Thread: Weekly Poll: How much time did you take off from homeschooling this summer?

This was a question that I would have answered differently the last three years of our homeschooling adventure. This summer was so different for us. We were so busy with extra prep writing classes for my oldest, starting Spanish class, music lessons, swim team, getting ready for having a ((GULP)) high schooler and of course, fixing up the house to sell (hopefully this fall). Even though I do consider that we did unschooling this summer with a bit of WE HAVE TO GET THIS DONE. But over all we didn't have a set schedule like we usually did in past years. We basically kept going with small breaks or shorter school weekdays. As I said this year was so different, we had or I should say I planned to take a 3 week break after we did our testing the second week of June. I didn’t feel like we were ready to start high school after only 3 weeks of planning that I decided that after the 4th of July would be good. Then life kicked us in the butt with family and house stuff that I decided OK right after their summer camps in August. We finally did start this past Monday. Even though I was still a bit nervous because I still didn’t “feel” ready for this year with a high schooler. We did it and I had to laugh when my boys opened my much prepared google spreadsheet with their “to dos” until we go on vacation in September. My youngest asked so sweetly “ I am supposed to do this in ONE DAY?” LOL, I said, “Yes honey, with my help and welcome to the 4th grade!”

So how much time did you take off and was it longer than you thought or shorter because you are SuperDAD and WonderMOM? Not that any homeschooler really takes any time off, I know I for one am always doing something educational or a life lesson with my boys. I am basically talking about making sure all the subjects that we want to cover are covered;0)

we took 2 months off but during that time we took a week and went to London (during the riots) and Edinburgh. It was a vacation for for us but also a history, art, and architecture lesson for sonny so it counted as school. Also during the 2 months he had three novels to read, Last of the Mohican's, Brave New World, and Gunrunner Moon.

Originally Posted by mommykicksbutt

Gunrunner Moon.

We read that last year!! The boys loved it!

Yeah, we going to do Novel Writing this year using Ed Ditto's curriculum.

I voted, even though we haven't had our summer yet We always end up taking 3 months...December everything starts to wind down, then Jan and Feb are too hot to move, so we mostly just swim and sleep and read and eat mangoes. We power up again in March.

Except for dd13 who can't stand having such a long break; she does a modified schedule from New Year on.

We took a couple of months off this year because of our move. It was longer than I anticipated and I'm not sure if we'll take that much time again next year.

We've been easing in this week, first a day of math, then a new history method, and then last night the much anticipated chemistry curriculum arrived so today we'll add in science.

Given that we're still tripping over boxes I don't "feel ready" either, but DS needs some sort of schedule even if it's light for a couple more weeks. Co-op starts mid September but that was too long to get back into our groove (whatever our groove will be this year). Now that science has arrived, he's ready to go!

Our break is looking to be about two months--June 30 to September 8. I intended to do a light schedule a few days each week, but that didn't pan out at all. We're all just having too much fun being lazy. I've also used the time to do a lot of planning for next year. The kids have been doing lots of reading and a little math, so hopefully their brains haven't gone totally mushy.

DS5 started at at a year-round K in mid-July, so DD7 started back at home at the same time, so it was 5 weeks. Just enough time for the kids to get bored and be ready to start back. She'll take breaks on his school schedule as well, so it's looking like 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off, until the 5-week summer break.

We have been off the last 11 weeks and I have to admit....its been great! Yes, I need a break just as much as DD does. We are putting in a new AC/furnace, finishing up today (that H&C guy had better make it!!) and its still ungodly HOT here--We are suppose to start school on Monday 8/29. If the AC is not finished, we won't be. Its just too hot & humid to think or to get any good sleep.

We took roughly a month off (and that's about as long as we take every summer) and then got a head-start, just because my son had to head back to his dad's last week. I at least wanted to get him into some sort of a routine, so that it wouldn't be a huge shock when his nanny started homeschooling him. Usually, I give him the entire month of August off, but we had to change the timing just a little bit this year.