Do You Do "Summer Vacation?"

532 Views 14 Replies 14 Participants Last post by applejuice, Jun 12, 2005

MrsMoe

Discussion Starter · Jun 9, 2005

My husband and I are thinking of skipping the standard "summer vacation" and just doing as we normally do, except give her Friday's off for more fun stuff OR sending her to a Summer Camp organized by a university - where she will be learning and having fun with other kids.

We think a few months off isn't so great and skills are lost. I was thinking of using the summer months to test her skill level, brush up and review.

Curious as to how you mom's who have been doing it a while plan on doing things. Any of you try these Summer Camps?

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UnschoolnMa

· #2 · Jun 9, 2005

We unschool so we don't really see summer time as anything different than the rest of the year....just warmer :LOL.

I do know that there are many homeschool families who just carry on as usual in the summer months though.

I think a day camp can be fun if the kid is into it.

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Houdini

· #3 · Jun 9, 2005

We are new to homeschooling starting in the fall. I have heard of people having school for six weeks and taking two weeks off year round. Most of the people I know who homeschool take the summer off. I have always had school stuff through the summer even though my crew was in public schools. They have a specified amount of reading time during the day (though they have moved to bedtime to read as they stay up later). We also work on math skills and writing skills through the summer so they don't lose what they gained through the year. We do take a couple of weeks to just goof off with nothing school related other than reading.

Sasha_girl

· #4 · Jun 9, 2005

We do a loose Waldorf-style here. In the summer we loosen up even more until we do circle time once every other day, shorter "lesson" time, etc.

We haven't actually stopped, but it we take a week off here or there nobody complains.

oldcrunchymom

· #5 · Jun 9, 2005

We mostly unschool but, no, the kids don't stop learning during the summer.

candipooh

· #6 · Jun 9, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by lckrause
We mostly unschool but, no, the kids don't stop learning during the summer.

Ditto to that. MOSTLY unschool. There is some weeks that we don't do much of anything and some weeks we do a lot. We will continue this during the summer.

KimberMama

· #7 · Jun 9, 2005

We're planning a break, as is recommended by Enki. Half of that will be a total break, and half will be planning time for me. But they never stop learning, so I consider it 3 months of unschooling rather than a real break. I'll follow their lead; DS#1 is asking for some reading instruction so we may do some of that. They have a few workbooks that they like to drag out every couple of weeks. We go to the museum when the fancy strikes us. We'll cook, clean, grocery shop, and do laundry. And we'll keep up with our circle time and painting.

Peace,

Kimberly

Sasha_girl

· #8 · Jun 9, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by KimberMama
But they never stop learning, so I consider it 3 months of unschooling rather than a real break.

Us too! I love elements of unschooling and elements of Waldorf, so it's cool to blend them some. Add in the lovely weather and a garden that grows more everyday and we're having a good time!

Sammsma

· #9 · Jun 10, 2005

We learn year round.

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Brisen

· #10 · Jun 11, 2005

In the winter & hottest part of the summer (curse you humidity!) we do more studying (well, I study & read to the kids; the kids listen & play). In the spring and fall, we have more work and spend more time outside, so less time for studying, but we still do family reading time every day.

AngelBee

· #11 · Jun 11, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sammsma
We learn year round.

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2

Charles Baudelaire

· #12 · Jun 11, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsMoe
My husband and I are thinking of skipping the standard "summer vacation" and just doing as we normally do, except give her Friday's off for more fun stuff OR sending her to a Summer Camp organized by a university - where she will be learning and having fun with other kids.

We think a few months off isn't so great and skills are lost. I was thinking of using the summer months to test her skill level, brush up and review.

Curious as to how you mom's who have been doing it a while plan on doing things. Any of you try these Summer Camps?

I think it's very foolish to lay off learning during the summer. It's actually one of the reasons I think year-round school is a good idea for the public schools. When there are three months or so in which all knowledge has a chance to evaporate without reinforcement, you waste time in the fall playing a game of catch-up and review. What a waste! Why not just reinforce as you go and make progress??

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Lillian J

· #13 · Jun 12, 2005

My son is grown, so I can speak with 20/20 vision on this. We never thought of learning as something that was turned on or off at certain times, but we didn't do "school" either. He excelled when he started taking college classes locally, got a remarkable SAT score, and now he's heading off to a four year college that has given him an unsolicited scholarship. This isn't to brag at all - this is to say that you don't need to be doing school activities year 'round in order for them to be very successful lifelong learners who can get into good colleges, etc. He didn't forget things he'd learned because of having lots of breaks - he just kept on learning in bits and pieces as he grew.

When he was asked on a homeschool grad panel what he'd do differently if he could redo his whole homeschooling experience, the one comment he made was that he wished we'd known from the beginning how much faster and easier learning about any subject is if you just wait till later years rather than wasting all that time in the earlier years studying things that could be covered later in weeks instead of years. I just told this story in another thread. There was a loud burst of laughter and applause from the front center rows where a lot of his homeschool grad friends were sitting with their parents - they had all been there/done that, and agreed wholeheartedly! An article about our story...

I think it would be unnecessarily hard on a child to have to be in doing schoolwork while neighbors and friends were out playing. I must admit I'd fantasized about sometimes when my son was growing up, but it was impossible because of all the calls from friends and neighbors - which is just as well, I now realize! If I had it all to do over again, I'd worry a lot less about trying to corral him into needless academic studies, and I'd be even a lot more supportive of free play. I think play is every bit as valuable as schoolwork - they learn and grow by it, and that's why nature has given them such a drive to play. : ) Lillian

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farmer mama

· #14 · Jun 12, 2005

We also do year round, but our homeschooling group doesn't meet in the summer.

applejuice

· #15 · Jun 12, 2005

When I homeschooled my youngest child, we schooled all year long since there are always opportunities to learn in the summer as well as the winter.

My problem was the materials I used as the Macmillan phonics and the Abeka Math assumed that everyone was on summer vacation, so the materials would gear down to do massive review in the first ten lessons. I used these as a general review, but moved ahead with the rest.

We did the beach, museums, hiking, mountains, many trips that would be harder in the rest of the year. Things as motel rates are higher during the summer, so we did many day trips.

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