By Nina Elena
For the past 17 years of homeschooling, I have heard other homeschool moms chat about their summer plans. Some plan to travel. Some plan to relax. Some plan to complete projects around the house and some plan to homeschool through the summer.
We tried homeschooling through the summer once. Trying it once was enough for us. It’s not that we don’t enjoy school, we do. It’s just that no matter how much you enjoy something, you still need time away from it in order to appreciate it again.
Even people who work at their dream job enjoy having days off.
I’ve found a schedule that works for us. We begin the school year in September with as many subjects as each child can handle, since that’s when we are the most excited for school.
There are new school supplies, new books for the next grade and enthusiasm to start a new year. But that enthusiasm wanes and by the end of the year we are struggling just to finish. None of us is excited about learning by the end of May.
In our home we take a long summer, just the way I remember summer from when I was a kid.
Three school-less months of hot summer nights, sleeping in, watching too much television, playing outside, drives to the lake, popsicles, and time with friends.
However, I should warn you that by the end of August summer feels long and boring. At that point we are all ready to start school again.
What Does a Summer off Look Like?
As my husband says to our children, “You’re homeschooled, that means you’re learning all the time.”
Exactly.
Just because we have the summer off, that doesn’t mean that the kids and I are not learning during the summer.
There are usually one or two things I wanted to teach the kids during the year that fell by the wayside. Spanish is the main one.
Every school year I tell myself that we are going to do Spanish every day and every year it’s the subject that doesn’t get finished. So twice a week during the summer my kids work on Spanish for about 20 minutes and finish it.
This is also a great time to pull out those subscription boxes or science experiments we never got around to. Doing one a week isn’t really “doing school.”
It’s also the perfect time to make weekly swimming plans with friends so the kids can play, and the moms can catch up with one another.
Preteens and teens will probably use this time to catch up on the sleep they missed throughout a busy school year. Letting them sleep in can be a blessing and a curse.
It’s not bad when you have a couple of extra hours to yourself, but it can also feel uncomfortable to watch them waste the day by being in bed until the afternoon.
Sleeping in too much can also make them groggy and irritable for the rest of the day. So, you’ll have to tweak this until you find a good balance for your situation.
You may have to make a set time for them to get up, if you notice that sleeping in has become a problem.
What Homeschool Moms Can do During the Summer
I don’t know about you, but I planned to be a homeschool version of Mary Poppins. However, that didn’t happen.
Summer is the perfect time for me to become that Mary Poppins mom and take the kids to the zoo or for a hike or to draw chalk pictures on the sidewalk and pretend to jump into them.
Summer is a great time to attend your local homeschool convention or sit by the pool and read some homeschool books or magazines.
You’ll learn new ideas and be so excited to implement them that the anticipation of having to wait until the school year begins will add to your enjoyment.
Avoiding the Summer Slump
One of the big reasons that people avoid taking a long summer break is that kids often lose educational abilities when they no longer use them. This is known as the “summer slump”. We’ve noticed this in our own home.
The summer slump is what researchers found happened to kids when they left school for their summer break. Children who were not exposed to travel, reading and other intellectual pursuits tended to lose several months of learning ability during the summer.
By the 6th grade kids who didn’t learn during the summer had lost 2 full grade levels. These kids were at the 4th grade reading or math ability when their classmates where at the 6th grade level1.
Math is the main culprit around our house. Two of our children struggle with math, so for those two, we just continue a few minutes of math practice through the summer.
This way when school starts again, they haven’t forgotten everything they learned the year before. Ten minutes a day, twice a week, helps keep this math ability.
For our child who didn’t enjoy reading, but excelled at math, we made sure he did some reading over the summer instead.
Finding the Right Fit
One great part of homeschooling is the way you can create a plan that works in your unique home. And if something isn’t working, you can tweak it.
A lot of summer seems to entail shuttling children to Vacation Bible School, taking them to water and driving them to a day camp for art or pottery or archery. Much like the weekend, summer seems to rush buy much faster than we anticipate.
When you hear the words, “I’m bored” you can point your kids to art videos, painting supplies and other projects there was no time for during the school year. Having this time off and no pressure to do these as a school activity makes them fun.
I’d rather do this no-school summer plan than continue school for the summer. Even though we do a teeny-tiny bit of school in the summer, our children don’t think of summer as having any school.
They are excited to take a break and so am I. You can try one year of continuing school through the summer and one year with the summer off.
I think you’ll find your family’s answer after trying both.
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Nina Elena is the bestselling author of Help! I Just Pulled My Kids Out of School: Guidance from 17 Years of Homeschooling and mentors homeschool moms at NinaHelpsYouHomeschool.com
