Summer Schole (Mother Culture): My Plans for 2024

I recently shared our plans for Summer in this blog article. I talked about our plans for habits, morning routines, and our plans for moving forward in some lessons and read alouds.

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I also shared my Summer Mother’s Timetable, a useful tool, and guide for ordering my affections, rather than feeling like I only have time for nourishing little humans and tidying up at the end of the day to do it all again. While there were seasons in my motherhood that I remember that was all I could muster up to do (and by grace, it was/is purposefully enough), nonetheless, it has been a huge joy and blessing being able to redeem time for my own personhood, beyond mothering, to live a life more deeply, growing in spiritual disciplines, in knowledge (both of God and man), and rightly ordered habits for home and womanhood.

This is not to be mistaken for selfish gain, or self-care, where the time spent ends at self. No. The heart of my Schole time is that it gives me as a whole person, a will and responsibility beyond myself, to first and foremost love God and draw closer to him more deeply, and then pours out and overflows to the relationships and duties around me, prayerfully, in a life-giving way.

I have 8 weeks until our new homeschool year begins, and now that most of my lesson planning is complete, I will use the Summer to recharge my heart and mind, steeped in some of my favorite home education books and resources.

Home Education Books and Materials I’m Revisiting This Summer

• Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell
• When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper
• Teaching From Rest by Sarah Mackenzie
• Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson
• Past Commonplace Quarterly Magazines

First Time Home Education Books and Other Materials I’ll Delight In this Summer

• Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simons
• Schole Sisters Online Retreat from 2023: Homeschool Essentials: Time I usually have a couple of virtual homeschool retreats lined up to listen to, but this year, unfortunately, there weren’t many options available to do so. Therefore, I plan to make a short list of podcast episodes to tune into, and I will revisit this retreat from last year by the Schole Sisters!

A Mother’s Morning Time

This Summer I thought it would be a treat for my early mornings to create my own morning time with subjects we include in our homeschool morning collective. These subjects include poetry, scripture memory work, prayer, nature study, and literature. My mother’s morning time will come after my personal Bible Study time, so I won’t include my Bible study resources in this post. My goal will be to have my mother’s morning time 3x a week, leaving 2 days open in the mornings and evenings (not including weekends) for my continued pre-reading for Ambleside Online Year 4. Below I’ve listed the resources I will use in my mother’s morning time:

poetry

• Emily Dickinson Collected Poems
• Wendell Berry Collected Poems

scripture memory work

• Daily Grace Co. A Study Guide for Scripture Memory: Dwell – Beloved Bible Passages

prayer

• I share about this prayer journal often on my Instagram, and I love the simple prompts it includes

nature study

• The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
• A Year on the Desert by Barbara Goodheart

literature

• Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchel I thought this would be a fun book to read for myself before we study Ancient History this year in our history!
• The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan

Final Thoughts

I won’t touch each book daily, but I’ll organize my list of books/subjects on a weekly rotating schedule. My goal is to dedicate 30-45 minutes to my morning time subjects, potentially allowing for commonplace journal entries afterward.

Do you plan for your Summer Schole? What books are you enjoying this season?