If your summer/fall is hot, do you alter your school day?

[Mom2Monkeys]

Do you accomodate the harsh temps during your school year? In central arkansas, we have awful hot summers and on into the fall. It cools some, but still gets very hot even some days into October (not every day). And our winters are wet and cold, often not with much snow...just nasty wet and icy. How does this affect your school day? My biggest concern at this time is the heat. Do you plan play time before school in the heat? We have been inside a lot recently with the heat and they are all driving me crazy. They've been up late so they sleep late, but evenings aren't great to get out b/c of the mosquitoes. As we gear up to start school, I know they need outside time and can't get much during the late morning, afternoon, or evening hours. And they aren't just being "wimps" about the hot weather, it's a miserable, dangerous heat oftentimes. We don't have a pool or one nearby. I'm really wanting to get an early start to school and just get it done, but I'm about to hang them by their toes in their closets and close the door.

And for kicks, how do you change up for milder weather months? And winter months? If it were snow, it would be more fun. But it's generally not...and when it is, it's not enough to do anything but be cold and wet!

[striving2Bprov31]

Well, I hope this is the response you are looking for ..........

We live in Missouri, and July is VERY hot and August is pretty much just miserable between the heat and humidity. But the springtime is lovely here even though there are some thunderstorms. So we take breaks (or a long break) during spring when we can really enjoy being outside. Then, I start the school year in late July or beginning of August because we don't play outside much then anyway. In the wintertime it can be pretty harsh with the cold, so along with school we just do lots of extra reading and board games. Also, outings like the rollerskating rink and things indoors.

I have one friend that finishes her kid's school year at the end of March and starts July 1st, simply because of the weather here! They want to be off of school while it's nice out!

Hope this helps!

[Mom2Monkeys]

Well, I hope this is the response you are looking for ..........

We live in Missouri, and July is VERY hot and August is pretty much just miserable between the heat and humidity. But the springtime is lovely here even though there are some thunderstorms. So we take breaks (or a long break) during spring when we can really enjoy being outside. Then, I start the school year in late July or beginning of August because we don't play outside much then anyway. In the wintertime it can be pretty harsh with the cold, so along with school we just do lots of extra reading and board games. Also, outings like the rollerskating rink and things indoors.

I have one friend that finishes her kid's school year at the end of March and starts July 1st, simply because of the weather here! They want to be off of school while it's nice out!

Hope this helps!

Exactly what I want to do! I want to start in July and finish late march or early april. I'm actually looking for daily schedule input, but at least I don't feel like we'll be the only ones doing school during the time most are on break! Our springs are just wonderful here! Though we had 69 tornadoes this spring, and June already saw a day with triple digits. I used to live about half an hour from Branson, still in Arkansas. MO is oddly hot for as north as it is. I remember Silver Dollar City some summers...ugh!
We don't have many indoor activities nearby....we are half an hour from the nearest city, which seems big in comparison to much of Arkansas, but Little Rock just isn't really all that grand when it comes to fun stuff for the kids!

[hobandrolly]

Hi there~

I'm kind of in a similar situation~I live in New Mexico and July and August are HOT (plus those are our monsoon months so it gets horribly humid and cloudy in the late afternoon followed by at times lots of rain!). We start a new school year the first full week of July (we'll start July 11th this year) and we take the following weeks off:

~Week of Labor Day (the Fall is usually cooler and other kiddos are back in school...nice time for parks!)
~Week of Thanksgiving
~Last two weeks of December (time to bake cookies, sleep in, drink hot chocolate, etc. and read all of those GREAT Christmas read-alouds)
~One more week off in March (I try to take this week off between units in history or when I see that my kids are struggling to stay focused)
~Finally done by May 1st (usually done by my convention in late April)

We take May (family vacation and mom comes out from Hawaii) and June (fun church summer stuff) off for "summer" before it gets super hot and then start again in July! Hope that helps...~Holly

[Mommamo]

We have had over 2 weeks now of over 100 degree temps, so we are definitely spending time indoors. We took a lot of time off for our new baby, so we have just started back to school. It's too hot to do anything else. We also have the added difficulty of a daddy with a wierd schedule, so he works nights 7 days out of each month so he's home sleeping during those days. It really helps if we're busy so we're not so noisy.

