What are you doing this summer?

[umsami]

Just wondering what your plans are for the summer. We might start our math over the summer, but probably only three days/week vs. five. Was thinking of maybe a unit study on ????

 

What are you planning?

[Haiku]

Usually we school year-round, but I am going overseas for a volunteer trip for a month, and we have been really busy this year, so when I get back at the end of June, we're just going to play for the rest of the summer.

 

Tara

[momto2Cs]

We're just now starting a "unit" on California history, so we'll continue that through the summer. It's not very dense, just some good reading and field trips.

[BatmansWife]

Our summer plans are usually always the same. 2 weeks of swimming lessons, the library summer reading program (free mini pizzas every week), finishing up this years school work, trying to stay cool, and of course going to garage sales every Thursday and Friday. :001_smile:

[Mrs Twain]

We take summer off from school, though I still have the kids do some work in order to try not to lose their knowledge. On weeks we are not on vacation, I usually have them do a math workbook and short writing assignments (just for review, not to cover new material). In addition, we give the kids a reward if they complete 2,000 pages of reading over the summer. Besides that, I sign them up for various camps (sports and art mainly).

[Mommy22alyns]

We can't school year round because of Rebecca's gymnastics schedule. Her summer schedule starts May 28, 9-2:30 M, T, Th and 9-1 Fridays. They'll spend that first week finishing their math books because we lost time due to illness. Then they'll do Summer Bridge workbooks. Of course reading continues.

 

They'll also do VBS, AHG day camp, some bowling for fun, library summer reading program, and splash pad visits.

[boscopup]

We take a few weeks off in June for cub scout camp, VBS, and general "break". Then we start our new school year around the end of June or beginning of July. That's when it's just too hot to play outside, and we'd rather just go ahead and do school. Then we can take off more time in the fall when the weather gets cooler.

[Karen in CO]

We're taking off except for reading; it wouldn't be a vacation without lots of books.

Mental breaks are good for all of us.

[MinivanMom]

We take the summer off. No schoolwork, no music lessons, no music practice, no activities or classes, no required anything. We love having a break. The kids can read if they want to, but mostly we play and go to the pool. We will be taking a short trip to the beach and a longer vacation to another state. I let the older kids choose a camp or two. Dd9 will be doing a ballet camp and a craft camp. Ds7 will be doing a soccer camp and a science camp. We come back to our work with a lot more enthusiasm after we've had a break. I also find that the children always seem to make a few huge cognitive leaps in their areas of talent when left to themselves for a few months.

[Plink]

We get our best schooling in during the summer!

 

I allow the kids to pick a topic to study in-depth. This year we are going to be building a treehouse other large scale toys in the backyard while studying physics. Here are my lesson plans. They are based off of a weekly reading from Real Science 4 Kids Elementary Physics, and lots of Bill Nye videos.

 

I use the fun study as a carrot to get through the less interesting subjects. For example, right now the kids are earning money for their supplies and they are finally beginning to understand how to calculate change.

[momma2three]

The two older kids will go to camp all summer. I'll keep up with math a few times a week, and she'll be encouraged to keep reading for fun.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I always plan to school over the summer, a little bit lighter than during the year and so far it hasn't worked out. I again plan to school over the summer, a little lighter than we are now. I hope to study most of the same subjects, just maybe less days a week so that we have more free time. We'll see what actually happens!

[happypamama]

We take off from Memorial Day until July 1 (although they'll read and do whatever free writing/art/etc. they feel like doing). July 1, we'll start back with our new year's worth of work; we don't do a light schedule in the summer -- the opposite, actually. This year, we will be taking off a few weeks in August/September when our baby arrives, but otherwise, it's regular school during the summer. We'll make time for swimming and other outdoor activities too, though.

[xixstar]

We will be starting this summer, probably right after memorial day or the following week. Plan to school year round and will start slowly as we ease into things. Also trying to think about one of those few weeks on, one week off, type schedule to aid in my desire to over plan my life.

[joyfulmomSDG]

We school year round but our longest break is in the summer. We take a solid 4 weeks off (usually June or July) so we feel like we are truly not in school-mode at all.

[SilverMoon]

I voted for we school year round, but we land somewhere between year round and lighter work load. We school year round, but take more breaks in the summer for camps, VBS, camping, dance, and other random kid activities. When we are working it's our normal work load, though when stuff like the spelling book gets finished we'll drop that subject until the new grade starts.

[ByGrace3]

We do math and reading over the summer. We play. A lot. I never turn down friends or pay dates, but on the days we are home,we do math and reading-- we aim of or at least 3 days a week...

 

We do need a break, but I like to keep them from going backwards on skill subjects.

[duckens]

I voted Unit Study.

 

I am the mom who overschedules my child to a ridiculous level in the summer: Yes. I'm THAT mom. Swim Lessons, Nature Camp, Gymnastics, Tennis, Dance class, Engineering Workshop, Library Programs, picnics, and visiting the pool and park.

