Summer schedule

[ClassicalTwins]

For those who work over the summer, a couple of questions:

 

1. Why do you do it?

2. What is a typical week like?

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

:bigear:

[twoxcell]

We finished our main work about 1.5 weeks ago. For the rest of May, and June we are doing MEP math, and daily reading (ds can read books of his choice daily, and dd is working with me on Phonics Pathways). We will do some nature journaling off and on, and the kids chose weather as a science topic, so we are studying that as a fun unit. I plan to start our next school year in July.

[LeLe]

We will be working on Grammar, Math and Science over the summer.

Grammar because DD came from public school with an 99 average in English yet no grammar skills

 

Math because she is intimidated by math so we started Saxon 7/6 in April when she started homeschooling. She started at the beginning of the book and is moving at a quick pace wanting to complete the book in order to start either 8/7 or Alegbra 1/2 next. (and I DO NOT know which one to use!)

 

Science because it is her favorite subject and the main reason for hsing. In ps she only had science class 2 1/2 times a week. She is working on Galore Park So you really want to learn science book one right now and will start Apologia General Science in a few weeks. She wants to start the biology course during 7th grade in order to get to the Marine Science course :)

[patchfire]

We do summer work for two different reasons. For my younger student, I feel it's important to continue math work & phonics without significant breaks. He has a couple of weeks of camp and each of those we'll take off, but nothing longer than a week or so. For my older kid, it gives her a chance to do more "fun" stuff and go deeper as well.

 

Each week looks different, depending on what outside activities we have planned. Most weeks, dd does wake up and do 15-30 minutes' worth of various math stuff. Everything else varies. :)

 

Ds continues his normal curriculum. Dd does different things from normal. :)

[mbeaser]

We do some work in the summer for several reasons.

 

They do Bible every day, because its important to me. Language Arts we switched midstream, so we will also do that daily, but it only takes us a few minutes a day (and they *love* it. DD was actually upset today because she didn't feel like we covered enough :D ).

 

My kids are young enough that they forget some things, so we do a little math over the summer so they don't brain dump it all (like 1 lesson a week). We will do periodic Latin reviews, again to avoid the brain dump. We also will do a geography lesson weekly, because we switched programs midstream and I want to finish it up. DD won't finish her copybook before our summer starts June 10, so I'll have her keep going on that, because she needs the handwriting practice :tongue_smilie:

 

In all, it'll take less than 30 mins a day.

 

And, last but not least for our reasons....I'm a single parent and we need something structured most days so I don't lose my ever-lovin' mind :001_huh:

[2cents]

We do math, Spanish & history as usual. We add fun stuff like Hogwarts Summer Correspondence School (a friend and I write our own program for this). We also have a goal to memorize the names and locations of most of the countries of the world. We also working on writing (IEW) and doing the Duke TIP Mythology class. It is a full summer but lots of fun.

[TN Mama]

We add fun stuff like Hogwarts Summer Correspondence School (a friend and I write our own program for this).

 

This sounds like such fun!

 

We don't do much over the summer other than a little math and read, read, read!

[2_girls_mommy]

1. Why do you do it? Because we can't finish SOTW in a 10 mo. period. I want to finish it and start the new volume in the fall. Last year we kept up science too, because I wasn't satisfied with what I had covered in the first semester. We made up for it by doing a couple of units over the summer. We read constantly to keep up skills. That happens daily. And this summer I decided we will keep up some math, because I saw a major decline in dd's recall of facts after 8 wks of no practice last year.

 

 

 

2. What is a typical week like? We will only do 1 day of formal school. We will do a chapter of history and some workbook pages to cover math and reading stuff for my 7 yr old, and writing and phonics w/my 5 yr old. We have plans to do some art projects which will happen whenever, and we will read every day. I plan to keep up incorporating SOTW subjects and biographies and read alongs the other days of the week.

