Well, summer vacation is barreling down on us…or is it?
Last year, I decided to do school in the summer, and it turns out I’m not the only one!
Here are some reasons that you may want to consider year-round homeschooling:
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Baby, It’s Hot Outside
Many people who live in hotter climates say that they home school in the summer because it’s too hot to be outside anyway.
Now, I live in Maine, where there are very hot days, but where air conditioning isn’t as common, so this argument doesn’t necessarily apply to me–school in a hot, stuffy house isn’t that much better than being outside.
But it makes sense for a lot of people.
Use It or Lose It
It’s a common complaint across the board, home school and conventional school alike, that during the traditional long summer break, kids forget what they have learned.
That’s what those summer bridge workbooks are all about.
Pretty good reason to just keep chugging along.
Future Flexibility
It’s hard to home school at Christmas time.
I thought it was just me, but it turns out it’s not.
We like to have our longer break over the holidays and summer school allows for that.
We’ll do a handful of days in December, but not every day.
When things come up–there’s been a lot of moving house in the last few years–or we are just tired, it’s nice to have the freedom to just take time off as needed.
Gimme A Break
When home schooler in high school found out that we do school in the summer, she said, “Your kids won’t have any childhood!”
In fact, we do the same number of school days as anyone else.
In summer, we ease it up a bit.
We will only do four days of school, for starters, and we will try to get our schoolwork done before noon.
There will be whole weeks that we take off for family vacations and other special summer activities.
We will probably take off the last couple of weeks of August, because we like to have that special first day of school fresh start.
Last year, we got in 25 days of school, and I consider that pretty sufficient.
Year-Round Homeschooling Is Fun!
I try to make school fun all the time, but especially during the summer.
This year, I have a Cooking and Science unit planned.
We’ll do lots of fun reading and travel while we learn the 50 states.
We’ll spend time at the library.
I don’t think my kids will feel like they’re missing out at all!
What do you think?
Would you consider year-round homeschooling?
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