Summer is my favorite season. When I hear the word, my mind drifts to our beach vacation, memories of my kids running through the sprinkler, late nights enjoying the long days, and all things swimming! But come August, I often regret not doing more schoolwork during the summer — for good reason. Statistically, students who do not spend a portion of their summer learning and practicing skills will, on average, lose two reading levels and forget an equivalent of one month of the skills they mastered the previous year. If you choose not to do summer homeschooling, you may find yourself whining “I want my month back” come fall! That’s why we do homeschooling during the summer. Because, well, I work too hard during the year (and so do my kids!) to let summer slide win. Here are four ways to do homeschooling during the summer without sacrificing your fun-filled days.
A little goes a long way. Studies show that only 2-3 hours per week are needed to maintain your child’s placement and beat summer slide. That’s 30-45 minutes of summer homeschooling per day. I spend more time folding laundry! The easiest way to accomplish this is through Summer Bridge books, or a grade-level-equivalent packet. Make sure the worksheets cover math, reading, and writing. We make a game out of it to encourage participation and keep the grumping to a minimum. I break it down into 2-3 pages per day to cover the summer for each of my children. Then, if everyone completes their weekly work by Thursday, we spend Friday hiking, going to the pool, or crossing off an item from our Summer Bucket List as a reward. Sweeten the deal and they’re sure to jump on board.
Try homeschooling for the first time. If you’re new to homeschooling, homeschooling during the summer is a great idea. You will get a taste of how your kids will react to you as the teacher, learning at home, homeschooling curriculum, etc. I recommend spending a few hours each morning learning together and only covering the basic subjects like math, reading, and writing skills. Make trips to the library a part of your weekly routine to encourage learning about fun subjects (Hello, science and social studies) through reading. Trust me; they’ll pick up more than you can imagine without needing “curriculum.” And try out these hands-on summer learning ideas to boost your portfolio.
Take an online class. Yes, there are online classes that you can sign up for during the summer months. This is one of the best aspects of summer homeschooling! This strategy is great for a high school student who needs extra time and support in one subject (geometry was my nemesis!) or wants to get the hard-to find-credits, like public speaking or a laboratory science, out of the way before the school year starts. Credit recovery is another great reason to take an online class during the summer. Your student will have more time to spend focusing on the subject, which will lend itself to greater success the second time around.
Tackle STEM. I have to be honest: while I do love science, I am not an experiment Mom. Usually, the experiments are done when Daddy gets home. The time it takes to set them up, find the materials, then go through the process, while making sure to teach the scientific method, seems daunting in the middle of an already hectic school day, with athletic practices looming in the afternoon. But summer is a different story! Why not spend summer completing a STEM project or experiment each day? Log your hours, write up lab reports, draw outcomes and conclusions in a lab notebook, and — voila! Summer homeschooling with STEM fun just became ¼ of your science credit for the year. Here are a few great summer STEM project ideas from a previous blog post.
Summer homeschooling using one of these strategies just might be the best decision you’ve made this spring. Because let’s face it, if we can eliminate re-teaching long division, we should! The best part is that your kids will thank you when your transition back into the normal school routine is easier and more natural in the fall. Enjoy your summer!
5 Comments
Ashley Wright
Thanks, Kimberly
The post is really great!!, being a mother of 2 and also have just started homeschooling them, these blogs really help me out in scheduling things out, doing new things, having some variety in studies. So keep writing such blogs.
Lisa
My daughter is currently protesting summer school, but I feel it’s 100% needed. On her standardized test, math, social studies, science and spelling were all 1.5 to 3 grade levels ahead, but she bomed language arts, grammar and reading comprehension. The last one was expected, though slightly lower than I thought it’d be at just over half a year behind “grade level”. Language arts and language mechanics both nearly an entire grade level ahead. Since those scores don’t match what I’ve seen her do on a daily basis, I initially thought she may have gotten tied and just marked anything at random to get it done. After some investigating I learned she may not have “marked randomly” as she struggled over things that should be really easy.
So began summer school to catch the gaps & maintain her skills in her stronger subjects. We don’t go more than 3 – 4 hrs a wk. Worst case, she’ll begin next year a little behind in language arts before moving into the next grade level book to make sure she’s ready rather than pushing her into work she isn’t ready for. Beauty of homeschool right there, she can work where she needs to be not where some random people decided ___ graders should be (or making her totally repeat a grade due to the deficit when she’s far ahead in over half the subjects)
Val
We were already in the habit of doing math 3x/week (Mon/Wed/Thurs usually for an hour each day) during the school year, so we’ve kept Math Mondays going during the summer and it has been working well so far. As for language arts, I downloaded Editor-in-Chief onto their ipads and ask them to spend about 20 mins a week on it (they have been choosing to do it also on Mondays after math so they get everything done in one day and have the rest of the week for play).
They are still asked to read every week, and have been doing a chapter book almost every week (some weeks get too busy with family summer activities and trips).
As for STEM, they have been playing with their Circuits Jr. set a bit. They have been playing games like Minecraft as well, and my son has been learning how to code in scratch all on his own.
For us, I feel the one-day-a-week has been enough to keep their head in the game, keep skills fresh, and even make slow progress in those areas. I can’t imagine doing lesson work every single day in the summer. Kids (and parents) still need a break and time to just be kids and enjoy the beautiful weather.
Naphtalee Stutzman
Great ideas, thank you for sharing!
Kristina
I have been having a rough time with both of my kids being home from school, and definitely need some things to do to keep them occupied and not fighting. Thank you for the great ideas! I came across another great read worth looking into, https://www.ez.insure/landing/2020/05/summer-school-success/ .What do you think about it?