Summer Homeschool Plans 2015

Personally, I think that the phrase “summer school” gets a bad rap. It brings up images of kids that are way behind in their schoolwork. And really – not always the case. Well, at least around our house!

While the end of our school year had a few hiccups resulting in some remaining math lessons, much of our summer homeschool plans are simple and to the point: tie up a few loose ends and keep it informal and low-key. The main goal is to have information stay ‘fresh’ (in areas like reading) and not get so far off our routine that the beginning of the next school year is a bear.

In the grand scheme of our school year, we have officially finished. Testing has been done, letters have been sent in with official results, and we have submitted our forms for homeschool next year. Phew! But – the learning continues!

Our Summer Homeschool Plans

creative math fun with Spielgaben

This summer we’ll be focusing on a few of the basics and then if some other fun interest-based learning (the beach will likely bring up some interesting critters to study).

• Reading – the girls are avid readers, so the boys and are are going to continue lessons with All About Reading (Kaleb) and read-alouds (Zachary reading to me. We also have several read-alouds planned as a family.
• Math – aside from finishing up the random remaining lessons (Zachary), we’ll be focusing on math fact review (multiplication and division) and I’ll be having fun with Kaleb using Spielgaben.
• Science – in short, hello nature!! And there may be some fun experiments we need to do together as well!
• PE – in my book, swim team counts as PE. Because there is a LOT of practice, tired kiddos, and energy expelled. Add in family bike rides since we all have new bikes that actually work – and exercise is ON!
• Games – we haven’t been playing as many games lately, but we have some great ones that are fun and sneaky in various learning (shhh!!). The kids love playing games, so afternoons will involve game time!
• Rest  – so very important! Even though there is already a LOT planned (almost every single weekend has something penciled in!), the one thing we know is the importance of downtime.  While our kids think that means lots of screen time, we are really planning to nix a lot of that and encourage creative play and time together. Legos, K’nex, and reading are our friends!

When We’ll Work

Mornings are typically filled with swim practice, but we can usually squeeze in a bit before leaving since our kids are up at the crack of dawn. Because it’s summer, we are a little more relaxed, but it looks a little like this:

Breakfast – chores – a bit of school – swim practice – showers/dressed.

Afternoons are a little more laid back around these parts. Depending on the weather, we tend to spend time at the pool, but otherwise we can squeeze in a bit of school, read together, and just relax at home.

Lunch – finish any chores – a little school – reading together – RELAX

Advantages to Summer Homeschooling

Maybe the thought of summer homeschooling makes you cringe, but covering just one or two subjects over the summer can have advantages:

• Less to review in the fall. You know those worksheets at the start of many books that just seem like repetition from the prior year? Yep – they are. Keeping the learning cycle going during the summer months can cut back on many of those ‘repeat’ lessons and let you get to the new concepts faster.
• Routines are still in place! That schedule that you finally got in place and when things were running smoothly? Keeping a simple routine in place makes it so much easier to get back into your fall school routine!
• So many fun opportunities! While there are fun things to do year round, depending on where you live, the summer season offers a few different things to take advantage of. We love hitting different summer reading programs, visiting a few places that are less school field-trip crazy, and just enjoy the warmer weather and outdoors.
• Try new things. We have several programs that we love and use consistently, but the summer months offer a chance to try a few new things that we may not be able to fit in during the school year. Maybe it’s a different approach to reading or a hands-on look at math. Or some fun experiments you might not normally do. Have fun together!

Will you be schooling through the summer?

What does your family have planned?