How can I homeschool in the summer?

I get asked this question a lot by my friends…

Do you homeschool in the summer?

20130515-195936.jpgThe answer is Yes, I do because if I stopped during the summer I would be sending the message that it is ok to stop learning.  I don’t use a curriculum, a schedule, a calendar, we don’t take tests, and we don’t do workbook sheets.  The biggest one of all is –  we don’t do crazy projects, we all know that the younger our children are the more we as parents end up doing because it’s easier for parents to just do it, and it makes them look good and the parents want there kids to get good grades.  Really what parent doesn’t want their child to achieve good grades and succeed. I don’t care about grades, my kids make straight A’s.  I laugh when my friends talk about their kids making honor roll. What does that really mean – that they test well.  As a child I hated tests and did awful on them, I would study for days and fail, and it would disappoint my parents, and myself, my esteem would be down and it would make me depressed.

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20130501-181859.jpgOk I am rambling, let get back on topic.  I love unschooling mainly because my kids love, yes LOVE school.  They enjoy learning, they love to learn about things around them.  SO back to the very first question.  Yes, I unschool my children during the summer and believe it or not we do all the fun exciting things normal kids are going to do this summer but I count them as school days.  Ok not really because I stopped counting school days last year.  We go to school 365 (366 on a leap year) days a year.  As long as the girls are enjoying what we are doing we keep going it and I push them to find more information and discover more things.

Here is how to homeschool during the summer – do our top 50 activities…

  1. Swimming
  2. camping
  3. Learn about ants — check out our ant farm project
  4. make a tent
  5. read – we read 30 minutes a day –
  6. do educational app on our Apple iPad 2
  7. play animal Jam
  8. go on a walk
  9. make clay jewelry
  10. play soccer
  11. lemonade stand – we made $25 our first day
  12. Fold origami
  13. go to the library
  14. make a solar oven – cook s’mores
  15. go on a picnic
  16. plant flowers
  17. tie dye
  18. camp in the living room
  19. go geocaching
  20. go cloud watching
  21. fashion show
  22. water gun math
  23. go scavenger hunt at Fort Pulaski
  24. Go to the Zoo
  25. take a bike ride
  26. play a board game
  27. go watch a movie at the movie theater
  28. read a book – then rent the movie – see the difference (Harry Potter)
  29. puppet show
  30. tour a factory
  31. play tourist – learn history from Historical signs
  32. fly a kite
  33. make paper airplanes
  34. make homemade ice-cream
  35. go to a museum
  36. take pictures
  37. make more fairy houses
  38. go fishing
  39. make a cardboard box castle
  40. feed the ducks
  41. play “I Spy”
  42. go star-gazing
  43. paint
  44. do Brain POP learn about an artist, or art movement
  45. build with legos
  46. Go Six Flags
  47. Blow Bubbles
  48. Go to Botanical Gardens
  49. Start learning French (again)
  50. See my Cousins from France

 

About Chrissie

Follow our crazy journey across America as we visit roadside oddities, historical land marks and beautiful landscapes. I have ton of ideas and review educational products that will help you get the most on your home school adventure. We are an Unschool family that believes the world is our classroom and is teaching our children to self direct their education to a better future.

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