What does summer homeschooling look like in your home?

[Sue G in PA]

I am a year-round homeschooler wanna be. For 2 years now I have wanted to school year round, taking breaks when needed, but not stressing about getting our "180 days" in. For 2 years now I have written out our schedule and filled out the calendar to school year round. But, June always happens. And along with June comes a major case of burn out. Every.blessed.year. Well, this year, I have some kids who MUST complete their math over the summer. And, the rest could really benefit from daily math practice and reading, too. What does summer homeschooling look like in your home? Do you do a full load all year? Do you just do certain subjects June-Aug? Do you do nothing at all? I'm just trying to get an idea of what others do over the summer. I have a few ideas of what I would like to do this summer. I would like the kids to do math every day, read every day and write every day (I'm thinking ala Bravewriter). I'm thinking a family newsletter/paper would be fun to do over the summer and some nature study. Just looking for more ideas. :)

[IrishMum]

We are in Australia so June is our winter, but I'll give you an idea of how we school year round, keep in mind I'm quiet relaxed ;)

 

We do math and reading 5-6 times a week every school day winter, summer and everything in-between, and the rest is extras. We usually get the extras done, but if we are tired or needing a break we drop the extras for a few days. I think that has stops burn out. We plod along slower than a lot I see here, but we get to the finish line. We take a week off here and there, two for Christmas, and always take our birthdays off. We also will take an afternoon off for the beach if the day is too hot, or we just feel like it. If the weather is terrible in the winter, and we feel the winter blues, we might have a movie day. I don't plan anything, just keep going forward.

Who knows how it will turn out in the long run, but we are happy, and I don't fell stressed about completing this and that. My kids are learning a lot, and I am confident they are getting a great education, and I am keeping my sanity :)

[Mandylubug]

We will take a break for a week or two when the local school system gets out and do fun "summer stuff" those weeks with cousins, etc. that were just released for break. Then we jump back in. Two weeks is the "i'm bored" mark typically for me and the kids. I make sure math, reading and spelling is completed when we are doing school. We are bad about letting history and science slide on by. My kids are obsessed with Animal Planet and National Geographic channels.. that counts as science those days, right?! We don't vacation during summer. We prefer fall vacations.

[rieshy]

Every year is different for us. This year we finished early and took most of May off. We will be schooling In June and it will hopefully look like this: 2 hours each weekday morning followed by 2 hours playing at the pool. Then after lunch is quiet time for 1 1/2 hours in which the older kids read anything they want to and I do my own thing.

 

In the 2 hours the 5 and 7 year olds will do extremely short lessons of: Bible, handwriting, math, reading, and German then I will release them to the wild.

 

My 11 and 13 yo will do French, math, and German.

 

My 11 and 7 yo both do karate and don't take off for the summer.

 

July and August will be off except for reading during quiet time and German.

 

These are my plans at any rate- barring the summer flu or meteors or an anonymous donor inexplicably giving my family an extended trip to Cyprus. I can dream.....

[Coco_Clark]

My DS is still bitty and its our first summer but for what it worth we plan on keeping up with read alouds, math, and reading practice. In September we will add all the content work back in. I agree that a lot of skills can get lost if allowed to lay dormant for three months. But we (I!) also need a break.

[Lilaclady]

For summer, we do at least 3 days of math and they are always reading so daily reading. We go to the library every week and get new books so they always have new books to read. They do not do book reports etc

[ElizabethB]

2-3 weeks off. Then, 2 days a week of math review for my daughter and phonics review for my son. (The subjects that jump out of their brains if not done over the summer.) After a few weeks of review, it is once a week if the first day goes well, twice a week if the first day doesn't.

[beaners]

"Some kids" to complete math sounds like more than one. Am I correct or incorrect there?

