Shorter School Days & Meaningful Playtime Summer Elective Hack
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No matter how many kids you are homeschooling, the time is never enough. I have an elective hack that saves us time in our school day and gives us extra meaningful play in summer. Let me share about it, but first, let me introduce myself.
Hello! If you are new here, I’m Amber. I teach multiple levels of kids in our homeschool. It is one of the challenges of being a homeschool mother of ten. Did you know that one year, we had a literal K through 12 school. We had kindergarten through 12th grade, we were only missing a sixth and ninth grader.
Imagine it for a minute. K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th 11th and 12th. This is why I know how to save time and help you skip to the front of the learning curve.
We’ve always had to be attentive about how we have met the individual needs of our children’s grade level work, and creative in how we oriented them together in groups. By doing several subjects together as a family we could streamline our homeschool day. That meant that we could get through the work we needed to do together and the truth is, we had a really good time while doing it.
I’ve learned some great tricks along the way. I wanted to share the ones that are especially useful in a quick reading summertime series. I broke us some longer talks I’ve done into quickly digestible posts. Most of them will serve as reminders of things you have probably done at one time of another in your homeschool, but with busyness, work demands and a growing family, you might have forgotten. Other ideas might be new to you. Either way, I hope they are a great help to you and give you more peace and productivity.
This week’s focus is on my Homeschool Mom Elective Hack: hold back some assigned tasks and do them in summer.
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Elective Hack for Summer Learning
A few years back I was frustrated because we had several craft kits and a modeling project left over from the school year. There was never a good time to do them. We were busy with assignments in the CORE subjects that are required during the school day. Evenings were busy with running the older boys to wrestling practices and tournaments. We loved their pursuit, but it filled a chunk of our free time.
Take advantage of summer’s slower pace.
Summer is less structured, but I still have plenty to do. Keeping the kids working on some fun activities was a great way to use those leftover kits. Now, I intentionally hold back a few of the regularly assigned elective games, projects or studies and use them in the summer when we have more time to enjoy them.
Do you have a schedule for your current curriculum? You can choose to simply check them off. I did this last year to free up more time for us. It feels amazing to take control of your schedule. Look at you, already ahead for the year!
It might seem like a small thing, but it feels really good to give yourself some margin, especially if you are just beginning to homeschool.
Sonlight has great learning kits. They make a great elective hack to coordinate with your learning. We loved using this kit when we were learning about China. The kits are easy to grab and use when you have a free chunk of time. They make a great summer learning tool.
Using elective kits and tools in summer not only saves us time in our homeschool, but we have been able to really focus on those electives instead of feeling rushed to “get it done.” Nothing make learning a NEW skill less fun than having to rush through it or as a parent knowing you are getting frustrated when it SHOULD be fun! Alleviating the element of time constraints gives you back the freedom to mess up. Suddenly, it is ok to undo a few lines of crochet, paint over a poorly drawn line or even do a fun experiment over one more time.
Can You Use This Summer Elective Hack?
Do you have an elective kit or project that you set aside because there wasn’t enough time in the school day? Let summer be your casual learning season. Is there a topic your child really showed interest in? Use this summer season to dig deeper. You can also look ahead and introduce a topic that will be covered in depth NEXT homeschool year.
Stay tuned for more tips and ideas to make your summer great and get you ready for a great homeschool year!
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End this summer feeling refreshed and productive. You can create great work habits, help your kids learn to work independently and create more wiggle room in your homeschool day next year.
