We are getting so close to finishing up this academic homeschool year! Big Brother and I sat down together a couple weeks ago and planned out what he needed to complete before we close out his 4th grade year. He set the date he wants to be his last day of school, and we worked out assignments that need to be completed each day in order for him to reach his goal.
But even though we will be closing out our 2017-2018 school year soon, since we are year-round homeschoolers, we won't be taking a long summer break from learning.
Yes, we homeschool through the summer.
When I was growing up, my mother kept my brother and I on a year-round schedule. We usually ended our school year sometime in April, took maybe a few weeks off (which we normally spent doing lots of reading and independent, interest-led learning) and pretty soon we would move on to the next grade level almost as soon as our new curriculum would arrive in the mail. My dad always took a week off from work in August, and around the time everyone else was dragging themselves back to school, we were going on an extended field trip vacation!
Even though I tried to implement a traditional school year schedule complete with a summer break when I first started homeschooling my own children, I very soon realized how wise my mom had really been!
What are the benefits of continuing to homeschool through the summer?
- No "summer slide." Students who take an extended summer break from learning often lose a big chunk of the knowledge they gained the previous year. Thus why so much time normally gets spent reviewing in the fall. I saw this was a real problem for Big Brother the first couple years of homeschooling, and it is one of the big reasons we eventually switched to a year-round schedule.
- We don't have to go through drastic routine changes when it is time to start back to school. My children are much happier when our daily routine stays pretty well the same. Transitioning from one school year to the next is smooth since they stay in the habit of shorter breaks and daily learning activities.
- It gives us the freedom to take (shorter) breaks from formal schooling more frequently throughout the year when we want/need them.
- Less stress! Our state requires us to school a certain number of days per year, and giving ourselves the entire calendar year to get those days completed means we don't have to push ourselves as hard.
- There are so many fun learning opportunities during the summer; it would be a shame to waste this time!
So how do we homeschool through the summer months?
Once our year is complete in late April or early May, we normally take a break of 2-4 weeks before we officially dive into the next academic year. I spend this time closing out our progress reports, boxing up old materials, and preparing for the next school year's activities.
We also spend this break time doing less structured learning activities:
- Reading for pleasure
- Playing board and card games
- Watching videos (historical, science, based on a book, or maybe just for fun)
- Field trips
- Working on extracurricular projects
- Building with LEGOs
- Swimming, hiking, fishing, playing outside
- Choosing an interesting topic (cowboys, ancient Egypt, the history of LEGOs, etc.) and learning as much about it as possible
- Chores and life skills
- Arts and crafts
We still continue with daily prayer and Scripture memory work as those things are just part of our lives in our home.
School officially starts back around the first week of June.
Even though we school year-round, I like to mark the first day of each new year in some special way. So we will either kick off the year with a special field trip, family game time, favorite meal, or all of the above!
Through June and July, we tend to only aim to do formal schooling 3 days a week.
The factory where my husband works shuts down for a week every July, so we always try to take advantage of this week to take some fun, educational field trips as a family. Last year we visited the Ark Encounter during shut down week!
We also try to take advantage of the nice weather to get in as much P.E. time as possible at the pool at my parents' house or the playground at the park. Since we don't get as much P.E. through the colder months, we do try to make it a priority during the spring and summer.
During the summer, I like to plan special fun activities for the afternoon to help motivate us to get our formal assignments done early! Whether it is a trip to the pool, the park, the local inflatables place, or the library, it helps keep the summer fun and yet productive.
Looking for some other ways to keep your children learning through the summer in a fun, relaxed, less-structured way? Here are some ideas for you:
- Take a nature hike
- Keep a journal
- Enter projects in your county or state fair
- Visit local historical landmarks
- Go birdwatching
- Try a new hobby like sewing or a musical instrument
- Check out some of the more than 350 engaging classes available for homeschoolers of all ages at SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
- Volunteer or do a service project
- Do a special Bible study or choose a passage of Scripture to memorize as a family for the summer (We'll be continuing to work on 1 Corinthians 13 this year. Make sure you sign up to get your FREE 30+ page 1 Corinthians 13 printable activity packet!)
- Participate in your library's summer reading program
- Find a good VBS to attend
- Attend a Bible camp or church camp
- Learn some new games
- Start a business for the summer
We always feel great on the first day of school for public schools in our county knowing we already have several weeks of school under our belt! And we are always really glad to be able to take extra time off to enjoy the holidays since we put forth the effort to put some school days in over the summer.
While some people might question whether a child can be happy homeschooling through the summer, I have never heard any complaints at all about it from Big Brother.
Our family actually looks forward to summer just as much as any other family, and maybe more. Because, hey, we homeschoolers have a good thing going...365 days a year!
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