I love visiting home schooling sites on the web to get ideas for working with our children.  However, we are not strictly a home school family.  Our oldest daughter (8) attends public school 9 months out of the year (we haven't gone to year round schooling in our area).  The other three months she gets to do "home homework".  We learn new things and so special one on one activities that she would not normally do while in public school.  I know home school families who spend time gardening or taking a nature hike as a science lesson.  These are the kind of activities we do in the summer.  At the end of each school year I have Krista make a list of all of the things she would like to learn about over the summer, marking her top five.  I take that list and set some goals for our summer work.  During the school year we also do educational field trips and specialized learning.  Last year (2nd grade) we learned about the solar system and studied space exploration.  This year we are going to do an around the world unit and learn about cultures of other countries.  We live right next door to the local library and spend quite a bit of time there.
Sydnee is four and not quite ready for public school yet, so we are working with her quite a bit at home.  She enjoys doing big girl school work and this year she is going to be having learning time in the mornings while big sissy is at school.  She also has learning field trips on her level, her favorites are our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch in the fall our zoo trip in the summer.  Sydnee is also in charge of taking care of our two houseplants, Gertrude and Icabod.  She checks their water levels daily and takes them out to sun on pretty days.  She is learning responsibility as well as how plants grow.  We started Gertrude from clippings off another plant and have allowed her to root in water and then plant her.  It may sound odd to name your houseplants, but Sydnee has really taken to taking care of them since they are important enough to have names.  When she is old enough, Sydnee will attend public school with her sister.  Her father and I both feel it is important for our children to experience a wide variety of people and learn to be able to socialize with everyone.  By attending public school while getting specialized *fun* learning at home, our girls are getting the best of both worlds!

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