 

What would I do? I wouldn't approach summer as a separate time frame. We lived in PA, but none of my children were old enough to register at the time. Do you need to count from a specific month to month for the requirement? HSLDA is asking me to sign in (since when?!) so I can't check, but I would personally take a short break and then start the new school year right away. Hey! It's a new year! How exciting! You have all this new school stuff to do! Hey! A couple months have gone by, and public schools are starting back. It's a new school year and you have all this new stuff to do! It doesn't work if everyone is burned out, but it does work if you just need an extra bit of motivation to get things done each day. (Like me with the dishes. Don't look at my sink.) If you start in the summer with what you have for next year, you can give yourself a rest in the fall and not feel guilty. You can catch up on the math work you're worrying about. Plus, June has barely arrived. It's been here for one or two days. A guest visiting for a few days need not spend the month, right? ;)

 

Mine are younger than yours. What we do? I lay the baby and sometimes the toddler down in the afternoon. I take the older ones out the back door and tell them to go find something to draw in their sketchbooks. When they return their sketchbooks we talk and label the drawings, then they try to catch the chickens for a bit. They each read a short passage, I work on my tan, then I have them do a quick math lesson. The vitamin D is good for my mood, the running around is good for them, and it's just enough mental strain for them to not be wild. But, my children are young. You may not have unwilling chickens and a need to lay in the sun while your children actively avoid you because they know their next lesson starts when they stop catching grasshoppers. I am worthless when it is cold out. My poor children poke me huddled under my blanket on the couch asking for spelling lessons. If I don't work in the summer, I won't do anything.

[Delirium]

I let kiddo pick 3 themes then I plan thematics around her choices. 2 weeks a piece, there's a few trips/camps in between units.

[NASDAQ]

Same as winter, except they're in camp for a few weeks.

[mumto2]

When they were little we did math and other workbook type things first. As the day moved on we migrated outside. Messy art projects on the driveway with materials stored in the garage. Same thing for science. We would picnic in the "treehouse" (top of the slide) while I read a couple of chapters of our read aloud. All of these were shade activities for us. About 2:30 they were free to swim and play.

 

We now live in England and nice weather can never be counted on. We tend to be out whenever possible. We have long days of schoolwork on mucky days and they fit they assigned work around activities on sunny days. We have found that a math assignment can be finished while I fix a meal. The important thing I have found when doing this is we must have one long day a week so I can lay out assignments. Papers must be assigned. Chemistry text discussed - experiments done. Previous weeks work reviewed. I do adjust the amount of work around how busy we will be that week. We continue as normal with all subjects just a bit light. If I know they have a chemistry test no large writing assinments that week. I try to be realistic. My son needs to be frequently checked on.

[Ariston]

1/2 hour of math, 1/2 hour of reading, and that's it. It's easy to do in the morning before we enjoy the rest of our day, and you'd be surprised how much you feel your getting done if you do it consistently!

[boscopup]

It looks the same as fall, winter, and spring. :)

 

We take June completely off though, and basically did movie days the last 2 weeks of school in May. So we get our much needed break, go to day camp and VBS in June, then start up fresh with some new materials in July (some materials continue from the previous year, but I always have enough new to make it "different".

 

July and August are too hot here, so the kids need something to do anyway. This next year, I think I only have 37 weeks scheduled. We have 2 weeks off in September ( family vacation one week, recovery from vacation the following week), the week of thanksgiving and 3 weeks at Christmas are off, then I take another week in March. So we school roughly 6-8 weeks at a time. And when fall and spring weather are upon us, I make sure the kids have plenty of outside time.

[happypamama]

I'm in Sue's state, and we can start counting as of July 1. So that's what we do. We finish for the year around Memorial Day and have a good five or six weeks off (during which we read, and that's all that's required, although this year, my rising third grader likes Singapore math so much that he's voluntarily pulled out his next workbook a few times to do a few problems). And then we'll start the new year all ready to go right around July 1. If I were concerned about the five or six weeks off and kids forgetting things, I'd simply add a bit of reinforcement. My kids will read anyway, but I require a certain number of pages from something that is decent literature, and I could see adding a page or so of math, or a bit of Latin, or a grammar worksheet, or whatever they each needed. Some drill games or edutainment might help with retention too.

 

But yes, our school session looks the same regardless of the season. We just take the 8-12 weeks of break at various times, instead of June through August -- this year, it'll be about 3 weeks in August (only because we're having a new baby), 1 week in November, 3 weeks around Christmas and New Year's, 2 weeks surrounding Easter, plus all of our birthdays/our anniversary/DH's few holidays, and we should still finish easily in time to have 5-6 weeks off after Memorial Day.

[MrsBanjoClown]

This week ds1 will be working on math and finishing Primary Language Lessons. DS2 will be working in his Intensive Practice workbook for math. The boys will then get 2 weeks off. After the break, they will continue doing math every day (except the 4th of July) for the next 2 weeks. We will start our new school year on July 8th. I am considering doing 6 weeks on/1 week off for next year, but I haven't decided for sure. We are also taking a month off when the new baby arrives in October.

