Summer Has a Mind of Its Own

Summer homeschooling is all about going with the flow. Great read!

Let’s take a poll: 

How many of you continue to homeschool through the summer or do a “lighter” lesson plan? And how many of you take the entire summer off from any homeschool planning?

Leave a comment below or on Facebook or Twitter. Let us know how you spend your summer.

Have you ever noticed that summer has a mind of its own? I usually plan to continue homeschooling throughout the summer, but with all the summer events, it’s hard to keep to a regular routine.

This year, I decided to let the boys pick what they wanted to work on, although they had to pick from a list I created. My elder son picked science, and my younger son decided to work in his Star Wars workbooks. I added some other “lessons” in there, but there has only been a handful of days so far that we’ve had time to sit down and work on these lessons.

First, our cousins decided to visit us for a week in late May. This was awesome.  It was as if the boys had a one-week, non-stop play date! But after they left, it took several days to recover. My youngest son felt so sad after they left that it took a few days before he could entertain himself again.

Now as I write this, I’m recovering from a cold that helped me celebrate the summer solstice. This has been a big drag, and needless to say, I haven’t done any lesson planning. 

My boys are also participating in a weeklong summer camp at the botanical garden. Summer camps are golden opportunities for homeschoolers to get to mingle with all kinds of kids and have some fun away from mom and dad. (It’s also a nice break for mom and dad.) This year we’re only doing one summer camp, so I’m very thankful it’s going well and the boys didn’t catch my cold!

Hopefully we’ll have time for lessons after the camp ends, but I know we’ll also want to get together with friends and enjoy the outdoors during the warm weather. Maybe later in the summer, we’ll visit relatives, or take another short trip. No matter what we do, there will be plenty of distractions from our lessons!

I am not sure where the summer will lead. I’m at its mercy. And I gleefully give in. 


Shelli Bond Pabis

Shelli Bond Pabis is home / school / life magazine’s senior editor. She writes about her family’s homeschooling journey at www.mamaofletters.com.

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Summer Reading: If You Liked the Percy Jackson Series