Summertime....

[lisaann]

Do you guys do any school during the summer or do you take a complete break?

This year I am falling somewhere in the middle. :lol2 I've been making the kids read out loud and do 20 math facts every day. :fear It actually doesn't take but about 30 minutes.

I'm also doing our art curriculum during the break. I think this is working out really well. :thumb The kids don't see it as school at all, they just think we're having fun! :cheer They have all the time in the world to devote to whatever their project is without being rushed. This might be something I make a part of our summers from here on out.

With the gas prices what they are we find ourselves at home for days at a time without going anywhere so it's actually been a nice way for them to fill in the time.

[firstoftwelve]

Im trying to do some some school now. we had taken a break for a month or two, but want to get started now so we can take time off when baby comes.
It's still really low key though. we didn't do much social studies and science stuff over the year, so we're doing those right now, in a fun way. it also doesn't take much time....so it's a fun summer day activity.

[bobbysgirl]

Some summers, we just need a BREAK, but I use daily things for teaching....bugs on the plants.....pressure cooker for teaching about the relationships between volume, pressure, and heat adn killing bacteria.....how soon we should get to the park if we drive 25 miles at 55 miles per hour....etc.....

Firstoftwelve is my daughter and I didn't homeschool her, but in the summer I still had her and her institutional school sibs practice handwriting by writing poems or scripture verses. Also some math stuff. And lots of reading.

My kids always read, so I don't have to call that "school" during the summer.

This year, a daughter is getting married and we've had a lot going on in other areas, so we're just taking a break.....

But, I am planning on starting right after the wedding since "fot" has a baby coming and we lost a lot of time last year due to the death of my mil and bil.

I would always start early if I had a baby coming so I could take a month off and after two weeks thekids would be begging for some worksheets to ward off boredom....lol! No more of my own coming, but grandbabies just seem to keep on arriving these days. FOT's will be the third in 13 months!

[acceptedinthebeloved]

We always try to take a month off in June, and a month off in December, and then individual days off, as needed, throughout the rest of the year.
Any longer than a month off in the summer and my children get bored. They say they prefer the shorter break, and so do I. :) We have school in the morning hours, and afternoons are more "free", so it is not like they have to "work away all of their summer."
We are so very grateful for home education! :thumb

[tuppermom]

Hi. I am kinda "mean" I suposse. We do not usually take a break at all during the year, because we take "off" 2 or 3 days a week. I myself work Sat-Mon, so we don't homeschool those days. But as for summer we definitely kick up the "fun" level. We find out all the events that are going on during the summer not just around the city, but the county and state as well. (There are a lot of festivals during the summer.) So we adjust our subjects so that those events become field trips and co-incide with our "learning". Here in Alabama, Tannehill State Park does a Civil War Re-inactment every May so a few weeks before, we started studying the Civil War. Strawberry Festival coming up? We learn about fruits and how God provides even the smallest detail for his children, then we slap on the sunscreen and go pick strawberries. We just had the Helen Keller Festival play, the "Miracle Worker," super, went to the library checked our a book on Helen Keller and now she wants to learn sign language. Also instead of "curriculum" I let them "learn" from other sources. Subscribed her to Zoobooks so that becomes her science material. (She understands that secular scholars are um, misguided about evolution, so she just laughs that off, she is so funny). Highlights magazine becomes her reading/arts crafts, and World Geo for kids magazine her history. So that is how we homeschool during the summer. I even let her comic books count as reading, (at least she's not watching tv I tell myself). Of course we also do things just for fun that have nothing to do with learning at all like go to the dollar movie, picnics, and swimming. Haven't figured out how to tie that in yet, P.E. maybe? Lol.

[funmudder]

3 outta 5 kids went away for the last several weeks, so this year we took a summer break.

Most of the time we school year round with 4 day school weeks. :thumb