[PeterPan]

We usually school year round, but we don't keep the same PACE year round! I divide the year into terms:

 

May Term (only May)

Summer Term (June, July, Aug)

Fall Term (Sept-Dec)

Winter Term (Jan-April)

 

Each term we do what fits it. May Term is just variable, maybe a special topic we haven't gotten to, etc. This year we were pretty burnt out from a big project, so we used this month to finish up some things. In the past though we've done unit studies, a month of just art and math, that kind of thing. I TRY to get our regular things to wrap up by the end of April so we have May to do as we want. It's also a good time to do your standardized testing, if you do that.

 

Summer term we usually pick just a couple subjects to do. That way the list is short, maybe takes 1-1 1/2 hours, and we go out on a blanket or tent and knock it out, no biggee. In that time you can do math, grammar, and one other thing, whatever. I think this year we might be knocking out a couple high school subjects (health, art). We haven't made our plan yet, because we have company. High time though! Do you do other things in the summer? Now that she's getting older, I'm finding the summer goes faster. We actually sat down and charted out the weeks, counting out when she'd be gone vs. home, etc.

[Maela]

We're newbies and this is our first summer. Dd is doing five minutes a day of addition flashcards. We're keeping track of how many she gets right, and she's trying to beat her old score each time. (It's fun for her.)

 

I showed her Khan Academy math the other day and she's having fun exploring that, but I'm not requiring anything.

 

Also, she reads a ton, but I'm asking her to read some non-fiction each day too (books about animals/plants).

 

That's it until August 1st when I plan on starting the new year.

[Walking-Iris]

I school till the end of June (and June is usually really relaxed and tying up loose ends. I also reorganize and clean. By summer our books and supplies have taken a beating).

 

I then take all of July off. But we still do some school stuff because it's just what we do. But really relaxed and not every day. We start a new year late August. My oldest likes to have a break between. He likes to know that he's done with a grade and moving into another grade, even though I don't emphasize grades.

 

Our summer plans will be to continue with math. I usually don't like a long break from math activities. It makes for too much review later.

 

We continue read alouds, but I usually don't do anything special (dictations, projects etc with them). Reading is just a part of life so that doesn't stop.

 

I also follow their lead for fun arts and crafts, nature study, science experiments. Some things are just better suited to doing outside in the warm summer. FamilyFun magazines start coming out of the closet. I never get to fun stuff like that throughout the year really.

 

I'll continue with phonics with my Kinder because I don't want to take a long break when now is his window of opportunity for continuing to learn to read.

[briansmama]

This will be our first year schooling over the summer because we had to take a lot of time off over the spring due to my oldest and his sports training.

 

I ordered curriculum from Moving Beyond the Page to shake things up and keep it fresh and fun over the summer. This covers language arts/science/social studies. We will also work on math.

 

My plan is to work in the mornings 3 days per week and take the afternoons off. The day doesn't really warm up here until late morning so it's a good plan.

[Farrar]

We were light on school this spring and we took off a long break at Christmas and most of September. It's just so much nicer to take time off in the fall and spring when the weather is nice and when there's sooo much to do. So we'll definitely do school this summer. It's too hot to do much but school and go swimming and honestly, since activities are over, it's easier to get school done in the summer than the rest of the year.

 

So summer school here looks like school any other time. When the rest of the world goes back, we'll take at least a couple of weeks off if not more - September is the birthday month here.

[momto2Cs]

We're schooling through June, and then light "summer" schooling through until late August or maybe the beginning of September (6-8 weeks). This year, summer school is math on Khan Academy for ds, continued reading work with Reading Horizons for dd, fun books on California history, field trips, and maybe a very light astronomy study.

[clemota]

We're officially done according to our charter school, but we plan to continue with a few basics over the summer to keep it all fresh. I have voracious readers, so no worries there. We'll probably sign up for a couple of reading programs, but that's more for them to collect free books, lol.

 

The 10y will continue to work on Pet Store Math, LoF, and HOE (one a day to work on - her choice); latin - we started GSWL late in the semester on a whim and neither of us wants to stop; and spelling.

 

The 5y will work on math (games, wrap-ups, more games, maybe a cool worksheet here and there), and handwriting.

