Homeschooling When It's Summer

I saw a friend the other day who schools all summer long and their family takes off all of November and December. I really, really like that idea. I’m sure the holidays are slower and cozier and more family-oriented that way. But all of me wants to be off when the sun is shining. If it’s raining and cold outside, I’d rather be inside doing other things… like learning and creating things.

That’s not to say that summer isn’t a GREAT time for learning because it is. I like to think that we just learn in different ways in the summer. For instance, the library summer reading program just began on Friday. One of my kids has already read for nine hours. The other for four. That reading time is priceless for them in so many ways.

The boys began swim lessons today. Next week they will do a sport/VBS camp at a friend’s church. Other weeks the boys are signed up for basketball, rock climbing and even Tae Kwon Do on Fridays. These are learning opportunities that aren’t offered during the day in a typical school year. So, we soak them up in the summer and they think they are just having fun.

So, perhaps we actually do “school” year-round. But the point of this endeavor is not to compartmentalize our education into seasons, but to learn how to learn every day of the year. For us, home schooling doesn’t really stop in the summer -- it just looks different.