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We are officially done with school for the year! I look forward to Summer vacation each year, but it wasn’t always like that. There was a day when I started a new school year, still burnt out from the year before. Then, I realized what the problem was. I was doing what a homeschool mom should NOT do on summer vacation.
Want to listen instead of read? Hit play!
PLANNING for the next school year!
Why should homeschool moms NOT plan all summer? Because we need time to recoup. We need time to refresh and we need time to be a mom, not a teacher. At least I do. And, if I had to guess, you may too.
There are many things we could be doing instead.
- Reading
- Relaxing
- Catching up on things we enjoy doing
- Enjoying our children
- Playing
Now, give me a minute here to explain. As homeschool moms, we are responsible for the education of our children, and this requires planning and prepping. However, it shouldn’t take all summer.
So, if you have a routine down for planning, and start each school year refreshed and ready for a new year, great! Keep your planning routine, and do what you have been doing!
However, if you feel like summer is short, and you start the new year less than energized, I have a few suggestions for you:
Step 1: Pick a start date for school– When do you plan on starting back to school? In 6 weeks? 12? Mark the date on your calendar.
Step 2: Take Summer Vacation-Make a point to take a summer vacation. Put up the books, the planners, and the to-do list. Do this for at least half of your planned summer break. During this time do something for yourself. Create a bucket list with your kids, do something you may have wanted to do together, but haven’t had time for. NAP. Read. Enjoy the summer season.
Step 3: Decide When You Will Plan-After you have spent some time enjoying your summer vacation decide when you WILL plan for the upcoming year. For me, this is 2 weeks before school starts. We always start back on the third Monday in August, so I know the first of August ENDS my summer vacation. I spend the 2 weeks before hand planning for our upcoming year. I hang new posters, put out new curriculum, clean up the playroom, make copies, create portfolios, and do anything else that needs to be done for the upcoming year. Those 2 weeks are fairly busy and hectic, but I start this planning season refreshed and relaxed. The kids get excited about the upcoming year, and we start to anticipate breaking into the new books.
I believe that homeschool moms need time to relax and regroup. For me, this does NOT include spending the summer planning.
What do you think a homeschool mom should NOT do on summer vacation?
Well i will take your advice and start planning. Summer vacations should be well planned and something creative and important should be learnt from them too. Hopefully will do my planning right and hopefully it will work. Thanks for the share.
I think we can all use the refreshment of a nice break. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
This is the first year that I’m really taking summer off. I planned to do all sorts of science lessons to catch up on things we didn’t do during the school year but I’ve enjoyed the freedom. I’m definitely going to take your advice to pick a time frame for planning so it’s not an ongoing and draining process and we’ll catch up on experiments during the year.
That’s awesome though! Better late than never to take a summer vacation right?
This sounds like a great plan. I’ve done it both ways, and many variations. I WISH I’d thought about this good advice when I began. This is our last year coming up, our youngest is a senior. For the first time EVER I already have her stuff for Fall and won’t be planning this summer. It feels sort of weird 🙂
Hey, there is nothing wrong with going with the flow 😉 Before we break I have our curriculum picked out, and purchased. But, nothing else really. I am always SO ready for summer break to start!
I do a bit of planning in the early summer so it’s done and I don’t have to worry about it. Then I’m free to relax and enjoy the time off. Honestly though, I don’t do a lot of planning anyways. We’re mostly free stylers. 😉
Oh, I hope it does! The one year we did school during the summer it was due to a new baby 🙂 Sometimes you HAVE to just roll with it!
I’m terrible about this. I usually do school with my kids through the summer. We’ve had almost 4 straight years of bedrest and babies so I feel like we haven’t worked as hard as we have in the past. This year I’m cutting myself some slack though and we won’t be doing anything but reading through the summer. Hopefully that will recharge all of us.
I think that is one of the beautiful things about homeschooling! We can do what works best for OUR family 🙂 For me, I felt the complete opposite as you. I am sure there are moms on both sides of the fence, and for those moms who felt like me, I encourage them to just take the summer off! If a plan works, like it does for you, then by all means keep up your routine!
I hope you have a great summer!
well I have already messed up then. My child for the last two years has been bugging about learning something and I already have it all lined up for the next school year. In fact this is the first year I actually have a plan and feel like it will work and we will have fun and enjoy it. I am one who tried to take a summer off and we had a super hard time getting back into it and it was a struggle and fight the entire year. I just want to go with the flow and get as much done while we are excited about it and when the burn out occurs we will be ahead and can take our time. We usually take our long breaks for the winter holidays. Maybe Alaskans are stumped for the summer, well at least this one. We still do summer activities but they are spur of the moment and leisurely. I think planning the summer for me would burn me out as well and make me feel obligated to the kids on the stuff I said I would do. I like the surprise of summer. Summer surprises, I also like that if we start now then later it will feel like summer keeps on going and I can transition into school instead of being like “get to work” which I had done in the past and totally backfired.
Agreed! I’m in the process of hammering out decisions for next school year NOW, while we’re finishing up this one, so I can *enjoy* our summer off. 🙂