 

I can't plan too much for them as their older brother, who attends a B & M school, finishes in two days and will have no such requirements, save for any reading he'll need to do for the fall semester. I don't think I could handle the whine of "It's not fair!" all. summer. long. :sneaky2: They've agreed to do this much, which I'm happy about.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, really, I'll have to let you know at the end of the summer. ;) Last summer (our first), I had big plans to go all summer, but the truth is *I* was burned out and needed a break - I have a heavy work schedule in April & May, and I was totally exhausted by the time June rolled around. This year, there was less work, and I was much more mellow about school when I was busy - kinda went on autopilot, didn't try to add a bunch of new things, so we got 'er done with a lot less stress. So at this point, I'm feeling much more sane and centered than this time last year.

 

We have summer stuff planned - swimming lessons, horseback riding camp, theater camp, and some camping trips - so we definitely won't "do school" everyday. I'm also giving them Fridays off - completely - because their dad is off that day. The plan with dd10 is to do math, spanish, and typing at least 3 times a week - skill subjects we don't want to lose ground in. We also got a community garden plot, so we're planning on doing garden science & cooking, no book science. We're taking a break from history & writing while I plot out a total revampment of our plan for next year. We also decided that I'll read aloud from a children's Bible - we aren't Christian, but I really want my kids to have a thorough grounding in Bible stories for cultural, literary and historical purposes, and it's something I've neglected so far.

 

My dd7 (tomorrow!) will be joining us to homeschool next year. I think she needs the summer off to decompress and deschool, though. We'll see, she's already started asking to do schooly stuff, I think I'll just follow her lead. We'll start her officially in August, but whatever we do this summer will be gravy.

[PollyOR]

Summers in the Pacific Northwest are an absolute blessing after gray fall, winter, and spring. Every year I plan to school year around but I just can't do it to my kids. Summer is so short.

 

This year 11yo and I are going to be on the road and I'm bringing along math and Logic of English. A little review each day to keep things from falling out of her head. That's all I am going to shoot for this summer.

[asmall]

We school year round. What we try to follow is school nine weeks then one week off. We also take two weeks the end of December and a week off for Mom and Dad's anniversary. We take the month of November off for NaNoWritMo. At the end of May we take two or three weeks off as well.

I find that this schedule works for us the best. The girls are done school by lunchtime anyway, so they still get plenty of time with their friends in the summer.

AL

[craftyerin]

My DS is still bitty and its our first summer but for what it worth we plan on keeping up with read alouds, math, and reading practice. In September we will add all the content work back in. I agree that a lot of skills can get lost if allowed to lay dormant for three months. But we (I!) also need a break.

This is what we're doing as well. All of mine are young (heading into 1st and K), so we stopped FIAR for the summer, but are continuing with reading aloud, and reading instruction (daily) and alternating handwriting and math. I don't expect to make much progress in math and handwriting only doing them 2-3 days a week, but I hoping to keep skills fresh. All of mine are in that pivotal place where reading is *just* starting and I certainly don't want to quit that. WE can do reading+one other subject in about an hour, though, so it doesn't effect our ability to have a bunch of summer fun with our friends.

[UrbanSue]

Here it looks the same as the rest of the year but more sweaty. We're pretty relaxed all year, taking off a full week every 5-6 weeks and not stressing about missed days here and there in between. In the summer we take our weeks off whenever our various trips fall (which this summer is going to be one long chunk that takes up most of July). But the academic load is the same. I'm pretty light about academics compared to a lot of people here, though.

[Guest inoubliable]

We planned to school year round again but this summer is quickly filling up with road trips and plans to get. out. of. this. house. The winter was so brutal for illness and cold, icky blech. Instead of sitting around the house with workbooks and scheduled documentaries, I think we're going to try to spend as much time outside as we can. In the really hot hours of the day, I'm only planning that we're indoors. We may do 15 - 20 mins of math for DS12 every day.

[fetzer_mark]

I am a year-round homeschooler wanna be. For 2 years now I have wanted to school year round, taking breaks when needed, but not stressing about getting our "180 days" in. For 2 years now I have written out our schedule and filled out the calendar to school year round. But, June always happens. And along with June comes a major case of burn out. Every.blessed.year. Well, this year, I have some kids who MUST complete their math over the summer. And, the rest could really benefit from daily math practice and reading, too. What does summer homeschooling look like in your home? Do you do a full load all year? Do you just do certain subjects June-Aug? Do you do nothing at all? I'm just trying to get an idea of what others do over the summer. I have a few ideas of what I would like to do this summer. I would like the kids to do math every day, read every day and write every day (I'm thinking ala Bravewriter). I'm thinking a family newsletter/paper would be fun to do over the summer and some nature study. Just looking for more ideas. :)

 

We take a week or two off, Then do about an hour a day. which can be skipped on busy days or for VBS. I also try to do an hour of quiet time for reading.