 

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things Mostly "other things." We will keep up SOTW to finish it. dd7 still has some math lessons in her book she can do, and we will keep up flashcards. But I let my dds pick out summer fun workbooks to do during summer.. store/character things that I would never use as regular schoolwork. DD7 picked out the complete book of dinosaurs last year. She worked in it during assigned times and for fun. It is for grades 1-3, and there is still a lot left in it. So that will be hers. DD5 picked out a princess math book that was a little over her head last year. She has asked during the year to do a page here or there in it, but there is still plenty to do. Plus I have a complete K workbook that I will have her practice some easy letter stuff in. I don't want her to forget everything we have covered this year.(that is all in the one day a week of summer school) For reading, we will sign up for some summer reading programs at the library and bookstores. For art projects, we are studying some renaissance artists to go w/SOTW. We will do some projects from SOTW, and some that we have just been planning as a family (like building some doll furniture and making some doll clothes, etc.)

[2cents]

This sounds like such fun!

 

We don't do much over the summer other than a little math and read, read, read!

 

It is a lot of fun! We signed up for the yahoo group and got some ideas from it but didn't like most of the curriculum so we just put our own texts together. We did it last year and the kids really looked forward to it. It is a real keeper for our summer plan! :D

[sandra in va]

For those who work over the summer, a couple of questions:

 

1. Why do you do it?

 

I found that the kids need some structure to their day. When we take too long of a break from "have to's" like school, they can get bored and take their free time for granted. We only do a few of subjects (not sure which ones yet, besides math) during the summer. It also helps them to keep skills fresh! (They also have to keep up with music lessons/practice)

 

2. What is a typical week like?

 

It is very laid back. They know how much they have to do each day and can pretty much do it when they want.

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

 

Depends. For things like math and Latin we use regular curriculum. For reading, I'll give them a summer reading list.

 

:bigear:

 

 

hth!

Edited May 26, 2010 by sandra in va

[ClassicalTwins]

Brain Dump....thats a nice way to put it...and exactly what I want to avoid. We just started MUS and I didn't want to stop for summer and PHonics Pathways is beginning to take hold. We probably wont' skip camp weeks and just do somthiing short and sweet in the evenings those weeks.

[rafiki]

.

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

We do school over the summer for a few reasons: less chaos when there are organized activities, less complaining in August when we start back to school, and less time spent reviewing what they forgot over the summer.

We will do Math, Reading and Science for Fun. My ds5 will continue his phonics too.

[Matryoshka]

For those who work over the summer, a couple of questions:

 

1. Why do you do it?

 

For some things, like math and foreign language, I don't want them to forget things over the summer.

 

There may be a couple of things we just continue doing till they're done, then stop. OUr school year doesn't officially end till the end of June, though, so they may be done by then. Some other things we're already done with.

 

For history, we'd never get through it otherwise. :tongue_smilie: But we do history mostly outside of school hours, so it's not so onerous.

 

2. What is a typical week like?

 

Try to get everything except the history done before lunch. This year that should just be German and math, some writing for my younger dd.

 

History is reading at bedtime, videos, field trips, sometimes writing or map work. Hopefully this summer we'll really get cracking on that timeline!

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

:bigear:

 

History is the same thing, but math and German are different. Math for 2 dds will be Life of Fred, the third said she'd like to try to tackle some of AoPS Number Theory book; we'll see how that goes. I'd also like to do more of Hands-on Equations. German is a grammar book (during the school year they go to German Sat. School, so it's totally different stuff).

[Greta Lea]

My 16yo ds will be taking Alg. I through a homeschool tutorial program in the fall. He REALLY struggles in math, so we are doing some heavy duty reviewing this summer to make sure he is ready.

 

So far for the past 3 weeks our "summer" schedule has slowly started to look like this...

 

 

-45 minutes of Key To math book, then check and make correction and/or take assessements using Key Tracker online.

-Read a chapter from literature book he's not finished for the year...when he finishes it, I'm gonna have him read from his bible daily.

-45 minutes of ALEKS online math.

 

12 1/2yo...

-Teaching Textbooks math lesson

-Bible reading and oral narration

 

Swim practice almost everyday for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

[cjbeach]

We'll probably finish up our SOTW and ds's grammar is dragging out. Youngest ds and I will continue with ETC and start Dancing Bears I think.

