Summer Integration

EP259:  What if summer is when your homeschool matures? In this special episode, Jean and the Taproot Teacher Training team explore the idea of summer integration ~ how rest, reflection, play, creativity, and simple rhythms help learning settle more deeply. If you've ever wondered how to approach summer without pressure or guilt, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on growth, family life, and lifelong learning. 

Find the show notes here. ➡️ https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode259/

Join us at the Taproot Teacher Training 🌳https://artofhomeschooling.com/taproot

Transcript

Summer As Integration

Jean Miller, Host 0:00

Summertime is almost here as I'm recording this episode, and I have a question for you. What if summer is when your homeschool matures? Not because you're doing more, not because you've found the perfect curriculum or have it all figured out, but because everyone finally has some space to breathe. I think sometimes we treat summer like a pause button, right? We're ready for a break. Or we panic and wonder how to keep lessons going because we feel so behind. But what if summer is not really either of these? What if summer is a time for integration? A season when all the stories, lessons, struggles, rhythms, and experiences of the homeschool year begin to settle more deeply into your children and into you. Summer learning often looks quieter, less formal, more spacious, more active. It happens while gardening, swimming, listening to audiobooks in the hammock, going to summer camp, building obstacle courses, getting bored, reading on rainy afternoons, traveling, reflecting, and resting. As I look back on our family's summers, some of the deepest growth in our homeschool happened during the summertime. In this episode, I want to share some reflections and encouragement from several of the Taproot Teacher Training team members, the mentors who put together the Taproot Teacher Training. And we are talking today about summer rhythm, rest, learning, and integration. If you're interested in the Taproot Teacher Training and want to learn more about it, it's a professional development retreat for our homeschoolers every summer. You can check out the links in the show notes for this episode at artofhomeschooling.com slash episode 259. We'd love to have you join us at Taproot in August. And to everyone listening to this episode, I hope this gives you permission to exhale a little. Because summer doesn't have to look super productive to be meaningful.

Let Go Of Year-End Pressure

Jean Miller, Host 2:27

Before we can enter summer well, many of us have to let go of the pressure we've been carrying throughout the homeschool year. And that's not always easy to do. Even experienced homeschoolers can struggle to release the unfinished plans, lingering expectations, or the feeling that we should keep pushing. Here are some thoughts on this from Sarah.

Wrapping Up With Simple Reading

Sarah Etheridge, Taproot Team 2:56

Hi, this is Sarah. I'm Jean's assistant and part of the Taproot team as well. For me, the summer holidays always seem to sneak up. And if you're getting ready to take a break from your homeschool lessons for the summer, like we are, I think the most important thing is to allow yourself to let go. Let go of unfinished lessons or main lesson blocks, let go of plans that fell to the wayside, let go of field trips that didn't happen, or art projects that you didn't get to. It can feel hard. But even experienced homeschoolers have to work through this. And really, it's a sign that your homeschooling is vibrant and inspired. It's always better to have more ideas than to not have enough. And going through Jean's reflection exercises to focus on all the learning that did happen can be really helpful when you need to let things go like this. So here at our house, I'm calling this week reading and wrapping up. And we're simplifying our rhythm after a super busy spring so that each morning we read aloud together and we'll complete just one wrapping up activity. And really, our summer rhythm will be similar, weaving in a little bit of reading time, music practice, maybe some art or games, and lots of free time. For summer, I got myself an actual paper magazine subscription and a crossword puzzle book. And I'm hoping to enjoy a few minutes of downtime every day, which I have to be super intentional about, or I tend to get carried away by that big summer energy. So that's our transition to summer. And if you're in the same place with your homeschooling, I wish you a happy wrapping up week.

