What Are Summer Homeschool Programs?
Since the states (which license and approve home schools) do not require summer school, a homeschool summer school can serve any purpose that the participants choose. Summer can be a time to remediate or keep up material already learned, preview what’s to come, introduce new topics that don’t fit during the regular school year, or tieing into community offerings. Here are some different summer programs that a homeschool could undertake:
- Remedial Work If the homeschool students could use some review and extended work about concepts or working with skills or strategies that they didn’t fully master during the regular school year, rather than having them start behind in the fall, the summer can be used to help them become more secure with the material. With summer being outside the “we have to get this done by this date” scheme, you can take the time to try different approaches and methods to assist students with material that didn’t quite take the first time.
- Extra Credit It’s bonus time! What would your student really like to study or what is an interest that they don’t even realize could be part of their schooling? It could be anything that strikes their fancy: stamp collecting; architectural drawing; Korean; gardening; flute lessons; entomology; square dancing; cowboys; aliens.
- Introduce a New Subject Is there a major new challenge coming up in the fall? Whether it’s time to start Algebra, Geometry, French, or Biology, a relaxed introduction in the summer can provide a foundation for an easier time when the school year starts again.
- Community-Linked Programs Many communities have a wide variety of summer programs, including sports, theater, family entertainment; summer reading programs; and more. Summer can be a time to nurture community ties.
- Online Study Interested in trying out an online study option? Met a subject area that you don’t feel completely comfortable teaching? Summer might be a good time to try out an accredited, well-regarded online program.
- Recreation Recreation can be educational, too! From camping trips to rock climbing to cross-country tours to visits to other parts of the world, homeschoolers can learn about geography, zoology and botany, culture, ethnicity, languages, and more.
- Cross-Grade Activities and Projects During the year, children may need to work separately on grade-level appropriate projects and skills in many cases, but during the summer, you can try out activities where everyone contributes at his or her level. Planting a family vegetable or flower garden, building a tree house, planning a trip, training a new pet, learning to bake, inventing a board game, creating a family web site, participating in geocaching, forming a family musical ensemble, can all be summer homeschool projects.
- Combination Or, you could mix and match aspects of all these suggestions to create a mix that suits your homeschool.
