i was reading a post earlier and it seems like everyone was refrencing their long summer break. do you all take the whole summer off? what about christmas and spring breaks? do you just fall in with your local schools so they are off with other kids? we lighten the load a little in the summer and take a week off here and a week off there for vacation and camp and just because, but not any formal set of dates like june 1 to spet.1 or anything like that.
We USUALLY do not take the whole summer off, but because I went for 3 weeks to Kenya, and our family did some traveling to visit and other things, we didn't get the usual schooling in. We lighten the load over the summer. The main thing I have them do over the summer is math. Those skills are so easily lost that I try to keep it fresh enough in their memory that we can continue to advance, not start way back where they were half-way through last "school year"! We've done well working that way---until this summer. We do the same thing for Christmas and Spring breaks. We lighten the load for a few days but try to get some stuff done. We sort of go by our local Christian school's schedule. That's the school the kids would be in if they went to school, and they know lots of the kids there.
I have been wondering what we should do here since we have two sons in public school and two daughters being homeschooled. I guess we will go by the public schools vacations and days off but we will have to do some in the summer to keep them from forgetting everything in math. I am glad you brought this up Connie. I want to see how most people here do with their kids. Beth
If we are home we school. Summer tends to be a lighter load just because there is more going on during the summer with VBS and Creative Arts Camp but...I like being able to take a week vacation whenever I want or can.
We take the whole summer off because my dh runs his organizations camp and the whole family goes with him for 8 weeks. We do not take the typical Christmas or Spring breaks. Here the schools actually get a week in Oct. and a week at Thanksgiving, too. We just take the days off we need during the rest of the year.
We had to take the day off yesterday to go to a major hospital about an hour from here so my youngest could see her plastic surgeon. I felt like we were still doing school because while we waited we were talking about how the hospital is run, naming all the different jobs we could think of, and the part volunteers play at a large teaching hospital. We got wonderful news from the doctor, no surgery this year!!! But we found out she can't yell. He says yelling will increase her need for surgery in the future and even cheering on Sat. nights at the football game is not good. She had practice last night and her coach says she can just fake it and still cheer. I was so pleased that the lady was nice about it. After doctor visits we went to Barnes and Nobel and had a ball. Spent too much, but love what we got. I finally got my wooden puzzle map of the US that I have been wanting and we love it! Sorry, I got off the subject there. Beth
Beth, Thank the lord, I hope your daughter will be ok. Wow, I am so glad you found the wooden puzzle I have been looking for one too. We don't really stop learning, Thats one good thing about homeschooling no matter where you are you are teaching the children like if I give the lady this money at the store how much will I get back, or if we travel we try and make it fun and educational. So, about time off hmmmmm what is that. LOL we do take it easier for the summer though.
Kris, I think I am getting better at just taking it easy and letting them learn. I am not so sure Crystal likes that though. At the grocery store I had her figure out it a large box of noodles at regular price or the two for $1.18 of the boxes that were half the size. She couldn't believe I was going to make her really answer me. I really enjoyed that trip for groceries! Makes me realize that living and learning are one and the same. Emily is going to be fine and I appreciate you thinking of her. She will always have to be checked during the growing years and lots of dental work ahead but we are so blessed to have had her come into our family. Beth
Beth, That is wonderful news. I agree my dd had a hard time too, when we started this at the store they looked at me like I lost something. LOL
My kids are used to the grocery store questions now. In fact, they now figure it our on their own. I'll send the boys down the aisle to get something, and they'll come back and tell me that this one was this much for this many ounces, and the other one seemed cheaper, but then they noticed that it had fewer ounces, etc. So not only are they doing the math and picking the lowest price, but they're learning about grocery store "tricks".
we take breaks as we need them. Such as when daddy has the day off. We do have a lighter summer schedule. We do math drills, 30 minutes of reading, devotions, and then we add something we are interested in.
We also just take breaks as we need them, I only have this past year of experience, but I plan to keep on doing it that way in the future. We moved this past spring, so we didn't use her workbooks at all during that time. We still found educational opportunities though, ended up being unschooling for us during those months. . . . Once we got settled around May/June, we went back to the workbooks and just kept on through the summer.
this is our first year so Im not sure but we do usually take a vacation in the spring when I get my tax return..Im hoping to go to Fla again next spring.
I am one that has kinda worked our homeschooling around the public school days off. We have done half days on some of the days off. We have been taking the summer and Christmas and spring break off too. My son was in public school til 3rd grade and this gives him a chance to get together with some of his friends. Until this year I never noticed a need to do much review but for some reason this year he needs it. I think next summer we will do some math practice. Other wise I will let him do his own thing. ( motor work, crafts, building and such.)
We don't break for summer but we do lots of projects then, watching caterpillers turn tobutterflies, going to the story times and plays, Summer museum activities etc. We take LAbor Day week off because it's my family reunion, We'll take Christmas week through New years week, Thanksgiving and all the other holidays get extra days off. then if we are just tired or grumpy or sick or whatever we can skip school that day and rest. Like today, I didn't sleep last night and was tired. Sami was grumpy and didn't want to do anything so I declared it "Napping Day" and we both spent all the time we would have done schoolwork asleep!
Yep, that's another beauty of hsing---they learn faster with more one-on-one, you can do schools on days that other kids don'e, but you can also take a day off without "getting behind"!
We finish up our homeschool year the end of May. The month of June the kids take kids college classes at our local junior college, attend VBS, and spend a week at camp. The month of July the boys have to do reading assignments on a daily basis but other than that we do not have any set schooling. The county fair is the beginning of August and we like to visit there and study different things relating to the county and agriculture. Once the fair is over (mid-August) we start back up with the official start of our homeschool year. We take days off when we need them but we do not have a set Christmas, winter, and spring break- we just take off the days we need.
