I was so worried about summer slide and about keeping ahead of the curve that I didn’t stop to think about any other consequences of my choice to school through summer.
Homeschooling through the summer kept the kids academically up to pace. For instance they didn’t lose math concepts since they were practicing them all summer long. What they did lose, however, was a true sense of freedom, breathing deeply, and just being.
The idea of reading stories aloud to our children is almost as old as the idea of parenthood itself. Long before printed books were available, children learned history, language, and more simply by oral retelling. Now that many of our children are exposed to technology at a young age, reading stories aloud can seem a bit outdated.
But using read-alouds with our children, especially children who have ADHD, can be wonderfully beneficial.
I am a true savorer of the seasons. I’m not one to rush through to the next thing, but instead, I like to embrace the season, let it sink in and enjoy it. Even so, there’s nothing wrong with following Helen Keller’s advice to “be thankful for what you have while working for what you want.”
So even though I can be thankful for slow lake days and Popsicles melting down to my kids’ elbows, I can also be thinking ahead to the approaching school year. Here’s five things I’m doing this summer to get ready for a great homeschool year to come.
Besides being a wonderful time to relax, swim, and enjoy the hot weather, summer is also a marvelous time to encourage a love of recreational reading in our children. Although summer is usually busy with outdoor fun, family reunions, weddings, and picnics, leave room for plenty of time for lazing about with a good book.
Use these four simple tricks to keep your kids reading all the way through June, July, and August.
Summer vacation —we all look forward to the days off from homeschooling: lounging by the pool, catching up on reading, taking that class we’ve been eyeing, finishing the to do list we’ve been putting off.
Summer is amazing, right? Wrong! Well, kind of wrong. Summer is nice, but those picture perfect days are short lived. Before too long our kids are going to be driving us bonkers.Let’s face it, homeschooling means our kids are used to structure. They are used to days filled with learning, and too many days off will make us all a little crazy.
I’ve always loved summer vacation. For me, it represented freedom. Freedom to sleep in. Freedom from instruction, tests, and schedules. Freedom to spend the day however I wanted.
I fully intended on giving my kids summers of freedom, but I realized it wasn’t going to work with our type of homeschooling. Luckily, we have the ability to choose how we satisfy our required number of school days, and I've found that year-round schooling works best for us.
No, my homeschooled children are not normal. But it's not for the reasons you think.
One of the most disheartening assumptions about homeschoolers is that they are not normal. They are weird misfits.
What is normal anyways? What does normal look like? Does normal have brown hair and blue eyes? Does normal wear jeans and t-shirts? And why would being homeschooled exclude you from the normal label?
After homeschooling for six years, we decided to send our kids to public school for a few months last year. During those few months, we saw them change. Unfortunately, it was not for the better.
We originally thought that public school would be a positive change, especially since we have been handling their ADHD without medication. As we observed them, however, we realized that sending our children to public school had actually made their ADHD worse.Here’s how.
For many of us, reading is not only a way to educate, but also our preferred method of entertainment. As a book lover, it has come as quite a shock and challenge to discover my eight year old doesn’t like reading. What a wrench in my idyllic homeschool vision of home libraries and reading parties!
Unfortunately for him, reading is a necessary part of our school days. While we require our kids do their schoolwork —even the parts they hate—, there are ways to make the homeschool day more palatable for a child who hates reading. And when school is a happy experience for our kids, it's also happier for us!
Working at home while homeschooling means that you actually have two full time jobs. One is caring for your kids and managing their education while the other is fulfilling the responsibilities of your paid job. This dual role brings with it a number of challenges, but these two stand out as the most distressing ones: lack of me time and distractions.
If you can overcome these two biggies, you can get through your homeschool years swimmingly.
