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mommy4ever
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| Posted: May 08 2012 at 10:19am | IP Logged
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I have told the youngest we'll be doing school through the summer. 
My reasons are simply to make up for the days we just don't feel like working. We wake up with miserable colds, and it's hard to focus,and truly no quality work is being done. BUT, how do you make it up? SO....
We're going year round. I have have a second reason, we find that with swimming lessons, it eats up 1/2 a day, and the morning is a restless one because they really want to go. AND, we are now doing a CO_OP on Thursdays, it's mostly group things - art, drama, phys Ed and science. SO, my week is getting shorter and shorter.
So really, I'm only going to get 3-3 1/2 to 4 days - when we don't have swimming - good days of work out of the kids. So if we can work through summer, then we'll be on task without pressure. And we can relax about sick days and not worry so much about 'catching' up.
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Mom to 4,
1 graduated June 2012
1 in Catholic school
2 homeschooled(one considering art school!)
ardently praying for a new addition to our family.
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Willa
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| Posted: May 08 2012 at 10:25am | IP Logged
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I am going to try year round school this year. We've experimented in the past with a simple "summer school" but I haven't done it for several years. This last school year was chaotic and I feel sort of hungry to get back in touch with my kids' education. I haven't noticed them losing much academically during summer breaks, but I do notice that when our routine slides, it's really hard to get back into it again.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Martha
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| Posted: May 08 2012 at 11:12am | IP Logged
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We don't really have a start and stop. When they finish a math book, they might get a week off of math then start the next one. We take a week or 2 for Christmas and Easter. Occassional other 1 week breaks for various reasons. We rearrange our schedule to fit the season like Jen does.
It's never seemed to be a problem for us.
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
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herdingkittens
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| Posted: May 31 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged
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We do year round with big breaks as we need them (Christmas, Easter, babies being born, toddlers being clingy  , etc.). I love Jen's idea of taking Holy days off - I might steal that!
Martha, we do the same thing. No wonder lesson plans never worked for me. 
My husband is a public school teacher, so we do follow a rough outline of the "traditional" academic year, where we do all our seat work and drill and the bulk of our more formal learning. But, we end up taking off days here and there, sometimes a random week of different learning to keep us fresh and shake things up again. Really, we kind of go with the flow. Actually, this year, I had a pang of worry that we were too lax this year, and after reviewing our plans and seeing where we stood, we were pretty much all done. I was a bit surprised. There are a few odd ends to tie up, which we are tackling at a relaxed pace over the next couple weeks, but nothing major.
Each summer, I try to work on something we do not do during the year, or did not seem to do enough of. This summer, I made a list for each child of what they needed to do every day (violin, math, Italian, read something), all of which they can do on their own, for the most part. Then we have a family list of things we are doing (reading history, nature study, american history, geography, lapbooking, etc.), and we will pick what we want to do, without any pressure. They are suggestions, but the plan is to enjoy them. Plus, they are all things that are not involved - I am not organizing projects or doing anything time consuming or energy zapping. Just reading and watching and talking. 
Also, I had the children make a list of things they always wanted to know about, so when we do the library reading program this summer, they can look things up and have something to explore on their own. Oh, yeah, and my twins want to learn to read  , so that is a HUGE priority for the summer, so I won't be trying to carve out time for that during the year. I need to take advantage of the wonderful gift of having my husband home for the summer!
Here's the main reason why we don't entirely stop - we all get CRAZY when there is total lack of structure. This way of living out the year gives us the breaks we need, without having to retrain ourselves to get back into the swing of things when we are so far gone. So, we have those times where we have gobs of unstructured time, but when it just starts to wear on us, we can rein it in again. The thing I need to "do" is keep asking the Holy Spirit to help me see when those times are (although it is usually obviously time for a shift when 2 or more are getting grouchy! ).
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Elena
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| Posted: June 02 2012 at 6:11pm | IP Logged
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I just recently did a blog post about this!!
20 Reasons to Keep Homeschooling Through the Summer
1. Good habits built up in the school year can easily go kaput during the lazy hazy days of summer! Why should we lose all that hard-earned ground!? Year round homeschooling helps to turn those good habits into a way of life.
2. Use it or lose it... and some kids do lose a lot over the summertime! Summertime homeschooling keeps those math, reading, writing and spelling skills sharp.
3. Reading new and different books might be a good thing to try over the summertime. Try some new titles or authors.
4. Two words - field trips. Summertime is a great time to work some social studies, geography, history and science into the curriculum in real life!
5. Summertime homeschooling need not be all drudgery! Learn how to make a pie or sew, paint a room, basic car repairs... all of that is educational and counts as homeschooling.
6. Summertime homeschooling is a great way to pull ahead academically.
7. It's a great time to play catch up too.
8. Summertime homeschooling keeps the family from getting too scattered from each other.
9. No law says you can't include the neighbor kids! In fact sometimes the neighbor kids enjoy the read alouds or other homeschooling activities and my kids enjoy having their friends see what their school day is like.
10. Having something to do keeps mom from hearing "I'm bored!" too many times in a day!
10. Dig deeper. So you studied the French Revolution and one of your kids is now fascinated with Marie Antoinette! Now is the time to really dig into her biography and follow all of those rabbit holes that you had to skip over due to time constraints during the school year.
11. Mess. As in, take the messy art project outside. Water colors, chalk, to clay - all if it seems a lot less intimidating outside where everything can get hosed done when we're done.
12. Science is more fun in the summertime! From planting and growing, to astronomy or simple tools. All of it just seems to lend itself to the long warm days (and nights) of summer.
13. Homeschooling in the summer gives mom some structure too!
14. We do movie day all during the school year, but we can REALLY ramp it up during the summer and have movie night to include dad and even the neighbor kids. It's a great time to introduce them to films and stories they might not have chosen for themselves and to get some discussions going.
15. For older kids, summertime might be a great time to introduce them to test preparation, how to take tests and test strategies. This is especially important for high schoolers who may not be use to taking a lot of standardized tests.
16. In the laid back summertime it's a little easier to practice those foreign languages the kids have studied all year. Take one day aside and have Spanish day or Latin day, or just use your American Sign language!
17. Summertime is a great time to try out new Curricula. If Saxon math doesn't work for one student, maybe trying Seton or Modern Curriculum Press would work better. Try it and see!
18. Summer camps and lessons definitely count as homeschooling. Take pictures and make sure to document!
19. Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July... all great times to set a day aside and talk about our country's history and heritage.
20. Time to look at the family's spiritual life and make adjustments. Older kids might be ready to add more bible study time. Maybe the youngest has never heard of Noah and the Arc and doesn't know how to say the rosary by herself yet. Summertime is a great time to evaluate everyone's spiritual needs.
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Elena
Wife to Peter, mom of many!
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: June 04 2012 at 10:10am | IP Logged
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Thank you Elena! That is great!
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Mom to 4,
1 graduated June 2012
1 in Catholic school
2 homeschooled(one considering art school!)
ardently praying for a new addition to our family.
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MaryM
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| Posted: June 04 2012 at 10:14am | IP Logged
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I like your list, Elena. THanks.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: Schooling Year-round
