Summer Homeschooling Ideas

Do you homeschool and/or supplement your child's education in the summer? Here are some ideas for fun learning explorations over the summer!

Many families find that it works well to homeschool year-round. That has worked great for us, too (especially since implementing Leadership Education into our homeschool, such that my kids want to keep doing school all year).

I like to make things more relaxed by shifting our homeschool focus in the summer months. This gives me a chance to ease up a little on trying to "do-it-all" and allows us to move into the next school-year eager and ready for new explorations. I typically drop our science and history studies in the summer to focus on some of the areas below.

Scroll down to see ideas for bringing fun and adventure into your summer learning time. I'd recommend that you just pick one or two of these to try out, rather than getting stressed about trying to do too much. 🙃

• Outdoor Adventures

• Focus on the Arts

• Cultural Explorations

Outdoor Adventures

Ecosystems

• Explore and hike in local ecosystems including mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, beach, volcanoes, etc

• You can make this even more meaningful by reading aloud books about different ecosystems before you head out to explore; go here for a list of 50+ books about different ecosystems: https://www.nourishedandnurturedlife.com/post/earth-science-unit-study

Swimming Proficiency

• Visit local pools, rivers, lakes, or the ocean to developing swimming proficiency

• Reading books about water ecosystems could help expand the learning into other areas

Vegetable Gardening

• Plant a summer vegetable garden; learn how here: https://www.nourishedandnurturedlife.com/post/tips-for-planting-the-summer-vegetable-garden

• Work together on nurturing the garden

• Harvest food from your garden and then learn how to preserve and cook your harvest; go here for 20+ recipes for your summer harvest: https://www.nourishedandnurturedlife.com/blog/categories/summer-harvest

Summer Fruits

• Visit u-pick orchards and farms; summer fruits include berries, apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, mangoes, etc.

• Learn how to cook and preserve your harvest; go here for 20+ recipes for your summer harvest: https://www.nourishedandnurturedlife.com/blog/categories/summer-harvest

Camping

• Go camping and practice survival skills such as fire-starting, foraging, etc.

• Star gaze while you're camping; there are lots of resources for stargazing here: https://www.nourishedandnurturedlife.com/post/astronomy-unit-study-resources

• Bring along binoculars for stargazing and scoping out animals and plants

Critter explorations

• Raise critters or creatures to bring nature right into your home; some fun options include tadpoles (collected from a local waterway), caterpillars (collected outdoors or you can order these), baby chicks, etc

• Bird watching can be done casually or more formally; some resources include Sibley's Field Guide to Birds, Project Nest Watch and EBird

Focus on the Arts

Classical Music

• Explore classical music together; resources include The Story of Classical Music and/or Music Masters CDs

• This can include attending live classical concerts and listening to classical music on the radio

Art and Artists

• Learn about artists and study their works; resources include Picture Study Portfolios from Simply Charlotte Mason and All Things Bright and Beautiful blog

• A living room art display can work well for bringing this into your daily lives, we use these 8.5X11 picture frames for easy print-to-wall display

Shakespeare

• Explore Shakespeare's plays through picture books, story books, movies, and videos

• Shakespeare's comedies (such as Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest) are probably the best way to start out; beware that Shakespeare's Tragedies are probably too heavy and dark for most young kids

• Resources include Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb, Tales From Shakespeare Graphic Novel by Marcia Williams, Shakespeare Retold by Edith Nesbit, and adaptations of Shakespeare by Bruce Coville

• After you've read some children's adaptations, the on-stage recordings of Shakespeare plays from Rice University are generally good and relatively kid-friendly

Cultural Explorations

World Geography and Culture

• Take your kids on a world trip without leaving home through books, music, and foods from different countries

• Resources include Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, Material World: A Global Family Portrait, World Trip Without Leaving Home, 20 Countries World Trip Chart

• Here are book lists for 26 World Fairy Tales and Folk Tales and 26 World Picture Books

Tuttle Twins Books

• Read the 12 Tuttle Twins books, which dig deep into freedom, liberty, economics, finances and government

• Take time to discuss each book in-depth

Foreign Language Focus

• Focus on learning a foreign language all together with books, music, movies, and more

• Some of our favorite resources for Spanish include The Language Tutor on Youtube, Pimsleur conversational Spanish lessons, DuoLingo, Play and Learn Spanish, and the Google Translate app

• Incorporating children's early readers in Spanish may also be helpful, such as those by Mo Willems; watching movies or videos with Spanish subtitles or dubbing can also be helpful

I hope these ideas inspire you to have some fun with learning this summer! Do you homeschool year-round? What do you differently in the summer months? What works best for your family?

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