What are your summer homeschooling plans? Maybe you pack up the supplies, unplug the computer, and shove the planner in a drawer. Or maybe you like to “school light” in the summer. For some, year-round school is the answer, as needed vacations during the year and a consistent schedule for the kids all year long.

For us, the summer leads to a summer of un-schooling. For a classical homeschooler that has recently switched to the Charlotte Mason approach, I am not sure how this summer is going to look compared to last. Last summer we plugged on through the summer without much break. However, I think we are in need of a break, even though I am not a fan of totally turning off the school.

The month of May found us finishing some books, continuing with our reading list, and completing some testing.  June is our designated summer month, as we will be gone or traveling most of the month. This means that there will be summer reading programs and continued read-a-louds but we will not be doing our formal curriculum or many extra projects. June may find some continued use of our online math and language arts programs but mostly fun, online games, reviews, and play.

July, however, will bring us to our summer of un-schooling. This will actually carry into August. There are several things that the kids have requested to study during the year that we didn’t get to or didn’t fit into the school year plans. Therefore, the summer is our time to explore these topics and extra activities. We have planned a unit study on dinosaurs, including a simulated dig and discovery and building a model dinosaur.  We also hope to have a two-week session on Princesses and manners including a real tea party with formal invitations.

August will bring us to our study of the Olympic Games and some fun family time watching the games and documenting outcomes. We are really looking forward to this.  (We will probably even sneak in some geography as we look at where the medalists are from and where the games are being held, but, shhhh, don’t tell the kids!)

After that, we will see where the summer carries us. We don’t plan an intense learning summer as this time will also be spent planning for next year and wrapping up some organization projects to make next year go a little more smoothly.

I hope that our summer of un-schooling will lead us to a great way to continue our educational journey, making our home an atmosphere for learning, without the schedule of the school year as we enjoy some later evenings catching fireflies and sleeping in with some morning cuddling with a good book.  Though we enjoy the certainty of the daily school year schedule, the fun of the summer un-schooling schedule is hopefully just the right break that our family needs as we recharge for our next school year.

How do you do summer months in your home school?

If you enjoyed this post, please visit Adventures in Homeschooling for more from Tawnee – Victoria, Denschool