Ten Reasons to Homeschool Year Round
Posted in Homeschool View on Thursday, May 6, 2010
What are your plans for your homeschool family this summer? For many homeschool parents, a traditional three-month summer vacation brings a long-awaited freedom from lesson planning, book-cluttered tables, and hurried daily schedules.
However, here's a successful homeschool secret worth noting. Homeschooling year round can provide significant benefits that foster a love for learning and make homeschooling a much more enjoyable experience. Consider these ten reasons for changing to an alternative homeschool routine where learning never ends:
1. Avoid weeks of fall review. Let's face it. Summer has a way of stealing brain cells, and previously taught concepts are easily forgotten. Instead of taking time to re-teach educational facts like multiplication tables, the parts of speech, and scientific formulas, you'll be able to move forward faster with your child's well-honed skills.
2. Concentrate on weak areas or learning gaps. If your child is struggling in a particular subject area, summer is a great time for remedial review. Individual practice lessons and additional assignments can improve learning comprehension while building your child's confidence in his abilities.
3. Enhance strengths. Have a fast learner who wants more educational challenges? Homeschooling year round lets you stimulate mental processes with specialized summer lessons and field trips that take learning to the next level in his favorite subject.
4. Homeschool at your own pace. Year round homeschooling eliminates the pressure to rush through your curriculum in just nine months. After all, one of the greatest joys of homeschooling is providing your child with a customized learning experience. If something isn't working, you have plenty of time to switch your curriculum and find something that does work.
5. Enjoy indoor learning activities and hobbies. In many parts of the United States, summer months are simply too hot to go outside to play. Instead of suffering through the heat, these families can homeschool in air conditioned comfort during the summer and participate in outdoor adventures in the fall and winter.
6. Explore non-traditional courses of study. From jewelry making and water skiing to photography and horseback riding, summertime is a wonderful opportunity for you and your children to study fun-filled topics not usually found in your homeschool workbooks.
7. Get off-season rates. Beat the crowds, long lines, and hassles of the typical summer vacation spots. Homeschooling year round gives you the freedom to schedule your family's trip to get the best deals and front-row service at many museums, theme parks, zoos, and campgrounds.
8. Eliminate the back-to-school battle. A consistent, all-year homeschooling routine erases the need for transitioning your children back into study mode in the fall. Instead of wasting time fighting negative attitudes and reinforcing study disciplines, homeschool parents can keep their children positive and ready to learn by teaching through the summer.
9. Allow more flexibility. Homeschooling throughout the year lets you make room for unexpected illnesses, visitors, and emergencies, as well as moments for God's divine interruptions and special homeschooling surprises. Plus, if you want to take off extra days for birthdays and holidays, it's not a big deal to change your schedule. Just pick up where you left off when it's time to start homeschooling again.
10. Take advantage of curriculum discounts. Homeschooling year round helps parents avoid impulse purchases for homeschool resources. Instead, you have time to think, plan, and shop for homeschool materials when they are on sale at the best price.
Although it may seem like more work for you and torture to your children at first, learning year round is the best way to avoid homeschool burnout. So, why not try a new homeschooling routine? Make the most of your entire homeschool year and allow real life and your children's interests to start dictating your homeschool calendar!
Comments(12 comments)
SHARON M 05/06/2010 04:41:33
11. Better prepares students for the real world. The only job I know of where you get summers off is school teacher. Most people have to work year round, so it doesn't hurt to get in the habit early.
My highschoolers get summers off from school when they get a job.
ROSIA F 05/06/2010 06:28:30
It's amazing to me how much public education has influenced us. Sometimes, I find myself adhering to those philosophies, and know that they are the ones I fight so hard to remove from my home. I've home schooled for 13 years, I have an 18 year old in his second year of college, and I have 11 and 8 year olds at home. I pray that I have figured this out, and I have always schooled year round. My children don't know another way. It is their life. It is absolutely true that the love of learning is fostered by the mentality that there are no instiitutionalized 'breaks' from education. How foolish of systems to teach young minds to go on break. We all know that has not worked for our Nation. Lastly, it is so liberating to know that I don't have to rush through ANYTHING. As the article stated, one of the many reasons we school at home is the freedom it allows our children to not simply remember lessons, but rather to immerse themselves in their lessons and make that knowledge theirs. Paul teaches us to "seek knowledge" not simply during the cooler months. I encourage all of you to teach year round. Our Lord blesses all who seek to do His will.
TINA H 05/06/2010 09:00:12
To quote Rosia F
"..it is so liberating to know that I don't have to rush through ANYTHING."
This is so true. I have homeschooled for 10 years and this year we tried a virtural school, and let me tell you what a mistake this was! We were so tied down to getting through the work, encouraged by the certified teacher to rush and had work piled up to do weekends and as "homework". We were very unimpressed. It was all about pushing them through pages and worksheets. My kids did not enjoy learning at all. I disenrolled them after 5 months and am going back to our 'roots'- SOS. We, too, school year-round and make learning a part of our lives.
