is an author, publisher at Media Angels, Inc. and podcaster at Vintage Homeschool Moms and creator of the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network and Ultimate Christian Podcast Network. She blogs at Home for Learning, and enjoys learning alongside her children. She has homeschooled since 1986 and has five children, four graduated. Felice and her husband Jeff live in sunny, Southwest Florida.
The idea of year-round-homeschooling does not appeal to me, nor my kids. However, in year’s past we did manage to school through the summer due to learning issues that once remediated, needed constant practice to keep from sliding back. To sandwich the rote learning with fun activities that teach, we schooled during the summer, in an unconventional manner. We used academic anchors, for example: science, art, music and history, to use as a base for our studies.
Simple and fun projects teach the children more than text book learning. Why? Because when the children are having fun they learn naturally and they will ask for more projects, because it stimulates their curiosity. For example, for little ones struggling with math concepts many moms love the idea of using candy to count, or use to subtract. I used another method to get the child out of their chairs and into the thinking mode. I numbered blank sheets of paper with numbers from one to twenty. I had the children place the numbers in order, and then handed them a sheet of number facts. Try a small amount, like ten to a page. (This is done by design, so the children will ask for more!) Then have the child solve the problem by standing on the first number and counting forward (or backward) to solve the equation.
You can use paper airplanes to explain aerodynamics and wind resistance, bubbles to explain surface tension, pond life to explain ecosystems, baking soda and vinegar for chemical reactions. Give a child a magnifying glass and the outdoors and see what they find, document this in a science journal. Use fingerprints and watercolor based ink pads to create fun animal creatures. Use paper and those old crayons that are broken and have the kids color all over the paper and very hard and dark. Cover this with black crayon. Give them a coin or a broken pencil to etch a design—so the colors beneath show up on the top. Or take a white sheet of paper and paint it black. Then use vibrant colors like yellow, red, orange and lime green to create an abstract.
Then there are all those field trips that you don’t have time for in the school months. Day trips are a wonderful idea and easy on the budget. Trips can include the dairy farm, your local grocery store, a petting zoo, the beach, a hike, or camping (try camping in your backyard for beginners). Once you’ve taken a trip, let’s say to a dairy farm, you can make creamery butter. Purchase cream, place it in a clean mason jar and have the children take turns shaking it –pour off the liquid (whey) and what is left is a mound of pure butter—yum!
Or use the summer to start a low-budget garden. Plant basil, thyme, oregano or any herb you may use in baking. Share your harvest with neighbors or freeze. I grow most of my basil in the spring and summer months and freeze it for the winter. I can’t imagine cooking without it. And, cooking is a great summer hobby to teach your children. My children can all cook well – a prerequisite for high school graduation in my home.
Whatever you decide, use the academic school subjects and plan activities around them – it can be three times a week or more. Give your children time to think. I believe many times children are so scheduled they do not have time to think – an epidemic of the digital world in which we live. Our children can benefit from summer learning with well-constructed parent-or-student led studies. Just be sure to savor your time together, it goes fast!
