Monday, April 26, 2010

School and summer – do they mix?

This week’s Blog Cruise Question is:

Do you school during the summer?
What do you do?
Why or why not?

I really like to consider us year-round homeschoolers. We buy all our “stuff” for the next school year in the spring (usually at convention or online around that same time). I’ve always been a “school supply junkie” and I think I’ve passed this personality trait along to my kids because, once the new stuff is in the house, we’re all excited to get started using it!

So, as a general rule, we usually start school sometime in July – but we do a very relaxed schedule – maybe schooling only 2 or 3 days each week.  This gives us a slower start and a nice way to ease into the new year. 

Then, usually around the time the local public school starts up, we start doing a more serious daily schedule.  I always like being several weeks ahead of them by the time they get started.  It just feels good!

Also, during the summer months, we like to do as many field trips as we can. Following a July – June school schedule, anything that we do AFTER July 1st counts toward our new school year.  We use the field trip forms in The Schoolhouse Planner to keep track of our field trips.  I don’t add them into our daily plans until the end of the school year.  I know that sounds a little bit weird; but I’m all about getting those books finished, rather than worrying about how many days of school we have in.  When we add our field trips at the end of the year, we’re always OVER 180 days. 

We normally finish up our school year in late April or early May.  This year, due to some stressful situations during the year, we won’t be finished quite that early.  As a matter of fact, starting TODAY, we’re really cracking down on our school schedule.  The  goal is to get all the books finished up before we leave for Florida on the 21st of May.  I’m sure we can do it!

So, what about you?  Do you school through the summer or take a break?  I’m curious to know!  Be sure to find out what the rest of the Crew has to say about this topic by clicking on the Blog Cruise button above.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm laughing, again! All of my homeschool friends think I'm crazy because we always start school end of July/first of Aug. I love to be weeks ahead of the public system. Most years this allows us to be finished around the first of May but this year we will be done mid-May also.

I'm considering year round school because of all of the 4H projects we do in June. I may incorporate those into school some year.

Blessings!~
~H

Miss Janet said...

We do exactly like you!

2-3 days a week during summer.
We take as many field trips as we can.
We do take a week off here or there for lazy reasons.

Janet

Faithfully Free Blog said...

Wow! So glad to know I'm not the only one! When we decided to bring the boys back home for the next school year, the first thing DH said was "you know your not going to start early right?"! He knows how much I love to school! The only problem can be our state laws regarding cover schools!

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