Summer School

One of the negatives of home-schooling for the kids is that, in a lot of ways, school never ends. Don't want your non-math loving nine-year-old to forget how to reduce fractions? Work on math throughout the summer. Afraid your seven-year-old on the cusp of realizing he likes to read won't continue to make progress? Keep reading together over the summer.

Schoolwork over the summer is only a negative inasmuch as it's one more thing to check off our to-do list every day, but it always ends up being a positive. I rarely have to go over major concepts they've long forgotten in summer heat once school officially starts in the fall. Doing so allows us to have more free time around Christmas to bake cookies and do other (fun!) things in anticipation of the holiday. A multiplication drill here and there helps beat summer doldrums and boredom if it's too chilly to swim (which it has been!) and neighborhood friends are not about.

We don't do much schoolwork; just enough to keep our heads in the game to to produce a small amount of grumbling from the students. This is the first summer we've attempted any schoolwork and, so far, I like the change.