I know, I know... by this time of year most people are weary from school, ready for summer break, finishing end of year projects and waiting to be done. But I'm just on a different wavelength!

We do school through the summer, which is helpful as a home school family as big and as complex as ours, because it gives us three months of extra wiggle room to get everything done! And we'll definitely be using that wiggle room this year. It also means that we are gearing up for the new school year now!

Next month Evangelia is done with her online class, so we will be able to focus more on her other lessons and we'll have more time for supplemental activities like sewing classes, swimming lessons and baseball!

I'm working through all of our subjects right now, updating my Scope and Sequence for K-2nd grade and creating my 3rd grade goals, since Evangelia is just that old now! Our home school is a Charlotte Mason based curriculum and I rely heavily on Ambleside Online's booklists and wealth of information.

However, we don't follow their plans exactly. I have a couple of philosophical departures, and mostly we just can't do their years perfectly with our family's needs, not to mention the Orthodox updates that I make to the book lists. Stephen is going into 1st grade this year, so this will be my first year trying to juggle two full school plans. I'll let you know what we come up with and how it goes...

There are a couple things I'm super excited for. First, we are learning ASL together as a family and that is a super fun journey. Hopefully we will be adding Spanish later on in the year. I'll keep you updated on our process and progress.

I'm also going to begin drawing lessons with the children next week if all goes well. We will be using the Monart process for teaching drawing, and I will be learning right along with the kids, as with most things in our home school!

I also love our math and history programs and am excited to delve back into a more structured nature and science regimen. Iakabos is taking the helm on physical education, as he and Evangelia and Stephen are preparing to run a 10k next month!

There is much more happening in the home schooling realm, and I will definitely be working on getting some more resources up for that in the near future. Other than detailing our processes and curriculum I also plan on doing some book reviews, posting practical thoughts on home schooling with lots of littles and kiddos with special needs, offering philosophical discussions and suggestions for Orthodox book substitutions and additions in Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

This is one of my favorite things and also super fun to blog about. Can't wait! And if you are winding down from school at the moment and totally not in a planning mood, just save the posts and look at them in July or August. They'll still be here!