It has been my experience that we do well when we continue to school over the summer. At the beginning years of our homeschooling, I tried to take the summer off and keep a regular school schedule. But I found that the kids were bored in the summer. We live in an area that is too hot to be outside much in the summer, so the kids had trouble staying busy and ended wanting to be in front of the tv all day.
I’ve always tried to make summer a little different. We do educational things, and I do count them as school days (We have a requirement of 180); but we don’t just keep on with our regular book work. I’m going to share some of the things we’ve done over the summers that ended up being fun and educational. Hopefully you will come away with some ideas that can help you have Super Summer Schools also if you decide to school through the year.
Ocean Unit Study
One year I decided that, since we go to the beach every summer, I would plan a unit study around that, and we could have the beach trip and an up close trip to the ocean in the midst.
I used several Usborne books about the sea as the spine to my study. (At the time I sold Usborne books, and I could get them inexpensively. Books from the library would have done just as well.) We read the books, did some fun ocean activities I found online and went to an aquarium/museum near the place we stay at North Myrtle Beach.
Vacation Station Books
The Vacation Station books from Bob Jones Press are summer workbooks designed to review various subjects as a transition from one grade to the next. The kids enjoyed them because they had a fun theme, and I liked them because it was an easy way to get some book work done to keep practicing over the summer.
VBS Kits
One year I took the Vacation Bible School curriculum from Answers in Genesis and developed a unit study around it. I knew that I loved their Bible School curriculum because we had used it before in our church. But the church wasn’t using it that particular summer. So I bought the starter kit for the VBS. The theme was Ancient Egypt. I chose books about Ancient Egypt and found a lapbook that fit for the study. The Bible School also looked at God’s incredible design for the human body. I took this idea and also did a small study on the human body with a lapbook and books from the library.
We all ended up really enjoying that study. I loved the strong Bible/worldview teaching. And it was easy to build the science and history studies around the theme.
Current Events
Last summer, we used the opportunity of the summer Olympics to do an Olympic lapbook. I found the lapbook free online. We studied history and science as well as learning about each different sport featured in the summer Olympics.
Doing a study relating to a current event like the Olympics was especially interesting because we could watch the games on t.v. and talk about what we had learned.
Summer can be a good time to pick up a fun unit study and to keep up with skills that need to be practiced regularly. With a little thought and planning you can have a Super Summer Schooling Experience.
Leah Courtney is a homeschooling mom of four children. In her very limited free time, she enjoys reading, blogging, and reviewing books and other products. You can visit her at As We Walk Along the Road.
sarahelisabeth
12 July 2013 at 12:00 PM (11 years ago)I like this idea. My little ones were a bit fed up by the end of summer, last year. A unit study seems a good way of stopping this.
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