[4ofus]

We don't school year-round, we get our 180 days in during the typical 9 month calendar, but, this summer one son is finishing up his last unit of Math Mammoth (he finished 2/3 of 2 very different programs this year, so he has more than enough math, but I'm a FINISH SOMETHING stickler, so this is the one he is "finishing"), the other son finished his handwriting book last week. All other subjects have been completed & we are on break, with the exception of SOTW, which we are paring down to just reading, discussing & mapping to finish. It's very casual. An hour or two in the mornings. We continue music practice & TKD training through the summer. I love summer WAY too much to carry a full daily load. I need to be in the sunshine. And if I need it, so do my kids.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Because our Aug-May school days are getting longer as the kids advance through the grades, I have decided to turn our more laid-back, fun curricula into seasonal supplements during the summer. As our main focus, I have sketched out an unschooly world geography study with a hefty dose of living math (kids will be running competing travel agencies http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/tongue_smilie.gif). DS10 wants to start Lively Latin, so I will let him do that now instead of waiting for the new school year. We will also keep up with current events and conversational Spanish (around the dinner table) and swim team and music lessons (I am out of the picture for these).

 

To maximize enjoyment of our last desert summer before our next move, I have a long list of read-alouds to enjoy during "pool school." We all float with popsicles or smoothies, and I read. Heavenly!

 

My dd7 (tomorrow!) will be joining us to homeschool next year.

I am so excited for you!

[staceyof1982]

Our summer school is a bit more unstructured than the rest of the year. For my 4th and 2nd graders we are using Mathmatecal Reasoning (Critical Thinking Co) & wrap-ups for math, Draw-Write-Now for wrti ng & spelling practice, Typing Instructor for Kids, and we are doing a few very light unit studies on penguins, dolphins, whales, fish & oceans. At the end of the summer we are going to the beach & aquarium to finish it off. The kids will mainly work on this stuff when they are "bored".

[FO4UR]

Math, spelling, and summer reading program at the library. Read alouds are just part of our day, so those continue as always...sometimes I read twaddle-ish books in the summer.

 

 

I take the opportunity to hit remedial areas hard over the summer b/c we don't do much else.

[StartingOver]

A bit of math, a bit of Latin, reading, copywork or journal and tons of swimming. ;-)

[nwmama]

This year we're going to do math every day and reading every day but nothing else. That way summer is a break but we aren't so off a schedule that we can't get back to one in the fall.

[thebacabunch]

We are doing very light work. Both my dd's are doing Life of Fred. My oldest is doing the LoF for pre algebra to get a leg up on next years math. They don't have to be asked to read. They write in a journal once or twice a week.

[ondreeuh]

My rising 6th grader is doing math and LA every day. For math, we're doing a bunch of word problems and reviewing 5th grade math with Math in Focus (he already did CLE 5th). We work the problems together and this takes about 30-45 minutes. He also does a lesson in Moving Beyond the Page - this includes the day's reading, writing out answers to comprehension questions, and working on a grammar or writing activity. On the days that he doesn't have grammar in MBTP, we do a lesson of Growing with Grammar 5. I hope to do typing, Mr. Q Chemistry, and cursive ... but honestly I am happy with just math and LA. He knows that we are doing this to make sure he is ready for 6th grade.

 

With my preschooler, we do about 30-45 minutes a day for math and LA (not including readers). We do a page or two of Miquon and/or a bit of Singapore Earlybird, and then for LA we've been doing a page or two of a Primary Phonics workbook. It's just reinforcing handwriting and spelling. He reads at least one reader a day but I am starting to encourage more. Today he read 3.

 

We have such a short season of nice weather - we had our last snow on May 17th and it will start again by October. I need to remember to take advantage of every moment! We have plenty of long, dark, cold days coming up to stay inside and do schoolwork. I only need to do enough to maintain skills and make some gentle progress.

[Saddlemomma]

We don't homeschool year-round. My dd (10) looks forward to her summer break, and I need that time for writing her curriculum and maintaining our 2 large veggie gardens (40' X 60' and 55' X 70'), as we grow our own food to process for the year. So, summer is a very busy time.