 

I really wanted to do a few art camps but wow.. for 3 kids it really adds up quickly, so...... we're having a "Fine Arts Summer."

We recently signed up with a lovely piano teacher who would like to double up lessons in summer, dd will probably do summer ballet as well. I plan to hit every museum we can. We are "studying" a composer a month, an artist a month and during summer we're going to listen/watch/read/copywork a play per month. And then maybe just one week of art camp (mornings) for my older 2.

 

And I'm sure we'll do some beachschooling and waterparkschooling, possibly some Disney schooling. ;)

[skimerinkydo]

Math- because my children need it. My eldest needs to finish as much of Chalkdust pre-algebra as she can before she goes back to public school in the Fall and has to take Algebra. Some other children will do life of Fred and the youngest will work on math facts.

 

We do summerschool because we have fun! Seriously my children have been talking and looking forward to summerschool. They keep asking me questions about what we will do this year. Well, this year is still in the planning stages (because I've been sick the last few weeks) but I am going to base it on the Building Math Stranded! book this year. I found it at Rainbow Resource. The storyline is stranded on an island.

 

Last year I made up an "Amazon Adventure". Basically a storyline about going on vacation and the plane crashes in the Amazon and we have a few adventures. Each morning the children would get a message saying what happens next in the adventure. They wrote in journals. (my son wrote more in the summer than he did the last few years of school). In fact the girls still pull their Amazon Adventure journals out to look at. We painted shirts. We did crafts. We looked up library books and learned about jungles: plants, animals, layers of a rainforest, food found in the jungle, etc. We read books. We go on field trips. We decorated a hallway to look like a rainforest ... I made it fun and they've talked about it all year. When my children say they love summerschool their friends look at them like they are crazy.

[GoVanGogh]

1. Why do you do it?

2. What is a typical week like?

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

Why?

1.) Even before we thought about homeschooling, we were looking for schools with alternative schedules. I do not like the idea of children having three months off in a row. I think it interferes with natural family schedules and learning through living life. The majority of children (in this community) I know either sit inside and play video games all summer or they are out getting into mischief. There is a huge rush to get vacations and outside activities crammed into those three months, which means that most attractions are full to capacity and unpleasant to visit.

2.) We live in Texas and it is so unpleasant to be outside in July and August. I would rather push hard through school those months and take an entire month off in spring and fall, when the weather is lovely.

3.) It's our homeschool and we can do it however we like. :D We personally love taking smaller breaks spread throughout the year.

 

What?

We normally do school 4 days a week. During spring, fall and winter, we normally take Wednesday (park day) or Friday (chill day) off. During summer we take off Monday, which is swim lesson day.

 

Monday - no school, but swim lessons in a.m., music lessons in afternoon

Tuesday-Friday - school

Wednesday - afternoon sports class

Thursday - summer programs at library in afternoon

 

We do some summer camp type stuff and just work our schedule around that.

 

Regular curriculum.

 

Honestly, I think a lot of people put too much thought/energy into their schedules and whether or not they should 'do' school in summer. For us, our schedule and life just flow and we go with it. We do school... We take time off... We get our days in. It works.

Everyone needs to come up with their own schedule that works for their families. Just because it works for us doesn't mean it would work for others.

[TxMama]

1. Why do you do it?

 

It is easier to maintain a routine which keeps everybody happy.

 

No reteaching in the fall!

 

Texas summers are HOT and we are able to take vacations/breaks during the cooler months.

 

 

 

2. What is a typical week like?

 

During the summer we do flip our schedule. We keep our mornings free and spend it outdoors or at the pool. We school 4 days a week starting after lunch.

 

 

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

 

Business as usual. We will do 9 weeks of school during June, July and August.

[TandLMommy28]

1. Why do you do it?

I am planning on a four day school week so we are trying to do most of our science class over the summer to lighten the load. I am planning to keep this up as the years go on. Especially with this being our first year and doing animals for science, it makes more sense to do it in the summer...

