Category Archives: summer days

Summer Days that Count as School

Each summer Faithful Scholars answers questions as to which/whether days can count toward school– CC practicum/camp, music camp, mechanics camp, car trips, vacations based around historical stops, etc.  YES!!!  You can, and should, count them.  Value and give credit to all learning achieved toward the goal of raising lifelong learners.  To learn and have it discounted due to being officially on break is silly.  One more beauty of homeschool!

At preset we have a reading contest going on.  Toss in some math, look at the science gleaned through explore and discover, and have a discussion on current events at dinner.  Viola!  School without the typical pressure of school.  That being said, my children are older so while we count these days, we always go over our 180 in order to accomplish/complete all of the traditional knowledge that we wish to ingest during the year.  When they were younger we simply and joyfully counted the days and focused on 3.5 day weeks of school and lots of adventure, friend, service time.

Our best days are spent learning as we play and playing as we learn.  It gets to the point of thinking that we ought not count them because no blood, sweat, or tears were shed much less paper trail created.  For children under the age of 7, learning IS play.  When your sweet little one wants more school work it is because it is fun to ‘play school’.  Obviously it makes mama super happy, it is time together, and every child wants more of that sorta game.  My children used to play being a student while doing their schoolwork, being siblings, cleaning their rooms…..  Huh???!!  It is all a fun and games in their incredibly alive imaginations as long as we cultivate those precious ethereal ‘lands’ to remain intact.

The younger your child is, the easier it feels to count days.  Face it, everything experienced, discovered, practiced, and explored is learning.  Add in some formal math and daily reading and you are golden.   Math and reading comprehension are the pillars to all learning.  If your child can do these subjects well, they can self-teach all other subjects.

To feel comfy in counting your summer-learning, renew your association membership as soon as your year ends.  Perhaps you don’t feel that you are doing enough to count every day, but certainly some come along that make you think, “THIS is certainly school-worthy.”  Trust your instinct.  You are equipped with a brain to reason and a spirit of honor.

Middle and high school grades become a bit more formal with longer days as you present more complex concepts and spend the time digging, practicing, mastering.  However, those days of “THIS is certainly school-worthy.” still come about— and you can trust yourself!

Homeschooling parents are some of the most honest and honorable people that I have ever come across.  We would rather err on the side of fault than take something that we did not fully earn, deserve, or understand.  Continue to reason.  Continue to honor.  Continue to trust.

Going Slow is Sometimes Like Medicine

Ponder the last time you spent a day or an hour or a moment purposely going slow. A mom wrote the above title to me the other day after she had watched a box turtle meander along and fireflies dance. These are reasons to homeschool, right?

How is it that we get caught up in completing one more task, creating one more organized space, engineering one more functioning schedule, and then decide that now that we have a well oiled machine, er schedule, er family/school unit, we should add MORE!! We could achieve more if we put our children on a yellow bus, yet we chose a path less traveled. One with lots of lovely bends in the road bringing who knows what or who around the curve. Do we make and take the time to embrace those lovely surprises or do we groan as they come along knowing that they either must be ignored, avoided, or allowed to topple our proverbial apple cart?

A homeschool life is such a wonderful journey. Not always amazing in ways that warm the cockles of our hearts, but amazing the ways that life is amazing–BECAUSE of its continuous ups and downs. You may be one that makes every attempt to straighten out the road so as to avoid unexpected surprises or you may be one that zooms down the road so focused and fast that the unexpected surprises simply blur into the past. Or are you one to round the corner, see a slow turtle, and allow it to stop you in your tracks for many moments of goodness, beauty, and truth?

After all, you were probably NOT drawn to homeschool for the exacting nature and pace requiring drill sergeant-like attention to detail, pace, and accomplishment. Quite the opposite. We innately recognize that we are fully equipped to lead, guide, and teach our children towards Truth. In that we study Beauty. Through this we find Goodness.

How was your year? Can you remember the times that you watched the turtles plod and the fireflies dance? If you are like me, you know that you did take a few of those moments, but can’t recall doing it as much as you would like. For my part, my morning cuppa will be spent on my backyard deck or wandering about my yard or peeking at my sleeping children. Dishes can wait, the house will always need a tidy up, and business hours need not be done away with simply because a laptop can travel far too easily.

Summer School aka Year ‘Round Schooling aka Relaxing

With summer swiftly arriving and calling us out of doors it is a joyful release to know that the required 180 day academic year is (almost) over.  But, if you are like us and enjoy the ‘anchorage’ of daily worthwhile accomplishment, it is also a time of continuation and exploration.

We will continue our math and reading- Possibly some journaling, and we will take on an area of interest or weakness.   The groaning and gnashing of teeth will be short lived if you just take to heart that your home culture is one of real life which means that while our job requirements may change, they do not stop, and rarely take more than a short lived break.  It is who we are.  It is what we do.

Last summer we worked on Latin.  This summer we will focus on art and handwriting (a form of art in my way of thinking).  And don’t forget the math and reading.  You know that science will, literally, creep in, and history will be present in many of the books read as well as be a daily dinner (table) discussion.  Viola!  Year ‘Round Schooling.  Simpler than you thought?  Precept upon precept.  Our goal is the love of learning for the sake of understanding The Word as well as an accumulation of knowledge and ability.  Our accumulated work/textbooks no longer bring joy past their completion and blessed laying down.  Not that they are not valid stepping stones.  But, they are not the spark that ignites the spirit of joyful curiosity within.