Does anyone do school in summer?

[beachnut]

We've previously homeschooled following the FL public school schedule (Aug.-May), but we're planning to do "school lite" this summer for a variety of reasons. Anyone else do school year-round? And if so, how do you count the credits? My theory was that, as of June 1, my kids have unofficially been "promoted" to the next grade level, so they will work on the next grade level work. Does it matter WHEN the kids do the school work? I was just assuming as long as the hours added up to a .5 credit or 1 credit course during their entire "nth grade" school year, it would count toward the courses completed/grades achieved for "nth grade."

[Murphy101]

We normally do. We will likely take June off for the new baby, except for math. Then start off with a bang right after 4th of July.

[lionfamily1999]

That's what we're doing. We've been year round for awhile now (June to May). As long as you do the right number of days/credit hours it's fine.

[djkapp]

We travel quite a bit, and my children have always realized that the trade-off is year-round school. We do tend to be a little more relaxed during the summer months. I typically have about 6-8 weeks of work planned, and we flex the school days and assignments around company, friends' schedules, time with family, etc. Having schooled this way for a number of years, I find that it actually eliminates a significant amount of review time and material. Since many courses spend the first 4 - 6 weeks reviewing the previous year's work (especially in the earlier grades), I found that we were often able to skip through that work at a rapid rate because my children hadn't forgotten material as a result of extended time away from school.

 

Yvonne

[virtual_twins_mom]

We do school anytime something else isn't taking priority, and that includes summer. DD and DS are working at getting "caught up" to grade level in a few areas where we had to start back at the beginning in 2nd grade when they came home from ps. Once they are at grade level, we may add a few more "breaks" to our calendar, but never more than 2 or 3 weeks completely off in a row. We do "school lite" (math practice and silent reading) as a part of everyday life.

[alpidarkomama]

We're in coastal Georgia and think summer is the WORST time to have some time off. :) We sprinkle it mostly through the other three seasons. :)

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

Over our years of homeschooling we've taken summers off sometimes, had heavy academic summer school sometimes, finished up or got a head start on some subjects sometimes. Our best summers have been when we've planned a pretty full academic day that was followed when there were not invitations to the pool or other summer time fun. No school on days we went to the pool or took a trip or did other fun stuff.

 

Since I have been working part time since October, we will be doing school this summer. I'm not sure "how".... right now I'm thinking 2 hours in the morning to get ahead and review math from 10am to noon, and the afternoons for summer fun.

[StephanieZ]

We school year round except when we have better things planned. :)

 

In the summer, the kids often have trips, camps, social things. . . and I always let those things take priority. Likewise, in the other seasons, we allow other things to take priority.

 

We generally take a month in the fall to go to the beach. We take 1 week at Thanksgiving and 2 at Christmas. We take a week here or there the rest of the year for other things. . . This summer, we're taking 6 weeks for a massive road trip -- that's the longest break we'll have ever taken.

 

I strongly agree that year round schooling saves a lot of wasted effort as the kids don't forget things.

[Susan C.]

We're in coastal Georgia and think summer is the WORST time to have some time off. :) We sprinkle it mostly through the other three seasons. :)

 

Hi,

I'm near you! And summer is way too hot and humid. We start school the beginning of August since we are inside in the A/C anyway. That way we are finished the beginning of May, while the weather is nice. One year that was insane hot, we started in July, then we were finished in April, yahoo!

 

If I was in Florida (where I think it can be even hotter, but nice in the winter) I would change up even more. (Can you tell I can not take the heat???)

[beachnut]

My reasons to do "homeschool-lite" in the summer aren't so much weather related. I've got 2 boys who tend to waste TONS of time doing nothing in particular, bickering, obsessing about video games, etc. While I'm all for giving kids down time on a regular basis, I'd say we're usually "underscheduled" in the summer -- no sports, no camps, no co-op classes, etc. So, the intent is to give them a little bit of structure, a little bit of something productive, so they're working toward ... something.

 

Honestly, my 14yo son is gifted but VERY unmotivated. If left to his own devices, he'd be in PJs all day, every day, never leaving the house, reading/drawing/playing videogames/fighting with his brother. While I love the reading & drawing, I don't like it to the exclusion of other things ... going outside, doing something active, interacting with others, working on projects, learning a new skill, etc. And while he reads a good variety of books (some good, others not so much), if I see him read "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" one more time, I'm going to scream. ;) He really, really needs a regular push to do something different or set a small goal or break out of his comfort zone.

 

My 10yo son is very active, but doesn't have lots of kids in the neighborhood to play with...and his indoorsy/sedentary brother doesn't make for much of a playmate much of the time. He is also gifted and tends to thrive on challenge, working above grade level, so he actually WANTS to start pre-algebra now (since he just finished his 5th grade math book) and work thru the summer to "get ahead."

 

Anyway, glad to hear I'm not the only one doing school in the summer. :)

[LauraQ]

Yes. Always. We take generous time off for religious holidays, and also each child gets at least 2-3 days off for their birthday just because. There's no school from about June 1 until at least July 10 and that's our only summer break. We travel a lot, and do so "off season" when other children are in school, which is really nice!! This means we don't have the luxury of taking off 2-3 months in the summer, though, and we don't do spring break *and* Easter week (we're off most of Holy Week), and we don't take off as long for Christmas as the schools (we keep going until my head explodes and declare vacation for the sake of my sanity). It works out well for us, and the kids don't get so burned out.

[UmMusa]

I'm trying out a trimester method with three months of school and one off. I picked this mostly b/c I couldn't stand the thought of a 'free' summer here in TX. It is TOO HOT for me and for my kids. They can't go outside and no one wants to swim till late evening. I got cabin fever last summer from being indoors all the time. I figured I might as well do something useful during that time, and then we can have some time off in the fall and spring to enjoy parks, zoo, arboretums, and swimming!

[FrogMom5]

This will be the first summer my oldest isn't schooled during the summer. He got a job as a camp counselor so he won't be here. The other 2 will do "school lite."

 

Denise