 

2. What is a typical week like?

We are going with an introduction to the topic and a book on Monday, as well as starting any two-day experiments. Coloring pages/movies on Tuesday (as long as Netflix delivers on time!) and more books. Finishing the experiments on Wednesdays and filling out short reports about the books and projects. Thursdays are for going to the library to get the next week's books. :) She's also doing math (MUS Alpha) whenever the mood strikes, which isn't too often right now because she broke her elbow (ouch!).

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

My plan at the moment is to focus on science in the summer, thanks to the zoo being open, plants being in bloom, the nice weather and the availability of our city's parks & rec "Science in the Summer" program.

[mom31257]

We normally don't work over the summer, but this year we will.

 

Dd will be starting her BJU Life Science online and doing CLE Math 8 (the first LU). We are doing those so that our school year won't feel so rushed. There are a lot of field trips I would like to take next year because we will be studying American History.

 

Ds will be doing a LU in his math because I want him to retain what we've been doing. He will also be finishing up a couple of LUs in CLE LA. We didn't start the 1st grade program until January, so we are not finished.

 

Not having done this in the past, I can't say for sure what a week will look like. I imagine that we will do school 2-3 mornings a week, preferably the rainy days.

[Samiam]

We school year round because, frankly, I like like the structure in our day. I honestly get bored, and I think my children do to, after a week or so off. I mean, if there's no plans to go do something, after a week or so, what DO you do all day? My children would probably just sit around and watch TV or video games. I like to keep our schedule going.

 

We just finish up any curriculum we have still to work on. I start our school year on a varied schedule, so we don't start everything at the same time, nor do we end everything at the same time. Mid-July, we start the next grade level. We might start 1-2 two things, then add in a few more subjects a few weeks later, and continue like this until about September and by that time we are in full gear. But by March, those things we started in July are starting to wind down, but those things we started in September have a few more months left in them. And of course, take in account the days/week off we have taken here and there throughout the year. So by end of June, we are ending this year's curriculum, whatever was left.

 

For example, now at the end of May, DS11 has CLE Reading, History, Latin, and Composition he is working on every day. This is a LIGHT load compared to what he had during the winter months, when we were in the thick of the year. DS7 has phonics and math and art, and also using Reading Eggs.

[susankenny]

My daughter will continue with math & indepndent reading (books of her choice). My son will continue with reading & writing (a sentence a day or even practicing his name).

 

Susan

[FO4UR]

We school year round. Mine are at that age when the basic math and phonics can slip right out those little ears without notice. My goal is having dc ready to rock the 2nd grade and Kindy in the fall (and preK...can't leave the little guy out:tongue_smilie:), so I think I would "summer school" them even if they were in a ps.

 

I am going to try a new schedule starting next week when all their friends are out for the summer. We'll focus on reading/writing/math from 8-10am (that time is split between 2dc...so it's not 2 hours straight for any one of them). Then they can have the rest of the day to play and enjoy the sun while it shines.:001_smile: Of course, I'll have ideas on hand for rainy days and the "I'm bored, Mommy!" speeches...which will most likely be good books, simple science experiments (Mudpies to Magnets), phonics/math games, paints and playdoh and puzzles, etc...

[SophiaH]

For those who work over the summer, a couple of questions:

 

1. Why do you do it?

2. What is a typical week like?

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

:bigear:

 

1. A number of reasons: All of my kids are 8 and under, so it adds structure to our day. Like so many others, I don't want to lose ground in our skill subjects over the summer by taking such a long break. I like to continue to make forward progress with our work. I totally switched up our curriculum at Christmas and we need to keep working through some of them. Our summers are HOT.

 

2. We school M-Th for about an hour and forty-five minutes. We do Recitation, Latin and Math every day. English and handwriting are done M/W and French and our Speller are done T/TH.

 

3. We're mostly continuing our curriculum, but dd has started reading through the books listed in Artner's Guide Unit 1, which mostly covers the explorers, so we're going to do the Explorer's History Pockets for fun. She *loves* anything history. We'll also play lots of RightStart math games that we often neglect during the school year.

[Tonia]

We do 'light school' in June and July and August is my month for planning the coming school year and family vacation, etc. so we don't do any school that month. Basically, we'll continue math using our supplemental program, we're doing science (finishing up our plant study and then starting animals - best to do in the summer), and a few other things. I've made dd a daily checklist of things to do and she's free to do them at any time and in any order.