 

Many activities are closed on Fridays, so I am planning that we will do Snap Circuits this summer. I also have a collection of Usborne Science/History Readers. We didn't read them all for Kindergarten, so we should read them this summer and do the Usborne Quicklinks.

 

Once summer activities are over, we will re-start homeschooling...even just a few subjects. Dd6 and I don't do well when we don't have a plan for the day.

[lexi]

Our rent house is being sold. We found out yesterday. So...I'm moving.

I'm going to go cry now.

I had planned to do math review, lots of read alouds, and fun art.

[Critterfixer]

Year round school.

It's too hot to do anything else from about June 10 to September 15. We will probably swim a lot in the afternoons, and eat ice-cream instead of having tea with our poetry hour (or fruit juice pops). And we'll get in some more late night star-gazing with clear, warm nights.

And I've promised a few days at an amusement water park as well.

[Dory]

We have swimming lessons for a week, basketball camp for a week, and bible camp for a week. Between all that we will have art appreciation, math drills, lots of reading, nature studies, and some field trips. So we continue school somewhat, but at a different pace and a different focus.

[Alte Veste Academy]

We use multiple curricula for some subjects, which is getting trickier to balance as the kids get older, so I recently decided to move some of it to summer to decrease the year-round juggling and make the summer extra fun. I'm also lining up some fun classic lit to read aloud to the kids during "pool school" on lazy afternoons. Poetry Tea will become Poetry & Popsicles. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/tongue_smilie.gif

[BatmansWife]

Our rent house is being sold. We found out yesterday. So...I'm moving.

I'm going to go cry now.

I had planned to do math review, lots of read alouds, and fun art.

 

 

:grouphug:

 

That must be stressful. I hope you found a place, or will soon, and that the move will go smooth.

[amyrobynne]

They have a week of sleep-away YMCA camp at the end of August and my dad has been planning a 1-2 week camp for them (separately). I'm planning to do a little math review most weekdays that they're home and hopefully do a little of this and that. Ideally, I'd like to do the math and one subject a day, maxing out at 1/2 an hour a day of school time. It would let us finish our spelling books and fit in more history.

[MissKNG]

Summer is light and not daily. We do keep up with reading and usually do math/science stuff.

[SorrelZG]

This summer we'll just keep working. There may be a short trip to the beach planned soon. We already had a month off and more time doing very little while we worked on moving across the globe. Still recovering from that and find a new groove,

[Mom2TheTeam]

We school year round and take random breaks throughout the year as needed. Our longest and most frequent breaks are in the summer. We plan to take 2 wks off between finishing our current program and starting the new one. That will probably be in early June this year. But, I liked someone's idea of taking off from Memorial day to July 1st...so....I might think about doing that. We will see. We are only finishing up our 2nd year of HS'ing so our "usual" is not set at all yet. But last year we took off about 2 wks like I said above. :)

[nov05mama]

We take a few weeks off in June for cub scout camp, VBS, and general "break". Then we start our new school year around the end of June or beginning of July. That's when it's just too hot to play outside, and we'd rather just go ahead and do school. Then we can take off more time in the fall when the weather gets cooler.

 

This is us as well! We usually take off most all of June for various camps, clubs, etc and then start the new school year in July. It's just too hot to be outside much anyway and we'd rather have the time in November (which is when his b-day is anyway) for traveling, etc. Going year-round also gives us SO much more flexibility to have those random days when we just want to take off throughout the year ;-)

[Wabi Sabi]

We've taken lots of random breaks this past year, so the compromise is to school lightly over the summer. Ds will continue with piano and finishing up his math for the year. I'll keep working on phonics and writing with dd. I'm going to try to pull together a combination of nature studies + BFSU for both of them since we didn't do as much science as I'd have liked this past year as well. They'll both also do the summer reading program at the library. And, of course, we'll continue to take plenty of little random breaks, time for pool trips, sleepovers, playdates, family vacation, a couple of camping trips...

[ElizabethB]

We take off 2 or 3 weeks, then do some review math for my daughter and review phonics for my son twice a week. If they do really well on Tuesday in their review subject, they sometimes get Thursday off. Language arts stays in my daughter's brain but math jumps out if we don't review. My son is the opposite.

[Kelly1730]

We will continue math and reading, hopefully LOTS of reading! We do a week of CEF camp and I'll ask the boys to pick a subject they would like to learn more about and we'll have some weeks with that as our focus for library books, crafts, activities. We have a pool so they swim mostly every day and I signed us up for the local free bowling.

[MrsMommy]

We're going to be studying British children's lit and British history this summer. So lots of language arts, reading, and history/geography, but not so much in the way of math and science, unless I throw some extra stuff in. I love coming up with different things every summer!

