Homeschool High School - Summer School, Homeschool-Style

In the summer, our family continued to do a few educational activities for around an hour every day, to enable our sons to keep their knowledge between school years. At times we used this time to fill a hole in their educations. We were cautious to be certain that anything we did, it was something that would keep mom sane-it was extremely important that I take a rest over the summer! It was just as essential that my boys had a opportunity to relax during the summer, so we really attempted to keep schoolwork to one or two hours a day, at the very most, leaving the remainder of the day unstructured. This made it easier for us begin on the right foot with some review, but also permitted us to take some breaks over the summer. Reading the newspaper or even a magazine throughout the summer is an excellent option to enable your children learn about current events and what is taking place in the world. During the school year, agendas can get a little too hectic to allow for this essential learning. Several students could delight in keeping a journal in the summertime, as well. This has the extra advantage of strengthening their writing skills, and it is a particularly fun option if you are doing traveling of any variety, whether camping or perhaps going to some different section of the country. Your kids might also take a class, possibly in art or sports, or SAT prep during the summer. They can continue to learn something they are interested in, while you as a parent get a break! It could be that your kids could be thinking about joining some kind of club or perhaps they would like to do some volunteer work. As a side benefit, these things are really advantageous for your student’s general portfolio once they begin applying to colleges. Whenever you do summer school, be sure to consider providing your child credit for what they are learning. A few of the more typical summer credits are P.E. and occupational education (which basically will mean that they perform some work). When you add up those credits, simply add up or approximate hours, with an eye towards 120-180 hours representing one credit, and 75-90 hours representing a half a credit. Maybe your child performs in an orchestra or sings in a choir in the summer, and they meet for two hours a day. You can estimate those hours and say, “it looks like they are likely to devote ten hours a week, over eight weeks of summer, to total eighty hours, which will be a half a credit experience. ” Creating educational names for your student’s summer classes is an essential job. For instance, my son’s swim classes were not named ‘summer swim league’. I recorded them as ‘P. E. Swimming’. Similarly, ‘occupational education’ is a better title than ‘yard work’. If you get stuck on educational titles, take a look at a community college and find out which class titles are there. Quite often, community colleges offer classes that are a little outside the box, which can help spur you on to think of educational class titles.