 

To answer your questions - we continue school so dd doesn't lose the new skills she's learned. A typical week is very relaxed - dd gets a weekly checklist and she's free to do things whenever she wants.

[Closeacademy]

1. Why do you do it?

 

It's hot outside.

The pools don't open until after lunch.

We don't have neighborhood kids banging on our door.

We always have.

Then we can have Friday's off.

It keeps reading and math fresh.

 

2. What is a typical week like?

 

We school Monday through Thursday from around 9 to noon. We do the usual run of schoolwork and this is usually our second best working season. Our best working season is Jan-April. Fall is not so great.

 

In the afternoons, we usually set aside 2 a week for the pool, 1 for errands, 1 for playgroup and the other for cleaning. This summer we do have lego-robotics twice a month and we are showing at the fair.

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

 

We continue our regular curriculum and I do start some new curriculum in June. Most of my curriculum is started in January or June. Fall is more of a clean-up, finish things up sort of time because toward the end of October my dds tend to get really unfocused, hit learning walls and generally have a hard time with schoolwork because of all the holidays.

 

This has been working for us for more than 5 years now.:001_smile:

[pageta]

We just do our regular thing. School is divided up into four quarters for us, each with 40 days (field trips fill in the rest). We do four days of school per week, taking one week off per month. Sometimes that week is all at once if we're going somewhere, sometimes it's scattered throughout the month. We do switch to afternoon school since the nice time of day to play outside is in the morning. We also go to special events at the library, which is outside our normal routine. We continue going to parks on a regular basis (nature study) which we start back as soon as it gets warm. I like having the flexibility during the school year and not having to entertain bored kids during the summer.

[Guest FiveLittleMonkeys10]

For those who work over the summer, a couple of questions:

 

1. Why do you do it?: We don't really call it summer work here. We do it because it gives us a lot more flex time, a lot less freak out time. Once we finish one level, we begin another. So if we begin a higher level math in March because we finished the other, I don't want to stop for summer. We do take weeks off every few weeks though. We usually do 9 weeks on/2 weeks off. Sometimes we work through those 2 weeks if the kids are having fun. ETA: The younger ones don't generally work for 9 weeks straight. We usually take a week every month off for them.

 

2. What is a typical week like?: We generally do 4 school days a week, and the 5th day is for makeup/field trips/etc.

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?:

We continue our regular curriculum because we do a lot of fun things over the weekends, on Fridays, and sometimes on regular weekdays.

:)

Edited May 27, 2010 by FiveLittleMonkeys10

[Lightly Salted]

1. Why do you do it?

 

Because bored people cause trouble :tongue_smilie:

Because it's hot out in the afternoons

Because we don't have big summer plans

 

Our 'summer school' will only be 6 weeks, plus 2 more weeks at Grandma's house (4 wks summer school - 2 wks Grandma's - 2 weeks summer school) and then we'll start back in mid-July while it's oppressively hot here. That way we can be out of school next April or May ;)

 

 

2. What is a typical week like?

 

Mine are only finishing K/1st grades, so we're keeping it simple. I set up a schedule blocking out times to

 

play outside

play inside together

play alone quietly in their rooms

do chores

and a couple of blocks for electronic time (xbox, wii, leapster, tv or computer - pick one)

 

I keep up with Bible and read-alouds through the summer, allowing art, crafts, board games, Rosetta Stone etc as desired.

 

As far as 'school' I'm just requiring one academic subject per day, so our schooling is more to stave off boredom than to truly keep up with schoolwork. We do:

 

Mon - spelling/phonics

Tu - math

Wed - handwriting

Th - grammar/writing

Fri - science

 

As they get older, I'll probably require more in the summers

 

 

3. Do you just continue your regular curr. or do you do other things?

 

Mostly just continue in regular stuff, but am going to introduce WWE over the summer to ease us in. We'll also start Rosetta Stone over the summer since I think it'll be a fun novelty for them. Last summer we did Sonlight Science K over the summer, and that was a big hit! :D

Edited May 27, 2010 by Lightly Salted