Have you ever wondered about the traditional school schedule? Attending school full-time, September through May, followed by a long summer break doesn’t seem ideal for learning retention. I remember, as a kid, spending the first entire month of school each year reviewing what we had learned the previous year. The textbooks we use for our homeschool typically devote the first THIRD of the book to review.

That schedule doesn’t seem ideal for helping children to value learning, either. It teaches them that they need a humongous break from this horrible thing called learning, rather than that learning is just what we do, all-day-every-day because learning is life and life is learning, and isn’t it wonderful?!

So why did that schedule become the norm? In a word, tradition. When public schools came into being, life and society were much more agrarian. Most people grew or raised the food they ate. And then they had to harvest and store it. It was hard work, and kids were valuable and necessary labor.

Children were needed at home during the summer, and usually the fall, too. You’ll read in books like ‘Little House’ and ‘Little Britches’ that even when school was in session, it would be empty during the harvest. How frustrating for the teachers!

Tradition doesn’t make something ideal.

Luckily, as homeschoolers we can choose to keep whatever schedule best fits our own families. There are many advantages to homeschooling year-round, including through the summer.

What does homeschool during the summer look like?

More loosely structured, but it is still structured because I have 8 kids. Can you imagine the circus otherwise? Without structure, our home descends into ultimate-fighting-championship style miserable chaos. So I structure our day into four periods, divided by meals: chores | breakfast | school | lunch | free-time and practicing | dinner | family time.

Each child completes a math assignment and then chooses what to learn the rest of the morning. I like to provide a shelf of alluring learning activities to entice them. Immediately following lunch we have a mandatory “quiet time” where everyone can read and the little ones nap. This is probably my favorite time of each day.

We devote one afternoon each week to music lessons, and we visit the library on the way, which is a treat. We devote another afternoon to the pool. We like to keep those afternoons the same each week (e.g. pool on Mondays, lessons on Wednesdays) for the purpose of structure and predictability, and we leave the rest of the afternoons free and open. I forbid TV and electronics during these precious, empty afternoons, in order to encourage creative play.

Children need downtime, which often looks like boredom. They need time away from television and structured activities so they are free to tap into their own vision, thoughts, and dreams. Don’t keep them so busy all day long studying math, spelling, grammar, writing, science, foreign language, and literature (even though those are all GREAT things to study!) and then shuttling them around to music lessons and sports teams that they have no energy left to pursue their own interests.

 

The benefits of homeschooling through the summer

Your kids will behave better

A predictable routine allows children to feel safe, and to develop a sense of mastery over their own lives. Predictability and schedules really help kids to know what to expect, which helps them to behave better.

Routines help kids cooperate by reducing stress and anxiety for everyone. We all know what comes next, we get fair warning for transitions, and no one feels pushed around, or like parents are being arbitrary. Each activity (schoolwork, chores, brushing teeth, napping, dinner) is just what we do at this time of day. The parent stops being the bad guy, and nagging is greatly reduced.

Over time, your kids will learn to conduct themselves according to your schedule without constant reminders. Kids love to be in charge of themselves. This feeling increases their sense of mastery and competence. Kids who feel more independent and in charge of themselves have less need to be contrary or rebellious.

While I’m a huge fan of boredom during childhood, there is definitely a fine line between healthy boredom which inspires creativity and debilitating boredom that is the result of far too much free time. Using our mornings for structured learning increases the likelihood that my kids will use their free time in the afternoons for imaginative play.

 

We can be more flexible (and less stressed!) during the rest of the year

Homeschooling year round is a great way to relieve the pressure to get everything done in nine months. We can skip days here or there (or entire months at a time while dealing with newborn baby sleep issues) for illness or valuable opportunities or family emergencies.

We spend several weeks each summer traveling, but even those ten or so extra summer weeks that we do accomplish school gives us a huge advantage and allows us to be more flexible and spontaneous throughout the school year. We have an extra 50 days in which we can eschew school, in favor of a field trip or other enjoyable learning opportunity and still not get behind in our learning.

