Summer Sabbatical Thoughts

We are giving serious consideration to a change for the summer months. The boys will be participating on Mondays in a group class with their 2 cousins. They will receive 1 1/2 hour instruction on perfecting their performance skills as a band/singing/performing group. We're really excited about this. We're hoping to add Josiah on sax and Levi on trumpet to create a nouveau-mariachi style band. Right now we have Caleb on mandolin, Josiah on bass, Levi on banjo, Stennes on 12-string lead, Anders on 6-string, and the little ones helping with the vocals. Branch is slated to begin violin as soon as it arrives (backorder, wouldn't ya know?), but he will be playing baritone uke in the band until his violin skills reach performance level. We generally encourage them to play as soon as they can, because the other boys play well enough to cover a beginner's mistakes.
So, how does all of this affect our summer? Well, we're looking at a mentorship-type schedule, leaving the texts behind for 3 months in lieu of personal pursuits as directed by Mommy & Daddy. They still have KP duty, Latin, Greek, guitar, piano, (and their personal "specialty" instruments), chronological readings through history (we're working through the upper-level classics), memory work for performances, and whatever they choose to study . So far, Josiah has been the first to hand in his list: he wants to work with Daddy in planting fruit trees, Boy Band time & just time to "jam", and he wants to really strengthen his French. We're planning to take their areas of expressed interest, add in a basic schedule of study (books, reports, etc.), a mentor meeting weekly, and then turn them loose to discover what interests them in those areas. We'll see. This is a change for us and the first attempt at a sabbatical from their regular studies. I'm excited, though, and the children are enjoying the thought of independence in their education, at least for 3 months.
Branch and The Girl will still have regular classes (about 2/3 hours daily) because they read only in Spanish, so we really need to work on their English reading and basic math skills. We'll let you know when the boys have their Personal Pursuit lists compiled, and we'll also let you know how this Sabbatical is working for us.