 

However, that being said, dd does have certain responsibilities during the summer. First of all, she is doing Life of Fred Fractions. I like to keep her math going during the summer. She also has a reading list to complete pertaining to the time period we will be studying when school starts again in August (Middle Ages/Renaissance/Reformation). Finally, she does have a major summer project every year. One year it was to plan and harvest her own garden (flower or veggie). That year she chose a flower garden and also attended a summer floral design class offered by a local florist. Last year she and her father designed her own full-size bed frame made out of cedar logs. We harvested the logs from our own property (learning chainsaw safety), she learned how to draft the bed on her father's 3-D drafting program (lots of Geometry), then used the proper tools to shape and put the bed together. Now she sleeps in a bed she and her father made together!

 

This year, because she has learned that she enjoys hunting (got her first rabbit this last winter), we decided to teach her some wilderness/survival/hunter safety skills. Her father will be in charge of this. Topics include:

• survival pack essentials
  
• how to start a fire during any weather
  
• compass reading
  
• what to do when you become lost
  
• construction of different temporary shelters
  
• basic first aid
  
• how to avoid hypothermia
  
• how to safely handle basic firearms and knives (continuation of what she's already been learning to prepare for hunter safety course)
  

[NicoleMarie]

We school year-round. We do 6 weeks on with one week off between each unit. We take off from thanksgiving to the first of the year. It works for us because we live on Arizona. Its too hot to take off in june or july. My dd12 does math, ELA & history year round and we alternate the unit focus between science & literature for 6 units. The extra unit is flexible. Like this year we are spending the summer with family in another state so we are visiting area museums and she has to create a lap book documenting her experiences.

 

Year-round is easier for us. No reviewing and less rushing.

[Mom0012]

I have always done a much lighter schedule over the summer. However, it does seem like it takes my kids just as long to do 3 things as it takes them to do their full load, so I do get frustrated and surprised by that every year. I think the main problem is that I let them stay up too late in the summer, so they sleep in and get a late start, but I also think they just slow way down since "they only have 3 things to do".

 

This year, my son is going to focus on math and writing skills. He'll read the daily paper, which he loves doing, and write a short summary on one article of interest 3 days a week. The other days, we'll focus on outlining, using a Human Odyssey text since he loves those as well. I am hoping he will finish this in 2 hours or less in the morning and then spend an hour a day reading. My dd will focus on math, Spanish and Latin. Latin will be a very light review of charts and vocab and she'll continue online Spanish lessons over the summer. Again, my hope is to limit this to 2 hours and then have her do free reading one hour a day. She will have to squeeze in piano practice as well, though.

 

If no one objects (and I can't I imagine they will) I'll do a read-aloud at breakfast or lunch for about 1/2 hour.

 

I've got a lego education kit and Atelier Art if anyone gets bored. ;)

 

BUT, we will also be taking many weeks off to go to the beach, Boy Scout camp for my son, dance and art camp for my dd and a camp where they both volunteer for a week.

 

So, hopefully, it will feel like a break. Personally, I am hoping to reorganize all my closets and do a lot of reading this summer. (I just noticed I used the word "hope" an awful lot in this post. :) )

[Kelly1730]

Kristina,

 

LOVE the competing travel agencies for living math! Is that your own idea or a curriculum? Enjoy your last summer in the desert and have a smoothie for me!;)

[fractalgal]

Here are our summer plans.

 

We take the month of August off from school. Its our vacation month, and we may go on a trip or I may use it to get organized. By September the kids are usually ready to start school again. I always hope they will not have forgotten too much. ;)

[2_girls_mommy]

I haven't read the others yet. I will post now, and then read later as I am in a hurry this morning. I consider us year round. We live in a year round school district and we start our year and end our years when they do (First of Aug= end of May) They take 2 weeks off for fall and summer break and about 3.5 wks for Christmas. We don't since we do one day of co=op a week. We just continue on through fall and spring breaks if we don't have plans. We might do shorter days and more field trips or something those weeks since the neigborhood kids will be out and wanting to play more and inviting mine places and our hs friends that do online schools will have the weeks off and want to do stuff.

 

Summer hsing happens in June: The first week of June their "schooling" takes the form of camps out of the house for the last couple and the current year. Each chose a camp that added to their education experience. They had P.E, science, nature study, history, arts and crafts, and performing arts between the 2 different camps. Next week they will attend VBS for Christian education. My odd will just be a volunteer now that she is middle school.

