Tuna says she would like to start fifth grade NOW. She doesn't want a summer to sprawl out, chill out, play all day. Oh, wait. Yes, she does. She just sees "school" as an extension of that!
Perfect!
So, as of now, I have a fifth grader. Speaking of which: I'd prefer to drop the grade designation, but she likes it. Plus, how does one get along in American society without knowing what grade one's child is in? I'm not sure how that works. Still, I'd prefer to ditch the grade.
Anyway, we're going to adopt a light schedule of about an hour a day, three days per week:
Twenty minutes (one chapter) of Life of Fred (we're working on Ice Cream right now, still catching up from math horrors of public school)
Twenty minutes of Story of the World (one section per day, plus map work and projects)
Twenty minutes of Brave Writer. Ish. This will probably take longer on some days. Tea and poetry, for example, which we are both looking very much forward to, and we even bought a new tea service at the thrift shop where we volunteer.
We'll add art, music, German, science, critical thinking, and geography beginning in August and coming to full speed in September.
Earlier this week, we enjoyed our very first fire in the fire pit since moving to Germany, watched a movie on the back patio curled up by the fire, snuggled in thick blankets, enjoying ourselves while the rest of the neighborhood went silent because it was a school night.
We also got to watch shepherds (dog AND human -- if there's a human shepherd in Germany, is it inappropriate to call him a German Shepherd?) herding their flock of sheep down the road. Watching the dog wrangle his herd was fascinating. It's one of those things most people read about, but never experience. Living in Bavaria has the added benefit of exposing us to all these novel things. It was the absolute highlight of our day, and we pulled over, rolled down the windows, and stared, googly-eyed, silly smiles, oohing and ahing over the sheep being herded. Good times. Wish I'd had my camera on me.
And today, we met some cool homeschool kids and some rather uncool homeschool moms. I'm in the position where I need to see homeschool group as something for Tuna, something I suck up and do, rather than support for me. Not that I need it. I'm doing just fine on my own, don't you think?
Enjoy your weekend, lovely readers. My husband is home this Sunday, so we're going to grill and watch a scary movie together. He hasn't been home in several weeks for longer than six hours at a time, so I'm going to soak him in. :)