[twoxcell]

For summer the kids will be doing reading and math review. Other than that we just relax and have fun. My dh and I are working hard on our house this spring and summer hoping to sell so we will see what actually gets done. :)

[MASHomeschooler]

Mine will be doing a couple weeks of camp, some free days, some fun activities, and some light schoolwork.

[Hedgehogs4]

This will be the first time I attempt to school year round. We will continue with math, spelling, reading and writing, and I hope to cover geography over the summer. We go to the beach for a week at the beginning of the summer, and then will take the month of June off to work on projects around the house, but will come back to school at the end of June. I would like to try the 6 on one off schedule.

[Crimson Wife]

We do shorter days, year-round. In the summer the kids get to do interest-led unit studies for science and history. I'm leaning towards swapping out LA for Art of Argument for my oldest because we have yet to work that into our schedule.

[texasmama]

I typically plan for the things that we missed during the year or extras. This summer we will do:

 

SSL for the first grader

Units on drugs and reproduction for the two olders (yay! Sex and drugs this summer! Sorry....couldn't resist...)

Geography (made up this study myself with resources we have on hand)

review/hit the highlights of pre-algebra

Killgallon sentence composing

Chemistry for the Grammar Stage

The Paragraph book (1, perhaps 2, as well)

Tons of reading aloud the classics

[Alira]

I always go back and forth on how much schoolwork to do over the summer. One of my kids really needs the extra time to "keep up" and would forget way too much if we took 8-10 weeks off, but this is the kid who's involved in the most summer sports and activities. He'll continue math and WWE 2-3 days per week (he should finish both by September this way) and I'll assign him some fun, light reading. The other boys will have time to tackle some tougher reading and a little math enrichment.

[MeganW]

We keep the skills going (language arts, math, handwriting), but drop our normal school-year content subjects. Instead, the kids get to pick what we will learn about. Last summer, we did the Olympics, and a unit on birds.

 

I am thinking we will hit geography this summer, plus their subject picks. I am tossing around the idea of having each kid teach the others something.

 

We also do Atelier Art with friends once a week during the summer.

[melmichigan]

We school year round but don't cover as many subjects in the summer months. Everyone has some kind of math in the summer, DD will take AoPS online, DS will continue with his tutor, other DD's will be catching up in SM. Everyone reads in the summer. The big difference is that in the summer we do focus work on individual weaknesses, so it will look different for each child.

 

Some of DC's online classes start as early as the second week in August so we plan to finish our "official" school year this week. :party:

[Holly]

We'll be on vacation for 3 weeks throughout the summer, so that's gone. Adding to it that everyone assumes my DC are free during the days, so all their lessons and practices are re-scheduled for mornings. We aren't where I'd want to be to take a total break, but I do plan on paring down to the minimums...phonics, math, writing, science (until our book is finished), and our history/Bible program. I'm thinking of taking math and phonics on vacation even. :blush: We also continue with read alouds year-round.

 

I shocked someone yesterday (non-HSer) by telling them we school year-round. I must be the meanest mom in the world. ;) I didn't feel like saying we could have taken off if we didn't take off Nov-Dec. She probably would have reported me for that! :rolleyes:

[UrbanSue]

We school year round because we take lots of breaks all year long. But this is my first summer with two kids doing a full program plus a part time pre-K kid who loves school . . . so I may be singing a different tune come August! We do take at least one major road trip each summer, though, so we just work the weeks we're home. This year July is pretty much totally off. Haven't decided if I want to do anything in the car or not. I'm guessing my dd will want to bring math.

[Jayne J]

We keep up math and Latin (or phonics, in the case of my youngers) for about 15 minutes per day each subject. We will skip special days--camp, actual vacation, sleepovers etc. But I have found that we lose too much ground in these subjects if we don't do a little bit during the summer.

[Jess4879]

We wrap up the majority of our subjects by June, sometimes earlier and we take the summers off. We will do math reviews occassionally (typically I like to have a couple worksheets at the ready for the kids for when they say "I'm Bored!" LOL) and we will also continue doing art during the summer. The kids also participate in a summer reading program for the months of July & August.

[Jess4879]

Our rent house is being sold. We found out yesterday. So...I'm moving.

I'm going to go cry now.

I had planned to do math review, lots of read alouds, and fun art.

 

:grouphug: I hope you find a new place soon! We've had rental places sold out from under us before too. Also had places falling down around us. :( Good luck with your move!!

[momtoamiracle]

plan on doing school about three days a week. We've taken a lot of time off since January. Our summers are very hot and humid so we won't be doing much outside in July and August. I'll probably do more science and history stuff then. Right now I'm just focusing on phonics and math. I'll also concentrate more on handwriting as DS will be closer to age 7.

[happycc]

We school year round but our summer plans dictate what we do during the day. So swim team will take up the morning time and so they will do school work later in the afternoon and evening.