SHARE YOUR STORY--How does school end? What does summer look like?

Last week I asked all those seasoned veteran homeschoolers--What does the end of a homeschool year look like? What does summer look like?

And while, of course, there is no right/wrong answer--I thought it would be fun to share our stories!

Let us know how you finish your school years strong? Do you do anything fun? Do you have an end date, or do you just let things finish out naturally or fizzle out? Do you have any fun celebrations? What do you do over the summer? Any structure or schedule or simply relax and have a season of play and rest? Let us know this week by sending a short answer to any of the questions above--and maybe a picture or two? 

Allison Horne has been homeschooling for almost a decade and this is what she says: 

Horne family (left) on cover of Sonlight Catalog!

I am definitely the mom that has let the end of the year celebration slide. I probably do this because we tend to have a trickle to the end of the year. Writing is completed one week. A week later read alouds are finished, but we still have a week of math to go. We do typically go and get ice cream on the very last day. I have also always crammed the first few weeks with activities like bike rides, picnics, and hikes to enjoy while the other kids are still in school. It is a nice change of pace and it is nice to have little to no crowds, but you do have to watch school field trip locations they can be quite busy! (Well, maybe not this year!)

Lorrie Young has learned a few things after completing her 10th year of homeschooling:

In the early years of homeschooling--I tried to run my homeschool schedule much like the public school--starting in late August and finishing out in late May. After a few years I noticed a pattern of my kids struggling to sit still, pay attention and have any fun learning after the sun started to peek through in March/April and the temperatures start to rise. After a few years of this pattern--I decided to readjust our yearly schedule and push hard to finish our school around May 1st. 

On the bad days or the days when others weren't doing school--I'd remind them of our May 1st deadline and how good it would feel. I reminded them that our summer is almost 4 months long and it motivated us all. So here we are nearing May 1st and we are nearly complete with our year.

(5 years ago)

Like many other homeschoolers--we do finish out subjects early. Two kids have been done with spelling, vocabulary since March. One has only three subjects left. We finished our History and Science last week. One finished up math last week too. But we keep meeting, finishing up our days and subjects--doing things I might not have gotten to but want to finish (poetry unit, microscope experiments, diorama reading project and WV trivia and bingo). I always read an inspiration book for the end of the year--when they were little it might be Dr Seuss or 'The Wonderful Things You Will Be'--this year it is 'The Last Lecture."  But our last day is a big deal...just like we hold our sing for the first day of school--we hold a sign for our last day too! Some years they have run around the house and literally ran through a crate paper finish line--some years we've went our for pizza and ice cream, some years we have done a scavenger hunt to find a bucket of fun summer things (bubbles, chalk, yard games, new flipflops etc). What each year has in common is a definite END.

A few of you ask...Then What? 

May--for me and the kids is an absolute--do nothing month. Sleep in if you want. Clean out the homeschool room, finish portfolios, a time to turn in test scores and complete my end of year scrapbook. Go visit friends and family--take walks, go to parks, go on hikes, go on picnics etc. No talk of school, no workbooks--no structure--just resting--recovering. We usually sit down and make a list of all the things we want to do over the summer. (Camps, vacations, friend groups and families to invite over, books to read, places to see).

Do you do anything learning based over the summer? 

 

At the end of May I come up with a loose plan. Usually some kind of reading incentive for the summer. Maybe a number of books I want them to read, or genre, or pages. Make a jar of gummy worms and for each book they complete let them pick out a 'bookworm'!  For many years I invited friends over to do a summer bible study--and we studied so many things (10 commandments, fruit of spirit, armor of God, prayer, Apostles Creed, how to share the gospel)--so often in the summer we review all of our previous studies and maybe plan a new one. Most years I also buy them a summer bridge workbook that usually gives them something to do for about 30 minutes a day. 

Another great tip from Liz DeRoos was to spend the summer teaching some life skills that are good to have, but hard to teach during the school year (ie. laundry, cooking, lawn care, sewing, cleaning).

                                                             

 But the hard and fast rule is that FUN (friends over, parks,vacations, picnics, pools) always TRUMPS everything. So, while we do have some structure in June and July--FUN is always more important. During that time--I just enjoy the summer. I don't think about school or teaching or ordering things. I wait until the first week of August. Then I spend a few weeks planning out the year and during those 2 weeks I let the kids go back to our May schedule of nothing--so they will be perfectly rested, refreshed and ready to hit the books hard in late August. 

I love hearing what others do? Won't you share your story?