 

Then during the month we do reading for the library reading program (30 minutes a day that they have to keep track of with a little board.) I assign some of that reading. We have continued on with science topics and will for the month. But we do it more in a fun way with a lot more crafts than during the school year including the preschoolers we babysit and with less writing required. This month we have started a human body study that we will add to once a week. We have continued on with our nature/bird studies by going to the zoo to identify and draw birds in our field guides. And my dd10 has a chapter of math she is to complete this month. I read aloud from a literature book and from non fiction books daily still.

 

We do almost daily trips out of the house on the weeks that we don't have camp or VBS. I will take them swimming as much as possible. We go to zoos, museums, bowling, and things like that.

 

In July, we will probably try to finish reading SOTW so we can start our new one in Aug. or Sept. Plus we will continue with the fun projects for science and arts and crafts. They will continue their daily reading, but no math at that time. It is our one month off for the whole year. (besides the reading..) They will have swim lessons to work on their actual strokes and diving.

[marbel]

I live in PA and my school year runs from July 1 to June 30.

 

The summer does present certain challenges for us because my kids have typically gone to at least one sleep-away camp and often to day camps as well. I do count those as school days as they generally have an "academic" element to them: robotics, photography, etc. Scout camp has lots of skill learning. Even a "regular" fun summer camp has plenty of PE. Family vacations tend to take place during the public school year.

 

This year my kids are just taking one week of summer camp, so it will be a little different. We're setting up a plan to continue on in math (problem area for both my kids), history (we enjoy it), some Coursera classes of interest, Latin (always falls off the day's plan) 3 - 4 days a week. One, sometimes two days a week will be for an outing which may or may not count as a school day. I take a pretty liberal view of what counts as a school day!

 

I tend to separate my legal requirement to count 180 school days from my efforts to educate my children and help them educate themselves. Even when we've completed our 180 days, we are not "done" with our school year. In fact my kids tend not to know when we have counted all our days.

 

Oh, we do take some time completely off after the portfolios are completed; usually about two weeks, though there is usually something "schoolish" in there. Yesterday my daughter spent a couple of hours watching lectures from two Coursera classes she's taking (History of Rock, and an art class), spent hours reading, and did some work with pastels. Vacation day or school day? Maybe the truth is that I take the time off. :001_cool:

[bluemongoose]

We start our new year in Sep. Some of our subjects (PR and TOG and science) are 36 week programs. When we finish the 36 weeks we take off the rest of the time until Sep in those subjects. We continue to work through the summer with our math, handwriting, reading books, and WWE. We add in more art and song school latin when the 36 week subjects finish. This makes it feel like a fun/lighter load, but we are actually still working hard.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Kristina,

 

LOVE the competing travel agencies for living math! Is that your own idea or a curriculum? Enjoy your last summer in the desert and have a smoothie for me! ;)

 

Thanks! I had the idea after spending too much time debating with myself about whether or not my kids would enjoy Simply Charlotte Mason's Business Math. They play very elaborate games of running book shops, pet stores, post offices, and libraries in which they are always competing for business. :lol: They do a lot of work when they play like this. There are signs, brochures, uniforms, the works. Furniture is moved and PVC structures are built. LOL We did a small world geography study last summer and I wanted to expand on it this summer, covering more about current culture and ways of life, but I want it to be fun and feel very unschooly. I had the idea of using photo-rich travel guides from the library because they cover a bit of everything--history, landmarks, art/music, dining, museums... Everything is in those books and they're pretty attractive to kids. My DD practically planned an entire week-long trip to the Grand Canyon, taking copious notes from all the guides to make sure we wouldn't miss anything. Anyway, that idea paired with the fact that they naturally play this way anyway made me want to try this approach. We'll see how it goes.

[wingedradical]

We are going to do movies from Movies as Literature during the summer. We will just be discussing, not doing the workbook.

 

We also plan to work on cooking skills.

 

I will also require reading most days.

 

We live in the desert and I think if I had this to plan again, I would school during the summer and take off during the winter. Then, we could go to all the park day and other group activities during winter without it interrupting school and we could just stay in and study when it's 112 outside.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I will say that my kids are insanely in love with DIY.org. DH and I are pretty impressed at how they are being complete self-starters! I see this being a DIY summer!