Summer Schedule

Every homeschool family looks at Summer a bit differently. Some take long, full breaks; some hardly break at all. Our family falls somewhere in between. I view Summer as a time to work on skills that perhaps got put on the back burner during the previous school year. I also view Summer as a time to “get ahead” on the next school year, setting us up for success and lightening our future load in any way possible. Summer is when we have the time to slow down and be intentional about setting up rhythms and routines in the home that will bless us in the school year to come. The following are areas we are honing in on for the next month or two—

Cooking

The Summer months are a fantastic time to add a couple recipes to your children’s repertoire. To do this, we rotate “chef days” where each child gets the entire day to help me in the kitchen with breakfast, lunch and dinner. So Monday is Halston’s chef day, Tuesday is Lyon’s, Wednesday is Lavender’s, and then it keeps looping. This allows them to help in the kitchen and gain skills they didn’t previously have. It grows their confidence to take ownership in the kitchen. Already, the kids have taken “chef day” into their own hands, with the chef of the day leading the other siblings in the kitchen if I’m not available to cook at the moment or if I’m moving slower than they’d like. They’ve started waking up and making eggs, bacon and toast completely on their own. This is something that could carry into next school year, them cooking and me having that time to get our Morning Time selections ready. They’ve also been taking over lunches, making sandwiches and fruit. Before outings, they grab ziplock bags and fill them with snacks for themselves, without even asking me! I can’t tell you how nice it’s been to see them growing in this area. I would also love to implement a meal prep day, perhaps on Saturday. To be continued on that.

Laundry

My goal for this Summer is that the children would take their laundry completely into their own hands. I think they are ready to take their dirty clothes basket each morning and dump it into the washing machine and start the load. After our light morning routine, they could go switch the load over, and after dinner they can put their clothes away. I don’t require folding, which makes things so much more doable for them. Just toss them in a drawer- I personally don’t even care which drawer, as long as it’s yours! This could totally carry into our school year and become their new laundry routine. Can you even IMAGINE only having to worry about you and your husband’s laundry? GAME. CHANGER.

Self-Stewardship

I’d love to implement a time of self-stewardship. The girls can wash their hair and I can put it into a new style for the week to come. They can paint their nails. Halston can get his hair cut and trim his nails. We can take some fancy bubble baths and maybe we can even have a tea party to finish it off! This can also be a time where I teach the girls new styles to do with their hair that they can do independently. That would be a huge help for next year

We ended our school year in late April, a bit earlier than usual. So for the first couple weeks of May, we had nothing on the agenda. No lessons. No required reading. No nothing. The children spent hours and hours outdoors, played games, read for fun and had lots of movie nights. Then starting in about mid-May, we commenced with a light routine.

Pre-School

We have a very relaxed approach to preschool, focusing mostly on reading great books, playing with letters and numbers, and spending long bouts of time outside. That being said, Summer gives me much more down time to hone in on my pre-schooler and be a little more intentional with his lessons. We are using Without Doors Preschool with my son, and loving it! He has thrived having more one on one time with me!

Bible

We continue to study the Word of God throughout the year. It’s the one thing we need not take a break from. This Summer, we’re diverting from our usual line-by-line reading from the ESV Bible, and opting to read from The Ology. It covers concepts like sin, redemption, omnipotence, grace, the Trinity, and more. This simple yet potent book has already provided a jumping off point for so many rich conversations.

Art

Art is a subject that has gotten pushed to the side in lieu of other subjects this past year. I thought Summer would be the perfect time to really delight in drawing, painting, sketching and working with other various mediums, knowing that we have the time to linger over our work. We are using The Art Studies and loving it so far. We probably won’t do every lesson- maybe not even close. The point is to delight in art for a couple months, and be creative. This skill will only set the children up for greater levels of freedom and creativity when it comes to notebooking, which is one of the primary ways we document our learning for the school year.

Literature

Reading gets a spot on the list of things we focus on heavily in the next couple months. My 6 year old who just recently learned to read will continue to read early readers aloud to me about 3 times per week. My oldest will continue to read chapter books aloud to me about 3 times per week. My oldest is reading through the Chronicles of Narnia, and also starting on the scheduled literature readings for her upcoming 4th grade school year. She reads aloud for about 30 minutes a day; if not aloud to me, then at night in her bed. We also do a family read-aloud before bed time, and I’m pulling those selections from our upcoming school year’s scheduled literature readings. That way, we feel a little more prepared before the official year starts, and can take our time a bit more.

Math

My oldest is still memorizing her multiplication facts; so a few times per week, she works on that independently.

Daily Rhythm

There is no tight schedule on Summer days. We sleep in, have slow mornings and take our time through the day. Here’s a loose rhythm of how things run.

• 8am My youngest wakes and we do Preschool together (usually in bed) and then he and I get ready
• 9am Everyone wakes/Morning Chores (get ready, make bed, brush teeth, start laundry)
• 9:30am Breakfast and Bible (chef-of-the-day cooks with me or cooks by themselves leading their siblings)
• 10am Art Class (I let them work on their art for as long as they’d like, which is typically about an hour)
• 11am Outdoor Play (bike riding or neighborhood pool)
• 12pm Lunch (chef-of-the-day usually makes sandwiches to eat outside or at the pool)
• 1pm Come in and start Reading + Math (15 minutes Reading with 6 year old, 30 minutes Reading with 9 year old, 10 minutes Math practice)
• Back outside til about 4pm playing with friends
• 4pm Indoor quiet play and then TV show after they’ve played a while
• 6pm dinner and bath
• 7:30pm family read aloud and prayers

As I said, this is a loose schedule. If someone calls for a playdate, we’re there! That’s the beauty of the next couple of months. Even if this rhythm only happens 3 times per week, I’m okay with that. I hope breaking this down helped another mama out there!

Blessings, friends!