When I say we are homeschooling through the summer, I often get negative responses. Both in the homeschooling community and outside of it, there are those who can’t see the idea that doing school in the summertime as anything less than cruel. The sun is shining, there is so much to do, kids need a break, why don’t you just let them play, I’ve heard it all! But the reality is, despite the pressure on the outside world, this year we are homeschooling through the summer. Take a look at the top 5 reasons.
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5 Reasons we are homeschooling through the Summer this year
1. It Keeps the Kids Fresh
If you open up your new textbooks, you’ll see that a good chunk in the beginning is devoted entirely to review. This is because during this long-awaited break in our year, our kids begin to get rusty. They start to forget concepts, and even lose information that they had clearly known just a few months before! It is a huge time waster! When you do school all year round, even at a lighter schedule, you don’t give your kids an opportunity to forget. You constantly refresh their reading skills, writing skills, math skills, memorization skills, etc.
2. It Provides a Loose Structure for our Days
Kids love routine, schedule, and structure. While we all love (and sometimes need) a break, we often start to crave regularity. Doing a light load of school in the summertime means my kids know what to expect. They look forward to the fun activities that summer brings in the afternoons, but they are secure in the regular going-on of the beginning of our days together.
3. It is Real Life
I’ve always found it a bit strange that kids take summer off while adults are still going to work. Yes, they are kids, and of course they don’t carry the same responsibilities. But I can’t help but wonder what that is teaching our kids. By doing school through the summer, my kids are learning that sometimes you do something because it needs to be done. They watch daddy go to work and know that they need to finish their work too before they can go and play. What better way to prepare them for the world?
4. We can get Creative!
Summer homeschooling is like one big field trip. There are so many activities and things to do. The weather is warm enough you can get outside and explore, build, play, ask questions. It is the perfect time to cater your lessons to your children’s learning styles. Get outside and do math with a stick in the sand or a piece of chalk on the driveway! We take the opportunity to learn outside of regular curriculum, to write about things that interest us, to truly inspire a love of learning for each child.
5. More Freedom All-Year-Round!
This really should be my number one reason as it is kind of my favorite. Homeschooling through the summer, even at a slower pace, means more freedom the whole year round. It means you can homeschool, at this same relaxed pace, taking lots of breaks and being spontaneous, all year round! When I took a look at my 36-week curriculum and realized that if we did 3 weeks of school every month, out of the 4 or 5 weeks each month, we could finish our books… I was sold! This means that every month we can take 1-2 weeks completely off! Year round!
What Homeschooling in the Summer Looks Like for Us
It really isn’t that intense of a schedule, we do our little routine for about 3 hours in the morning. We start with breakfast, chores and Bible. Then we all do our math, reading, and work on our writing project. We finish off with group Socials or Science and we are done! Plenty of time for them to go ride their bikes while I make lunch and we still have all afternoon and evening to play! I have never been one to get out of the house early in the morning anyways, so this really doesn’t impact our day much, it just means I need to get up earlier and we can’t sleep in as late. But this also has the added benefit of earlier bedtimes for the kids and more alone time for me and hubby!
Now that we are into the routine of homeschooling through the summer, I really don’t know why we haven’t done this earlier. It has so many benefits not just now, but for our entire school year! The kids don’t feel too hard done by, I try to really take their lead and learn about what they are interested in and they quite like the structure to their mornings. We try to see how fast we can get it done and decide what adventures we want to have that afternoon.
