School Thoughts in July

School for us does not officially start till August 31st, but honestly I think about it everyday. My most current thoughts are on shipping back the materials from last year and watching and eagerly waiting for the new materials for this next year. Of course when this happens I also start to ponder my organization. Where am I going to put all the items when they come? I am excited to start setting up our school room. Last year we never had a school room and this year we have decided to make one on our main floor which means we will have to move our son downstairs. He is very excited about that.
Another thought I have in July comes from a question that was poised to me by a friend. She asked, "Do you continue to do things through out the summer?" To this I would have to say yes with a little hesitation. You see I do worry about knowledge loss from not having anything all summer. (I did see a study that was done on the amount of knowledge lost. It does happen.) At the same time I want my kids to be able to enjoy their summer without a lot of stress or strain. Therefore the way I decided to go about this was to make learning very enjoyable. For example, we went to our local zoo today and we had to find an animal of every color while we were there, and there was a giant map of the continents and so we did a quick review of what continents are where. At home I made a scavenger hunt for numbers. They had to find items such as the spoons and count and write down how many. I also purchased those worksheet books of superheros and princesses and they like to read to me everyday. It is their alone time with me. I try not to make things of this nature too much of a chore. I like to have fun with it.
One last thought in July is that I am excited to start again. I am excited to see what the curriculum has in store for us next year.