I guess my main message is do not take for granted the freedom you have as homeschoolers. Don't rush through the information. Savor it. We don't need to push our kids through a little hole, as public school does. If they are interested in something, examine it further. It doesn't matter if its summer or winter. True learning happens all year!
SUSY B 05/06/2010 11:42:28
In theory it sounds great. But what happens when they want to be with their non-homeschooled friends, though? I know my kids usually spend the summer going back and forth between our home and our friends' homes. They wouldn't be too happy about having to sit inside and do schoolwork when their friends were outside playing.
AMANDA B 05/06/2010 15:01:46
The institutionalized break from education became a tradition over a hundred years ago when it was simply expected that during the summer months, children were needed to help on the farm.
The great thing about homeschooling year round in my opinion is that because there is freedom from rushing, if kids want to do half the work in the summer they still have time to play with their friends. That is what the freedom is all about, they don't have to completely sacrifice that aspect of summer.
AMANDA B 05/06/2010 15:04:27
And in response to Sharon M, you are completely right! In our school district, only the teachers and administrators get the summer off. Cafeteria workers and other lesser-paid, non-union employees have to seek work simply because if they collect unemployment they will not be "invited" back to school that fall! It's ridiculous, I know. You do raise an excellent point, I will surely be cataloging that one for future use when people ask... :-)
virginia g 05/07/2010 20:03:54
This is my first time to comment.
We have always homeschooled year round, it works great for our family. We just take a day or two off when we want a break. We enjoy taking our vacation time when we want to, not during the hot summer months.
I find it really helps the children to remember better when we do not take long breaks.
They enjoy doing volunteer work with Red Cross Blood drives, serving at our towns food pantry, and helping out at church doing odd jobs. They get a lot of pleasure from helping others.
I think school and learning should be fun. We are pretty relaxed at our home. Many days we are at school in our pajamas. I like the kids to know that we are always learning wherever we are. I do not want them to feel like they must set at a desk for hours daily to learn.
Homeschool mom to two terrific teens... :-)
JENNIFER C T 05/20/2010 15:57:59
I've been thinking a lot about year round home-schooling for a while now. Coming out of the the public school system I have seen what a summer off can do to some kids! I always wished parents would have done a little something with their kids! Now I have the opportunity but I'm almost in burnout! I brought the good and the bad home when I left the public school system! The positive side is education & experience as I worked in a variety of areas over the years to include dealing with special needs/modification to working with the highly gifted at three different schools. The negative side is I am a stickler for routines, staying in your seat, keeping quiet while doing independent work, and the like. Studies in the core subjects are done at certain times, we have routines, a set lunch time, a set recess & PE time, a time set aside for life skills...so forth and so on! I often feel a bit cursed b/c if it weren't for my experience in the public school system I probably wouldn't be so hung up on routine! If i don't stick to this (one may call mundane) way of schooling, I feel like I am failing to give my kids as great an education as what they would get at public school! and I know that is just crazy! I pulled them out to get them away from all of it and what do I do... put them back into that! I'm praying God will release me so to speak... i'm up for trying something new! year-round...and in pj's! lol! i wouldn't dare! we dress to our toes! always got our shoes on and ready to go! but maybe i do need to try PJs one day! :o) could be a first step to something awesome! can i make them wear slippers at leas?t! lol!
REBEKAH P 06/03/2010 07:48:33
I have children ages 8 & 3. We're going into our 3rd year of homeschooling & we take summers off. At this young age-it works for us. We get season passes to the water park, the zoo & visit lots of free events for kids in & around town. We still work on a little math here & there & lots of reading through summer reading programs. Kids are only kids once so I want them to enjoy the time off in the summer. I so enjoy looking back at the days of being a kid & being carefree during the summer months. I don't want to take that a way from my kids at this point. I'm not saying I'm stuck on one way-but for now that's what works for us :-)
JENNIFER C T 08/06/2010 04:18:50
I scheduled my year, and though I had some ideas about year round homeschooling, I didn\'t have the heart to work my schedule that way! And, Rebekah P, what you posted... I was thinking the same thing! We definitely enjoyed our summer this year! We did do some math here and there and lots of reading, but we had plenty of fun going here there and yonder and hanging by the pool! I just don\'t think I am ready to give that up either! :O)
SHELLEY M 08/18/2010 06:19:36
I\'m in my 13th year of home-schooling. We tried to do year-round, because it truly does make more sense. But we own an art supply store where we do summer art camps for kids. Summers are busy for us because of that. The kids are needed at the store during these busy months and I often need to work too. I guess, even though it\'s a great idea, summer schooling doesn\'t work for everyone. It\'s a good thing we can learn when it suits us!
LISA GIANNOTTI 05/15/2013 17:21:04
In reply to Susy about kids hanging out with their schooled friends: being flexible in the summer is key. We school year-round as well and we take so much time off in the summer for VBS or playdates or day trips. You can always lighten their schoolwork in the summer so they only have 30 mins of school and then the whole day to play with their friends. For us, we often do school at night for my ADHD son, who seems to focus better after dinner. When we do it in the a.m., though, they get it done quickly so they can have the day to themselves. It works. They balance both quite nicely.