Home schooling High School - Summer time learning, home school Style

Often we used this opportunity to fill a gap in their educations. We were mindful to make certain whatever we did, it was something that would keep mom sane-it was essential that I take a break over the summer! It was every bit as significant that my kids had a chance to play during the summer, so we really tried to keep schoolwork to one or two hours a day, at the very most, leaving the rest of the day unstructured. This really helped us start out on the right foot with a little review, but also helped us to take some breaks over the summer.

Reading the newspaper or maybe a magazine during the summer is a terrific way for you to help your kids learn about current events and what’s going on in the world. During the school year, daily schedules can get a little too busy to allow for this significant learning. Many students might like keeping a journal throughout the summertime, also. This has the additional benefit of improving their writing skills, and is a particularly fun idea if you’re doing travel of any kind, whether camping or traveling to some different part of the country. Your children could also take a class, perhaps in art or sports, or SAT prep over the summer. They can continue to learn something they’re interested in, while you as a parent get a break! Perhaps your children may be considering joining some type of club or maybe they want to do some volunteer work. As a side benefit, these things are really helpful for your student’s overall portfolio when they start applying to colleges.

Whenever you do summer school, remember to look at offering your child credit for what they’re learning. Some of the more popular summer credits are physical education and occupational education (which simply suggests that they accomplish some work). When you calculate those credits, just count or estimate hours, with an eye towards 120-180 hours representing one credit, and 75-90 hours representing a half a credit. Perhaps your child plays in an orchestra or sings in a choir during the summer, and they meet for 2 hours a day. You can estimate those hours and say, “it looks like they’re going to spend ten hours a week, over eight weeks of summer, to total eighty hours, which can be a half a credit experience. ”

Developing educational titles for your student’s summer classes is an significant task. For example, my son’s swim classes weren’t called ‘summer swim league’. I recorded them as ‘P. E. Swimming’. Likewise, ‘occupational education’ is a better title than ‘yard work’. If you get stuck on educational titles, look at a community college to see which class titles are there. Often, community colleges will provide courses that are a little outside the box, which can help spur you on to think about educational class titles.