So here's what we're doing. We get up around 7 and eat breakfast around 7:30. After chores are finished (teeth brushed, rooms picked up, dressed, hair fixed, etc), then they go outside to play or we go for a walk. We have to do this pretty early because it's around 90 by 10:00, already and this is just the middle of June! So then they come in the house and we go upstairs to our schoolroom and we work until lunch time. After lunch we watch our Spanish lessons or do computer time. Then we start back to school and finish up our day. After we are through with school, we do inside fun things -- go to the library, play board/card games at home, etc. So that's what our daily schedule is looking like for the summer. When it cools down a little (probably not until September/October) we will go back to doing school in the mornings and play time in the afternoon.

We also school year round. Since my children are still pretty young (my oldest will be 8 and in 3rd grade this fall) we pretty much take breaks as needed. Also, my husband works 7 days on, 7 days off, so that really wreaks havoc on our schedule if we want to go do anything like little day trips or whatever on the weeks he's off. However, we're pretty much schooling straight through the summer. It's too hot. During the fall we'll take weeks off when dh is off and we'll school the full 7 days he's on. Then this winter, when it gets cold again, we'll school pretty much straight through, just taking off for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and Thanksgiving Day of course. Then in the spring we'll be back to 7 days on/7 days off like dh so that we can enjoy the weather.

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, but hopefully it will give you some ideas of how someone else handles the heat.

[Mom2Monkeys]

These ideas are helpful

My husband is also working odd schedules. Right now he works weekend nights- fri, sat, sun (sometimes 11p-7a, or 7p-7am, or 7pm-whenever his relief comes in). Here soon, he'll be working 6 nights on, 9 nights off....12 hour shifts. Should be interesting It will change after several weeks and be weekend nights again. It does make things rather difficult with him home most of the week right now and trying to stay busy and quiet on the weekends while he sleeps.

Anyway, I really worry about going too late in the day with school or doing school while the neighbor kids are all knocking on the door wanting to play....it's hot but they'll have been in the classroom all day wanting to get out a bit! Sometimes they come in here to play, sometimes my kids go in their friends' homes to play...but considering most everyone has only one or two young kids like mine, I don't like to have my 3 kids going in someone else's house! That's totally off track, but anyway.... I think we will just have to put a sign on the door. And if we play in the AM, get some chores done, then put little one down for nap, we might get more done, more quickly, since there won't be interruptions. I need to also start off doing some school with my DS4/5 before I get started with the big ones. Maybe while they do chores after playtime.

I need to think of some quick and easy breakfasts that are easy to grab and go outside, with minimal clean up (and not always cereal...lol)
I'll be rethinking our time off as well....maybe taking less big holiday chunks of time and more shorter stretches. We will be starting sooner than I thought for two reasons-- I actually made huge progress with our school room and books today and we aren't going to be able to go visit grandparents before my original school start date as planned (due to DH getting an ICU job!!!! ) So we will start earlier then take an "everyone off week" then two older boys will take a week or so off to stay with gr'ma and gr'pa, then DD will take a couple-- instead of visiting then starting school. So, it will be a weird stagger start year. We are ALL looking forward to getting started!

[holdinon]

We are in MS, so I feel your pain on the heat. Dh not only has a "weird" work schedule; he is also very spontaneous. He may "pop in" (especially during nice outdoor weather) on a Tuesday afternoon and load the family up for a 3 day trip to the family farm. Or decide at the last minute to stay home and work. (He is in business for himself--most of his work is out of the home, but sometimes he works from home.) For a variety of reasons, it is nearly impossibly for us to accomplish much school work when dad is home. For a few years, the spontaneity irked me, as a home school mom. After all, I was trying to teach here . But I came to "accept" it for a while, and now I actually appreciate it.

