When we began homeschooling a few years ago, it was like trying to pull teeth to get my son (then 5 years old) to “do school.” At the end of the academic school year I felt we had finally found a rhythm to our homeschool day and I was NOT about to let all my hard work go down the drain. Not only that, but we were right in the midst of learning to read and I wanted to keep making progress.
So I decided to homeschool through the summer … and I didn’t hate it! It provided a structure for our day, and the kids seemed happier, not to mention, we learned more! We have schooled every summer since, and I love the atmosphere it has created in our home. Here’s 7 reasons why you should considering homeschooling year round too.
7 Reasons to Homeschool Year Round
- Provides a predictable rhythm for your day
- No summer induced academic amnesia
- No wasted time reviewing every fall
- Slow and steady progress
- Greater flexibility
- Creates a culture of constant learning
- Less stress
Predictable Rhythm
Ever notice kids behave much better when they know what to expect and are given meaningful work everyday? When my children expect school to happen on a daily basis, they don’t argue about school time. They know it is non-negotiable. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and when my children have school to do, it means less mischief.
Academic Amnesia
When kids don’t constantly review what they are learning, it is so easily forgotten. Continuing with our schoolwork year round means my children don’t forget what they’ve learned throughout the year.
Less Review
This follows from the above point. Many beginning chapters of math books and other curriculum can be completely skipped when you school year round. Skipping review lessons makes it even easier to get ahead.
Steady progress
Even if we need to slow down when a concept is hard to grasp, I don’t need to worry about it. We just keep plugging away and eventually conquer even the tough stuff. We should always be teaching for mastery in our homeschool and year round homeschooling helps tremendously. I find we accomplish a lot more in our year round homeschooling even with lots of review and extra practice.
Greater Flexibility
Don’t think I’m too hard on my kids; we can and do take breaks. We drop the books to visit family and when the weather is beautiful. AND I don’t feel guilty doing so!
Culture of Constant Learning
Schooling year round means our children are used to learning constantly. Creating lifelong learners should be a main goal in any educational setting.
Stress Less
The flexibility that year round homeschooling affords (as well as all the other points stated above) means this mama stresses a lot less about checklists though we accomplish just as much if not more!
Some people do Sabbath schooling (6 weeks on, 1 week off), and there are lots of other methods to year round homeschooling. Here is what has worked for our family in our year round homeschool.
Our Year Round School
Summer
We accomplish the 4 R’s (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, and Religion) about 4 days a week. We continue to work through our math curriculum and penmanship workbook. My older students have their Intentional Catholic Booklist they read through daily during our family’s quiet hour, even during the summer. Family devotions are always a constant though the material and format may morph over time.
Anything else we accomplish school-wise is just gravy. We occasionally drop the books for a couple days and simply enjoy the beautiful weather in our backyard. After all, living in the Midwest means we have to soak up the sun while we can get it.
Academic year
During the traditional school year, we add in all those “extra” subjects like Grammar, Composition, Spelling, and History, among others. Our summer school allows me greater flexibility even in the winter months because we generally are ahead of where we need to be.
Want to see more of what we are using? Here is a post I did on our curriculum choices this year (2015).
(UPDATE: We now use a boxed curriculum for our homeschool curriculum. You can see why we made that choice here, and how we summer school after the change.)
Do you summer school?
