Homeschoolers only, please...How do I find a productive summer schedule?

Question

School season is easy. I must be disciplined!

But, in the summer it's just wake-up, putter around the house and let the kids watch t.v. and play all day. It's feels so wasteful and the kids are getting bored and agitated with eachother. Our sleeping habits are all over the place.

Do you have a schedule or routine that works out for your family? Please share!

Please no insults on homeschoolers, I'm just an American citizen asking the general public for advice on how to be productive and have a great summer.

Answer 1

How old are your kids?

Here's a couple of ideas.

Give each child tokens worth 15 minutes of plug-in time-you decide how many. Then they spend or save them on tv, computer etc.

Blog-help each child set up a blog on blogger.com for free. They can write about their summer, add in pictures. They will be learning about computers while having fun writing-resit the urge to fix their grammar and spelling :)

Help them write summer goals; post them in their rooms.

Set up a beach/pool day each week on the same day with favorite friends.

Make one day a week library day-spend 1/2 day at the library exploring.

Warm Regards,

jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com

http://www.summerhouseliving.com

Answer 2

We homeschooled all our kids and in the summer we spent lots of time doing theme type work.For example: nutrition  health  science together by planning planting and harvesting garden veggies. Another year we learned all about Mexico-the culture the economy-the language etc.Then in Sept we went for a visit.The kids took turns making a documentary with the video camera. It was amazing to see how much they learned (and still remember) Don't for get to give them some down time!! Best of luck to you-it is sooooo worth the hard work!! Kudos to you Mom

Answer 3

We don't have a schedule as such or structured routines, but here are some things that I found have helped us:

1) We have a no TV rule during the week--unless it's something we've decided to put on, like an educational show we think they'll like, a movie we've chosen for the whole family to watch together, etc. When my kids were younger, we did allow TV whenever and it was a nightmare. On the weekends, they have screen time--which means they can choose to watch a movie OR play video games OR watch TV. Plain old TV watching disappeared very quickly and once we got the PS3... they choose video game time. They have a set time limit and a timer is set that beeps to let them know when they are done. They get these turns Friday, Sat. and Sun. This applies throughout the year, not just in the summer. During the summer, their Fri. turn can be in the morning and they'll probably get a 2nd turn later on; for the rest of the year, one turn just before or just after supper on Fridays.

2) Although they go to bed a bit later, they are still not allowed to go to bed whenever they wish. Irregular sleep can cause agitation, too! So can lack of sleep. My ds doesn't really sleep later when he goes to bed later, so it builds up and he becomes just awful. They are usually in bed in the summer by 9:30; I had them in bed by 8:30 one night last week because I could just see that the sleep deprivation was getting to be too much.

I'm working at getting a bit of a routine, other than bedtime routine, going, but I'm finding it hard. One thing I can say is the house has to be well-stocked and I sometimes even need to just pull some things out to inspire them: paints, playdough/clay, board games, card games, etc. Inviting them to do things with me can work well, too. Doing clean sweeps of rooms can be good, as can planning redecorating for rooms or other things. Also, I find we need to get out of the house regularly: library, walks, parks, walk around a mall, etc.

Answer 4

first of all, they are still allowed to learn during the summer.

try to work a schedule around whatever programs your city's Parks and Recreations Dept. has

Answer 5

We homeschool year round.

Our schedule is different in the summer, however.  Our child takes many more art classes, does more horseback riding, and other outdoor activities.  

Homeschooling year round allows us to be more flexible and relaxed at all times, rather than trying to fit everything into a nine month school year.  In addition, we take our vacations when schools are in session, thus avoiding crowds.

All the best.

Answer 6

We carry on pretty much the same as in 'term time'. The local home ed group continues to meet once a week, French class continues, the only difference is that we avoid a lot of places that get horrid and crowded when the schools are closed. OTOH since the weather is generally nicer we spend a lot of time out in the garden.

Of course we do follow a pretty relaxed, autonomous approach so it's not like there's any need to take a break from a ridged timetable of formal study :-)

Answer 7

We are homeschoolers as well, and while at first we welcome the "freedom" of summer, it soon starts to leave us filling empty.  I think because for us, homeschooling is a lifestyle and not just something we do.  With that in mind, I started taking a short break at the beginning and end of the traditional summer, but in the middle we have a school routine, albeit a more relaxed one than we have during the traditional school year.

Take advantage of summer programs, such as library reading programs.  Our library has rewards for reading for certain amounts of time, and there are different levels.  I let the children pick their own books, but then we expand upon the books-for instance, geography, history, etc.

Likewise, many aquariums, zoos, museums and the like have summer programs that can be both fun and educational.  You can easily build upon them.

Board games!

Physical activities such as jumping rope, trampoline, swimming, bike riding, etc.

Watch educational programming (limited), you can throw in a bit of computer time.  I like to give them an x amount of time to do something educational on the computer, and if they are productive they can have a like amount of time to "play".  All computer time in this house is supervised.

I require daily physical activity and reading, whether it is summer, the weekend or whatever.  It is essential.

We do routines rather than schedules, but I like to get up, get chores done and be out of the house or doing whatever lesson/project in the morning/early afternoon which allows us to have the evening to settle down before supper and such.

I hope this helps!