Tell me about your summers

[Kacie]

I'm curious, do you follow the public school calendar with your homeschooling? Or keep on schooling through the summer?

Do you follow different schedules during the summers? Maybe add day camps or other activities to the mix?

I was a public-schooled girl, and all four summers of high school (and three semesters of college) I took classes. I wanted to get ahead, but mostly, I really love learning and I didn't want to stop school for three+ months at a time.

Before I took summer classes, it was much harder to get back into the grind in the fall. When you're on summer mode, it's hard to get back into school mode, for some kids.

So, let's talk about summer!

[Woman of Faith]

Kacie-

We seem to miss more than I would like during the "official" school year, and I have planned to make it up during the summer. However, we haven't succeeded much in having summer school in the past. It could be just in regards to my own children, resisting lessons when they know their public school friends living in the neighborhood don't have to go to school.

At the beginning of this school year I was very 'pumped' to stick to the schedule, and give them a free summer off, but as always, things come up and I would like to do some things during the summer. I'm not sure what we'll do for sure.

I'm probably not much help, but just go with the flow. Be flexible. If your child love's to learn, once they start school, do some fun educational things in the summer. If they are resistant, then take it easy and let things go until the Fall. That's the joy of homeschooling (and I'm just now starting to 'get it', after 4 years. Lol.)

[Alicia Cornils]

I totally agree; the great thing about homeschooling is being able to just go with it; whatever works for you and your kids is great.
What works for me and mine is to do the schoolwork during the year, so that we can enjoy the great outdoors come summertime. I imagine this will change a little as they get older, because my 13 year old is hoping to get a job as soon as he is old enough. But for now, our time in nature is so short, we just try to make the most of it.

[Tamra Klaty]

I never do it the same, even from year to year.
Sometimes we school year round, sometimes not. Some factors are:
If/when we had a newborn totally disrupt the learning flow for a while.
Where we're living. On the farm, we took off schooling the whole months of March-June because of goat kidding. Here at the lake, we didn't start school until October because we were enjoying the sand and sun so much.

I do short lessons anyways, and have the deeper part of learning (math, grammar) done before lunch. Even if we're not following a regular rhythm, they still read, do nature journals, build, plant, etc. so they are still learning - just not from a "school" book!

[Shelle]

Summer is our pure unschooling time. Beginning mid-April we travel, go to museums, do nature programs, hike, take part in art camps/workshops, and enjoy other activities of interest. We get back to our loosely organized curriculum schedule around mid-July. We also have occasional weeks throughout the year where we take a break from the routine and do more unschooling activities. The key is to realize that learning takes place everyday. It doesn't have to be structured or scheduled to be a learning experience.

[Shawna]

We "school" year round, but it look different at different times of the year. I find myself following more of a "seasonal" school schedule. When the weather is cool, and especially when there is snow on the ground, we do more inside, penicl/paper stuff. Thats' when we do our history unit studies and literature based nature studies. We do handcrafts adn art. In December, I put aside a lot of the core subject stuff in favor of Advent/Christmas crafts and activities. In the Spring, as the weater permits, "book" science is replaced by gardening. When summer comes, we do more outdoor Nature Studies and really add more nice things to our Nature Notebooks.. We always read, all year round. In summer, we spend as much time outside as physically possible, playing, walking, going to the lake, waiting for the ice cream truck.

[Amy W]

Summer is unschooling here- nature study, field trips and reading loads of books that interest us. Its also time for the science projects and what not that we never got to during the "normal" school year. My girls have taken to marking the projects they want to come back to over the summer and we try to make a "loose plan" from what they want to do.
We do continue with our math work during the summer as it is the subject we seem to forget the fastest and none of us want to spend the first few weeks "back to school" in review.
With field trips and nature study, I try to sneak in some mini-writing assignments without them knowing to keep it fresh. Usually this involves a news-y letter to friends or narration or making up a story.
I find that I don't really have to plan anything as we find the homeschooling lifestyle permeates everything. If we become interested in something we look up more information on it- whether its a school topic or not. If we want to do the soda and mentos science experiment 3 or 4 times and try to measure each explosion- why not? I don't keep meticulous notes in a planner with our summer "schooling" as I do during the "regular" year because I really just don't want the hassle. I don't need to document everything they learn- its good just to know they continue to enjoy doing so.

[Rachel]

These are some great ideas! I like the ideas of homeschooling year-round with more unschooling in the summer. I used to get so bored as a kid in the summer and then by the fall I forgot so much of what I learned during the previous year. I hope to do "field trips" to museums, nature studies, art classes, etc. when we begin.

[Lori]

We school year-round but take off large chunks of time when Hubby is off (part of May and June, part of December). I think they lose too much when they take off the whole summer plus they'd just be sitting there saying, "I'm bored!" if we were "off". They play outside until lunch, come in and eat, and then do schoolwork in the cool basement in the afternoons.