So, with that background, here is what we do: We school year round. We consider our new year to start on July 1 and end on June 30. We can take off 7 or 8 days in each month (plus weekends) and that gives us 170 school days. (Our state doesn't require days and 170 allows us to complete any HOD guide, so that's just the number I use). I don't set up a calender for days on or off. But I keep up with how many days we took off for a month, and adjust it if needed. For example, if we took off 10 days in a "nice weather" month, we would only take off 5 in another month. We usually only take off one or two days in July and August, which allows us to "build up" time for the nicer months. So I do keep up with it, and make sure we get in "enough" school, but I don't set up the days that we will be on or off ahead of time. Five years ago, this would have stressed me out completely. But it has worked very well for us for the last couple of years. When dh wants us to do something fun on a spur of the moment, I don't have to squelch the fun by complaining about the interruption of the school week, but I also don't have to feel guilty about not doing school, because I know we have planned for the days.

It is one of the blessing of home schooling to be able to plan a schedule that fits our family's needs. Each family's dynamics are different, so of course it varies from family to family. It took me a while to really embrace that, but now can't imagine living by any other "calendar".
Angie

[Kathleen]

I would absolutely do school when it works for you and take breaks when you'd like to (as long as you've finished what's necessary). When we're in our school year, we rarely take breaks because it really works well for us to keep on rolling. We have a dairy farm, so we have work to do every.single.day no matter what. We're not used to Dad having a day off. So, he's working, we work. If there is out of town family visiting for a while we'll take more of a break around holidays, but if not, we just dive right back in to school.

I really like to finish up in April or the 1st of May in the spring because I get spring fever and really like to be outside A LOT! There's a garden to plant, lawn to mow, and extra ways we can help out at the farm with spring planting and alfalfa to put up. So we start early in the fall and push through. Works for us.

I can't imagine my kids not playing outside every day. I'd give them lots of water and some sunscreen and make it happen. We get pretty hot here in the summers, too. Of course it depends on the year, but we always have triple digits for several stretches. Until Grant was 4 1/2 we lived in an old little trailer close to the dairy that had no ac. We had weeks where the temp INSIDE was 110*. We drank lots of water, were thankful for our showers , and turned on the fan to go to bed. We're outside in negative temps in the winter here, too. But, there are chores to do every day, and we have to do them. My kids WOULD go nuts if they were cooped up inside...and so would I. I personally can't stay inside for a whole day either.

Kathleen

[KristinBeth]

My kids are little so we don't have a lot of school, but it's going to be over 100 for the next 3 months, and then it'll be in the 90s in Sept/Oct. So we just haul our breakfast outside a lot of the time and eat on the patio in the morning (lots of frozen fruit smoothies and toast with pb or cream cheese that we can eat outdoors). Then we do a little nature study just in the backyard or neighborhood, play outside, read books outside, and then hide in the house or someplace else air conditioned until dinnertime! There's no kids playing outside in my area though, everyone is hunkered down out of the sun, so afternoon school wouldn't be interrupted for us.

[Starla]

I'm new to homeschooling - and this post has been so helpful to me! I guess I was thinking just the normal school schedule for us - September through May/June. However, with these posts, realized that part of the joy of homeschooling is being able to do school on a schedule that fits your family's needs/situation/weather, etc. We live in Missouri, where it gets VERY hot, and even now, the main time we are outside is when we take a 10 minute trip to the lake for swimming for a few hours or when we have "water battles" in our yard. So I think I'm going to go with one of the ladies' posts here and just start school after our family vacation this year....probably late July/early August when they are stuck inside anyway. That will open up the nice spring weather for field trips, hiking, playgrounds etc. Guess I'd better get on the ball and get what's needed for "Preparing" ordered. Thanks ladies for sharing!!!!!

[my3sons]

We have the opposite here - it's COLD here - a LOT! Our winters are very cold, and they go on... and on... and on... We have found this the perfect time to homeschool. We have actually gone to homeschooling 5 days a week (even with 4 day a week plans) through the winter. So, we homeschool from about the end of August to very early May. This has worked so well for us! I do think it is important to consider the weather in homeschooling.

