This is the quick notes in written form of our podcast on February Slumps! If you’d like to listen to the full talk, please find us in your podcast app!
Both Meghan and I school year round. Her family takes December off, my family takes July off. Other than that, it is close to business as usual. There are many out there who question if going through the summer for school could benefit their family. This is our thoughts on it!
What is a summer break? You are playing in the pool and camping. You are reading a book and doing nothing else. No education is accomplished. Just having fun and no education is happening! That is what we call a “break”.
What’s close to a break, but more like active rest? When you are hiking, instead of just talking and hanging out, you take the time to point out leaf shapes, ask about what kind of dirt you are walking on, and what animals are indigenous to the area while singing the 50 states song.
What is continuing on with school? Your normal day or you do block scheduling. You’ve put off science during the standard school year so that you can study botany in great depth in the summer when everything is growing.
Answer these questions to decide if schooling through the summer is right for your family.
- What’s the weather like? Do you live in the south where the summers can be brutal? Then do school in the summer so you can enjoy your mild winters! Or vice versa for those Midwestern states!
- Have you honestly completed the required work by legal state standards? Each state is different in their homeschooling laws. Have you covered all the material the state has set out for you?
- Have your kids completed the work you and your spouse set out to accomplish? If you know in your heart of hearts that you’ve had a little too much fun at the park this Spring and didn’t complete the work you should have; then keep working! When we are honest with ourselves, it doesn’t take another person or a published checklist to know if we have completed an appropriate amount of school. Just like some kids need to take summer school in the public education system, we too may need to work through the summer if life got in the way of school this year.
We aren’t being too academic. We are training our children to have a great work ethic.
- Is it worth the routine upheaval? You know if your kid will benefit from the break, then great! But if September is a battleground due to months of a break and the schedule upheaval that comes with it then maybe a break may not be worth the stress of retraining the routine.
