Keeping Summer Fun and Educational

Author: Ryan Carl
If you're wondering how to keep this summer educational but fun for your homeschooled kids without creating extra work for yourself as teacher, summer classes are a great idea to explore. Maybe you just haven't had time to squeeze in an art class and your child is really interested in art, or perhaps you've always wanted them to experience team sports, but it just hasn't fit into your school year--summer is the time! Perhaps you want your child to take a class to fill a specific hole in their learning. I talked to a mom recently whose child was not doing so well in their SAT math, and they decided that summer was a great opportunity to take an SAT prep class, because somebody else would do the actual teaching and mom would get a bit of a break. No matter your needs or your student's interests, there's sure to be an interesting class out there for you!




Summer is also a good time for your children to join or form some sort of club, or do some kind of volunteer work. My husband and I worked for a long time at a local clothing bank; but there are also food banks and vacation bible schools out there looking for volunteers. As an extra bonus, these things are really helpful for your student's overall portfolio when they start applying to colleges.



Another great summer activity is to encourage your child to keep a journal. I know a lot of people who are successful with this. While they might not have journal writing during the school year as a subject, their children are willing to journal every day during the summer. This can really help students with their writing skills, and is a fun idea if you're doing travel of any kind-- whether camping, visiting some different area of the country, or just staying home.



Whenever you do any form of summer school, remember to capture the learning your children do and turn it into school credit on their transcripts. Some common summer credits include physical education and occupational education (which simply means that they do some work). When you count these credits, remember that between 120-180 hours of work is one credit, and 75-90 hours of work is considered a half a credit. For instance, maybe your student is in an orchestra or a choir during the summer. You can just estimate those hours and say, "it looks like they're going to spend ten hours a week in class, for the eight weeks of summer, which would be eighty hours, which is half a credit experience."
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