Scheduling Summer

Posted by Barbara | 0 comments

If you are like our family, at the time of this writing, there are 69 days until school starts again. If that sounds overwhelming to you, then don’t get me started on how few days there are until Christmas!

Sixty-nine days is all at once a lot and not nearly enough days of rest and rejuvenation. Don’t you find that the kids who have been desperate for holidays all spring are bored and out of things to do by August 13th? And all those wonderful friendships in the neighbourhood that we hoped would blossom and grow over the summer break tend to actually wither and rot by the end of July? Maybe that’s not your reality. Maybe summer break for you is all about peace and domestic bliss and self-initiated chores. If so, you should write a book. I’d buy it.

Don’t get me wrong: summer, like the rest of the year, is generally a really smooth sail in our home. The kids get along with each other really well, and we all enjoy the break from the routine of school-books and assignments (and marking!)  However, every summer there comes a moment where it is quite glaringly obvious that we have all, myself included, had too much free, unstructured, un-educational time. The bad habits of the neighbours are wearing off on my kids, mild irritations with each other become a bit less mild, and we are all generally looking for a rudder to our boat. What to do? What to do?

On top of that, haven’t we all sat at the dining room table in September listening to our kids ask, “What’s 8 times 7 again?” and then bemoan the incredible lack of retention children suffer over a summer that is devoid of intellectual stimulation.

In light of all that, I have come up with a list of things I’d like to do with our kids this summer. These are a few of the things that I always mean to work into our fall schedule, but they often get bumped by the “real school” stuff of core subjects and easily gradable topics. Maybe you’ll want to try some of these too. Or maybe you have a list of resources you’d like to share in the comments below.

• We love words in our house. Really good words. Interesting words. Words that no one else knows how to use! Sometimes we (geek alert) read the dictionary. Or at least we pick one word from the “A’s” one day and learn it and use it, only to pick from “B” the next day. Nothing quite as cute as hearing a six year old say, “Well, that’s balderdash”. Do it. It is great fun and an easy way to build a vocabulary.

• My kids ADORE all things nature. A series of books we have loved using as a read-aloud and as fuel for nature journaling are the Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers. These short, simple, nicely illustrated books are great for car rides, rainy days, independent reading, or for carrying along on a hike to see what you can find in the woods. We’ll be pulling these off our shelves and leaving them on the coffee table for some spontaneous science classes.

• Another easy activity that won’t feel like “school” is listening to stories while colouring, so why not try the Color the Classics series? How much easier does music appreciation and knowledge of composers get than listening to a great piece of music, while reading a biographical sketch and colouring a picture! Love this series.

• Of course we can’t forget math, so why not listen to some memory work songs on the way to the cottage, or play Around the World with flashcards on a rainy day. You may be surprised at how much fun that is in July! And of course there is the “life-skills aspect” of the traditional lemonade stand. Let them “take out a loan” from you to buy the lemonade. Let them figure out a reasonable price per cup so that they can sell their product, pay you back, and still make a profit. This feels like an adventure, not an assignment.

• And if your kids really want their screen time this summer and don’t want to leave the computer, instead of all the other games they could play, get them hooked on the geography games at www.shepperdsoftware.com? They have more than just geography, but if you’ve ever looked at Knowledge Quest’s Globalmania e-book, you’ll be highly motivated to learn world geography by online games! Go check out www.knowledgequestmaps.com It is highly inspiring and the link to the free e-book is available there on their webpage.

• My favourite new resource that we are just about to jump in to is Focus on the Family’s summer curriculum called Kids Of Integrity. They have 16 free lessons with questions and crafts to spur your family on to Christ-likeness and lives of integrity. Doesn’t that just make your heart leap? I keep looking at the site and downloading the next lesson. We are ready to dive in to that!

Is this enough to fill your 69 days? Do you need more? What about all those lap-books you meant to do over the school year that never got finished? They feel like craft time, not school.

• What about acting out the books you are reading as a family?

• What about the Art in the Park and Fall Fair displays in your hometown? Go and discuss what you see, what you like and why.

• What about starting a Baking Club? Invite over a couple of your child’s friends from church and bake a batch of cookies once a week to give to someone at church. Be sure to double or triple the recipe, but make the kids do the math!

As in every area of life, being intentional about the goals we set and how we spend our days is the only way to ensure success. This summer could just go by with out event and we could all survive until September when we jump into a routine again, and that would be okay. Or we could have a new, flexible, light schedule over the summer (with lots of room for changes of plans and spontaneity!) that sets us up for a really great September, refreshed, but challenged, and ready to keep on learning!

How will you fill your days this summer?

Barbara Postma and her husband, as they homeschool their 7 children, are finding out that no two children are alike! Between lessons and lunches, Barbara blogs at Fuel by Barbara.