a friend and he opened up his hive for us to see. It was great and our 17 year old son even put on a bee suit to get a closer look!
- We read classic books and discussed them in our American lit class with a wonderful mentor.
- We put together a money class and learned all about finances. The kids did projects and planned out our summer vacation and learned how important compound interest is - especially when you are earning it rather than paying it!
- We loved watching the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy plus "The Hobbit", and even watched "Gone With the Wind". We gained a new perspective as we watched a Japanese film, in Japanese!
- We worked on personal progress and painted our daughters room, after having painter's tape up for six months awaiting painted stripes.
We had to search for some things but others were easy. End of the year recitals filled our requirements for music. Service hours were easy too; helping someone move, volunteering at the library, typing up girls camp schedules.
We talked about the activities as a family and dad was included in many of our adventures! One of our favorites, visiting a local art gallery and visiting with the artist for 45 minutes!
This was a great way to spend our last month of school, even though we had lots of other things going on as well!
It was a wonderful way to spend time with each other and could easily be done over the summer!
Enjoy!