Musing over the Summer schedule

[deltagal]

I'll confess I really, really like our summer routine. The pace, the amount of time involved in "school" and what is required of me is GREAT. I told my husband the other day that maybe this is all I can handle - it feels balanced, peaceful, life giving. we're taking care of all that needs to be taken care of on the home front, and there's time for play and family time. But here's the rub - ALL we're doing is math, grammar, dictation, a read aloud, and a morning devotion. The 3 oldest boys are also doing some independent reading on their own. And we do a field trip once a week. That's it! And I really like it. I keep wondering as I reflect on the frenzy of last year is there some wisdom to be gleaned from all of this.

[Carrie]

Florence,

I think that there are seasons to our homeschool life, just like there are seasons in nature. For us, summer is a time of refreshment and rejuvination. It is a time for my boys to have much free-time and pursue their own interests. For me it is a season of writing. For most, summer is a season of less of a schedule, more outside time, longer days, later bedtimes, and endless projects.

As summer draws to a close though, I am always grateful for the next season to begin. If one season is drawn out too long, we do not appreciate the next one. I couldn't allow my kiddos to relax and refresh in the summer had I not felt we'd pushed hard during the year. The ebb of flow of the homeschool year often follows the ebb and flow of God's natural seasons. For me there is so much wisdom to be gleaned in God's design for the natural world, and it makes sense to follow it in my life and my children's lives too! If we didn't work hard planting the seeds of knowledge and learning, there would be no harvest, and later no well-earned rest.

Blessings,
Carrie

[MelInKansas]

I'm glad to hear that someone's summer feels relaxed. We've been busy with summer meals at the church, soccer, swimming lessons, visiting family, and all sorts of things. It's a different kind of busy, much less structured, much less preparation involved, and the day-to-day seems less intense. We haven't been doing any "school" though except my kids were doing some of their workbook work because they wanted to and I do encourage my 6 YO to read every day (which she gladly does). Sometimes she reads to me, sometimes to herself.

I agree with Carrie. The summer is nice to have a break (ours is only going to be 7 weeks, just long enough to get some projects done and do the summer sports we've been doing). But school time is great because it's structured, full, and everyone is learning and growing so much. Of course, I don't have to balance nearly the workload you do with all your kids and I imagine as they get older the amount of school work they need to do just grows. So as the mom you are busy grading, organizing, encouraging, helping, reading, etc.

Maybe though if your days feel too stressful during the school year you need to rethink or restructure some things to make it better? Others who have done more than I have will probably have better ideas for you on this. Or I do have friends who just take school slowly and do it all year round. I know for me, when I'm doing school not during regular school session, it feels more relaxed because we don't have the other weekly commitments that a school year brings. Right now we've been doing dance classes and AWANA during the week.

Enjoy the rest of your summer time!