Also, because we have spread out our time, we can take more intentional breaks throughout the year. We love to travel during the off season, because it is much cheaper! It is also frequently more pleasant. Our favorite times to visit Disneyland/Universal are September and January, right after the new term starts. At those times, you seldom have to wait in lines at all, even for the newer and more popular rides.

 

Better retention and more rapid progression

It is pretty much expected that kids will have forgotten a good portion of the material over the summer, which is natural.

By continuing homeschool throughout the summer, kids don’t forget what they learned previously. In fact, we end up just skipping the first third of the textbooks since we don’t need the extra review. Instead, we are able to spend more time on working through new concepts and my kids progress far more rapidly through the material and usually complete almost 2 grade levels each year, while mastering the material.

 

More fun stuff

Sometimes just getting through the basic subject material takes up so much time that we skip the fun, supplemental activities. But when I know that we have an extra three months in our school year, I make time for those precious learning opportunities.

Summer is also a fantastic time to explore subjects your children are interested in but that don’t fit neatly into the traditional academic areas. Things like photography, digital scrapbooking, introduction to cryptocurrency, 3D printing and design, programming, minecraft mods, and all kinds of physical classes like rappelling, surfing and swimming.

My youngest is obsessed with animals of all kinds, and since we choose our own course of study, I can indulge her need to read every penguin book ever written and watch every penguin documentary ever made. Follow your child’s lead, and see where it takes you.

 

You’ll create lifelong learners by embracing learning as a lifestyle

When you homeschool, your whole approach to learning starts to change. You begin to look at pretty much everything as a learning opportunity. Even trips to the grocery store are educational when you talk about where food comes from, nutrition, finances and budgeting.

As you hike, you stop and wonder and talk about the world around you. And your kids soak it up. You go home and begin a unit study about geology or the water cycle. You begin to create a lifestyle of learning that your children will carry with them the rest of their lives.

Kids don’t need to be taught the scientific process; it is inherent to them. They naturally question, investigate, collect information, experiment, and hypothesize. All children are naturally critical thinkers. When children’s learning is their own they do it willingly and very efficiently.

If we do a little learning all of the time it becomes a life of learning and not just a separate, encapsulated, and not very pertinent part of our life that happens from 9:00 -3:00 on weekdays for nine months each year.

 

Learn Life Skills

Summer is the perfect time to work on life skills, like gardening, cooking and baking, canning and food preservation, camping skills and sewing. Structure the teaching of life skills like you would a themed summer camp, invite a couple of friends to join you, and turn it into a whole lot of fun!

We accomplish our schoolwork in a couple of hours every morning and spend the rest of each day pursuing life.

Last year we finished our basement. My kids helped my husband and me to break out concrete to move plumbing for bathroom fixtures, then frame and insulate the basement. We did 100 percent of the plumbing, HVAC, electrical, drywall, and finish work ourselves.

We are in the process of re-roofing our house — we’ll finish up the last ridge caps today. My kids, even the little ones, know how to do amazing things.

They know because they do.

And the best thing of all that they know is that they can do. I’m pretty sure you’ll never hear from their mouths that they can’t do things. They are capable and confident.

 

 

 

Reading, reading and more reading

 

Unlimited reading is probably my children’s favorite thing about the summer. During the school year, with our busier schedule, I have to pretty strictly reign in the reading, or my kids would disappear to the nether regions of the house with a book pretty much all day every day. My husband and I are avid readers, too, so they come by their love of reading honestly.

The best way to incentivize work projects around our house is with the promise of DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) camp, which begins with a trip to the library.

The best part about letting your kids sneak off to read? You get to catch up on your own reading. It’s important to our children’s education that we model a good example by continuing our own. And you deserve to get lost in a great book, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For each season of life, seek wisdom from our heavenly Father. Shaping your child’s character is of utmost importance. Enjoy these gifts God has entrusted to you!

 

Do you homeschool through the summer? What does your schedule look like?

 

 

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