I'm with Kathleen (and CM) on the "get the kids out every day to play" mentality though. You know I have 3 boys - so this is a must! Unless it is pouring rain, our rule is at least 30 minutes outside every day, no matter what, and usually, it's more like 2-4 hours. We do buy very warm, water repellant winter clothing - and they look like the stay-puffed marshmallow man, but they stay warm. In the summer, we get 100 degree days as well, though not as many and not as long as you probably do. I got a little kiddie pool (think plastic and cheap ) that the boys fill up water guns in and run through to cool off, and they stay cool that way. We did invest in an above ground Wal-mart pool as well, and we have used and enjoyed that for many summers now. We lather on the sunscreen and bug spray, and we go out more in the mornings when it is cooler on those hot, hot days.

CM said 6 hours each day would not be too much time to be outdoors, and she herself invested in rubber boots and rain slickers, being known around the country as a person who ALWAYS spent times outdoors. I agree - the more we can be in God's creation the better, but it makes good sense to pick the "best" times to be out, and the "worst" times to be homeschooling indoors. Great question, Tamara!

In Christ,
Julie

[psreit]

I was just thinking about the 'going outside everyday' before I even read these posts. I am determined to do this with dd when we start school, provided the weather is decent. We are in PA, and we have such a mixed bag of weather. Our summers can be dry and hot, or they can be very warm and humid and rainy, like we seem to be getting right now. Winters can be mild, 20's and 30's, or we can have a long stretch of teens or below zero. So, I can't really plan school around the weather. August is still on the very warm side, but that is when I like to begin school, hoping we will get done by early May. It didn't happen this year, though, because I took too many days off the first half of the year because of taking care of a newborn. We will have her through one more school year, but it will make 'going out' easier since she will be walking. I'm looking forward to more time outside. I know dd will greatly benefit from it. My only regret is that I didn't know CM when our other dc were homeschooling.

[ForHisGlory]

Yes!!! We just started our school year last week because of HOT South Texas weather. I plan on taking a break in late September, Thanksigiving, Christmas week. This way we are schooling during hot weather, while everyone is out of school (and crowding up public places, no offense), and we are perhaps "ahead of the game" in case something comes up later in the year. And you know what, during those down times of great weather, you can still count it as school days with nature walks and journaling, real-life home economics and math, etc., and field trips!

You must do what works for you, not what is "the norm." HTH!

[Mommamo]

These ideas are helpful

I need to think of some quick and easy breakfasts that are easy to grab and go outside, with minimal clean up (and not always cereal...lol)
I'll be rethinking our time off as well....maybe taking less big holiday chunks of time and more shorter stretches. We will be starting sooner than I thought for two reasons-- I actually made huge progress with our school room and books today and we aren't going to be able to go visit grandparents before my original school start date as planned (due to DH getting an ICU job!!!! ) So we will start earlier then take an "everyone off week" then two older boys will take a week or so off to stay with gr'ma and gr'pa, then DD will take a couple-- instead of visiting then starting school. So, it will be a weird stagger start year. We are ALL looking forward to getting started!

While dh has been home this past week (he also works 12 hour shifts, but his is 7 days on, 7 days off, 7 nights on, 7 off) so what we did was did freezer cooking for the next month. We included breakfasts -- smoothies, oatmeal squares, breakfast burritos, muffins -- as well as lunches and dinners. This way in the mornings we have options other than cereal that are quick so we can get outside early so they still get some play time, and then we can school in the afternoon. With the dust storms around here too that normally come in the afternoons, we just can't play outside in the afternoon. Freezer cooking also helps me to be able to do school in the afternoons or get out to inside activities in the afternoon and we still get dinner ready with minimal cleanup. Anyway, hope some of that helps for you!

[Mom2Monkeys]

Love the idea of freezer cooking breakfasts I've done dinners (parts, like ground beef and chicken and such cooked and bagged to kater add to sauces, etc) but not breakfasts! I'd love a recipe for oatmeal squares!