Summer School or Year-Round Homeschooling
June 30, 2010 > 4 Comments
I have noticed this year that when our children mention the fact that they’ve “done school” this summer or that they “don’t get a summer break” it evokes sympathetic looks and comments from well-meaning friends, family and acquaintances.
I can understand why people would feel sorry for them, as it does seem to elicit mental pictures of our children gazing longingly out the window at children playing ball in the streets while they work yet another long division problem and no end in sight. But I can assure you that while they *do* have to do math it’s not quite as tedious as it sounds.
We have come to like the idea of year-round schooling for various reasons, some of which I will share with you here, but probably my favorite reason for having our children do “summer school” is the freedom it affords us the rest of the year. During the fall, when the weather is soooooo very nice here in the mountains of TN, our children love to go outside from morning until night and I am happy for them to take the day off of school to do so, and because we did lessons during the summer there is no fear of falling behind. Also, we are able to be a bit more spontaneous with our schedule such as when my husband unexpectedly gets a day off or they are invited to a play-date or even an unexpected illness; we aren’t worried that they’ve missed school that day.
- More flexibility to take off spontaneously.
- There is no re-learning period at the beginning of each year.
Young children especially don’t retain as much with such a long break. I read somewhere that it takes up to 6 weeks for a child to get back in the groove of school and remember/relearn what was taught the previous year. - Prevents boredom.
When children are motivated to get their work done because they want their free-time, free-time means a whole lot more. Very rarely do our children say they are bored. They’ve earned their free-time and it means something to them. Free-time is not a right they have; it is a gift, a privilege, something you work for. A lesson it would do us adults as well to learn! - Field Trips and vacations are less crowded, more family friendly and cheaper.
When most people are waiting in lines at amusement parks having paid summer admission costs, sweating and listening to whining children ask for drinks, we are able to take the same trips to the same places in the fall when it is much more pleasant and the whole family enjoys it and we can afford it. - Students can get ahead.
My two oldest children are about a year ahead of their “official” grade due to the fact that we have done year-round schooling in the past. - Real-life training – Prepares them for adulthood.
One of our main goals in raising our children is to raise them to be adults and not to foster the “let children be children” mentality. Too often I see teenagers shirking their responsibilities of becoming an adult and wanting to keep their childish habits, hobbies, interests and mentality because that’s all they’ve known. Now, am I blaming a summer break on this problem – NO! But I see it as one of the ways our family can teach our children that in the real life of “adult world” you don’t get “breaks” from work. You learn to enjoy your work and have fun when your work is done. - Teaches them that learning is not something you “take a break” from.
The best way I know to teach our children the love for learning is to teach them that learning is a part of life – one of the fun parts hopefully! And something we shouldn’t stop or break from. What am I teaching my children if I tell them, “OK kids. We’ve learned for 6 months now it’s time for a BREAK! We won’t try to learn anything for a couple of months.” I wouldn’t think I was doing a very good job in teaching my children to love learning. Reminds me of an illustration I heard one time – What would my husband think if I said, “Honey, I love you, I really do. But I am going to take a break from you for a couple of months…you know to rest and recuperate from just – YOU!” Wouldn’t be communicating that I loved him very much would it?
Now, as I mentioned earlier they are not all sitting for hours on end working endless math problems. I do try to make school / learning a bit more fun and interesting. They do work on a lighter schedule than they do in the traditional school months, but enough to keep them working ahead and allow me the peace of mind when our schedule doesn’t allow for deep study at other times of the year.
And if year-round schooling doesn’t appeal to you – that’s OK! It’s one of the beauties of homeschooling – to each his own!
Happy schooling!
This post linked to Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT family.
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Design By Joy 2009
June 30th, 2010 @ 6:33 pm
It’s so hot here in the summers we can’t get out and do anything, so schooling year round allows us to enjoy the outside when it’s truly enjoyable. Plus taking many small breaks instead of one long break helps prevent burnout. My kids still get to do things with friends or go to camps in the summer and we just rearrange our schedule to accomodate, we can do school in the evenings or on saturdays if need be. We love it!
July 1st, 2010 @ 3:57 am
We homeschool year-round as well. Summer is 116º here, cooling to 104º late at night, so summer means going inside for us (June through the beginning of October). We do take some time off while I can and when I make Christmas presents. We also take off lovely days hewre and there and go outside! Having school year-round is also a blessing whenever a new baby is born in our family; if I take a little time off after the baby is born, I know we will still get our work done.
July 1st, 2010 @ 8:36 pm
Great post! This was our first year of homeschooling and we’ve decided to work throughout the summer as well. I decided that early on, and it allowed us to work at a slower pace as we got used to everything. I’m only doing K/1st grade, so it’s pretty low-key, but I love your reasons because I know I’ll be getting questions about this at some point too.
Thanks for sharing!
July 9th, 2010 @ 3:23 pm
Amen…people ask how long I’ve homeschooled and I always say that we’ve always “home-schooled” Your kids learn all day and everyday, it never really stops. Year round schooling really makes sense, homeschooling is usually so laid back that you dont have to feel rushed to get everything in before June, July and August. Schooling year round makes it easy to transition into a “new” year and allows us to take breaks as our family needs it. Love that you’re back to blogging. Hope you get to feeling better…