School's Out for Summer...Only, Not Really

We have 7 days of school left. Count 'em, baby!! We're ready. We got a late start on Monday and the boy said we should call school for the day. Um, no. So much to do still and we are headed into the home stretch. Then I looked at where they were in all their school work. Ugh! We need to summer school. Well. Crap.

Part of this is my problem. Well, duh, since I set the pace. I didn't realize with some of the big girl's curriculum that when she takes a quiz, she should also complete a lesson. And really, when she takes a test, she should also complete a lesson. Some of her tests can be as many as 6 pages long. In my defense, though, if I followed the teacher's guides to the letter, she would school from 9 in the morning until 7 or 8 at night. There is that much info that needs to be covered. It's set up for school, but not really homeschooling. It has homework, but we didn't do the work like homework. I assigned that for the next day. And that throws us behind. I had a friend that used this curriculum at the private high school she attended growing up. She said it was intense. When everyone in college was complaining about the workload, she was breezing through it since she had such a heavy load in high school. Which brings us to point 2.

There is so much work in high school. In our public schools, the students don't go all day, every day. They have early dismissal one day a week and they are on an A/B schedule of alternating days. The big girl does almost everything every single day. She has a much heavier load than some of the public schoolers we know. Some of the seniors I know go for one class, then they're done for the day. What?!?! How did you get all the credits you need and still manage to get out early? That is not happening here. My friend S has her daughter start math in June because her work load is so heavy when her co-op starts, that she would never get math done. Although we aren't starting new stuff, I feel like if we don't try to finish some stuff, like math and grammar, the kids will be behind before we even start.  

 I was speaking to my friend G about biology co-op next year. She started 9th grade with her oldest in April and will work all summer. If they are diligent, he will be a 10th grader come September. When he gets ready to graduate, they will have a few extra months to work on credits he may need. I totally get that. My big girl will graduate at 17 and won't be 18 until the following August. If she needs credits, we'll have time. I would rather get as much done now, and not be scrambling come graduation time. I like the "be prepared" way of thinking G has.

I know there are people out there that think homeschoolers are lazy. The reason we keep our kids home is to indoctrinate them in a way of life that is unacceptable to "society". That we buy faith based curriculum because we are religious fanatics. I am a Jesus freak, but that isn't why. To tell the truth, I homeschool my kids because I know they are getting a top notch education. I know that the curriculum we use, faith based or not, is challenging and will help my kids in their future endeavors, regardless of what those endeavors are. I homeschool because I love my kids and they will be grown and gone before I know it. I homeschool because it's the best thing for our family. The summer school thing stinks to high heaven, but we have to do it. I'd rather take a vacation.

Have a great day.