Jean Miller, Host 5:00

I love her reminder that having more ideas than time is actually a sign of a living, breathing homeschool, not a sign of failure. And maybe summer is when we stop trying to finish everything and start noticing what's already grown. One of the things I notice every year is that rest changes people. It changes us, changes our children. Children grow emotionally or intellectually after weeks of outdoor play and less structure. Parents regain creativity, everyone softens a little bit. Rebecca and Jody both speak so beautifully about this idea of integration and letting learning settle. Here are some encouraging words from Rebecca.

A June Reset For Parents

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Hi, this is Rebecca. These are my tips for a summer reset for you, the homeschooling parent. You need a reset just as much as the children do. Rest allowed the brain to integrate all the learning from the school year. And it applies to us as parents as well. For me, the month of June is a great time for that. I typically take the whole month off, anything school related. I'm not even planning for the next year at this point. The reset is needed for me, and I feel like it's earned, but it's not a free-for-all. It's basically a shift in my rhythm. So, what that looks like for me is a shift toward being outdoors, toward gardening, toward strawberry picking, processing berries, making jam. And of course, I'm doing that with my children, or was doing that with my children when they were younger, because now they're much older. My oldest is 22 and my youngest is 16. In June, I might also focus on some organizing and indoor cleaning projects, the things I didn't do during the school year. It's a month where I prioritize my own self-care as well. I may schedule a doctor's appointment, a massage, or a chiropractor appointment, the things that I didn't get to during the school year because I was too busy. I also make it a priority to visit friends during the summer and maybe plan a walk with a friend that I haven't seen in a while, maybe once a week or once every other week. And I really cherish those times with my friends to catch up and to just share life with. Then as the summer progresses by July, that's kind of when I start to itch toward looking ahead again and I'll start looking at potential subjects I may cover in the upcoming year. And then the brainstorming and the planning starts all again. But of course, I'll set aside pockets of time where I'm doing brainstorming and planning, and then other pockets of time where the kids and I are doing things outside, we're going on field trips. Now the kids are older, like I said, and they're working. So I do have a little bit more time to myself. I've been volunteering at a food pantry for many, many years. And instead of doing volunteer work once a month, I will go typically every week during the summer. And when the kids were younger, I was actually able to take a couple of them with me to experience that project as well. Now in August, Taproot teacher training happens. So a summer retreat is wonderful during this phase. For the last 15 years, Taproot has been the place for me, first as a participant and now as a presenter. So starting in July, I start to plan and look ahead to the next school year and also be planning my Taproot workshops for this summer coming up. And then in August, I'm attending Taproot and finalizing my plans. And this year I will just have one left at home, a high school junior. So summer is just around the corner, and I hope to see you at Taproot and enjoy your reset.

Jean Miller, Host 8:35

And along with that reset for ourselves as parents comes something else: spaciousness. Here's Jody's

Spaciousness Boredom And Becoming

Jean Miller, Host 8:44

advice.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

Hey y'all, Jody Messler here. One thing I've noticed after 30 years of teaching music and working with kids and families in the summer is that we don't necessarily stop. We can actually use this season as a time of integration. So what that means is during the school year, the kids are, you know, taking things in, information, they have loaded schedules, they have expectations and activities, lots of emotions. But summer can be a time when you let all that stuff just settle deeper into who they are. And even though I was primarily a private music teacher and not a long-term homeschooling mom, I always love some of the Waldorf-inspias around rhythm. And this is a great time to set up a new rhythm for your summer. A slower, restful spaciousness during the summer is what I like to have happen because we do need to get bored and we knew we need a new creativity to come out of that and let our nervous systems slow down and just take in this beauty of the summer. And that would include rainy days as well, which I really love. Rain and water, and it's just restful. You know, to me, summer should be restful. And in the rest, you know, you let all that stuff season from the year. And when we're resting, we can ask questions like what brought joy this year? What felt draining? What new interests are arising? And what can I add to our family rhythm in the summer? And sometimes these answers don't come through planning, they come while we're swimming, or we're gardening, or we're biking, or we're playing music on the porch, or taking walks, or just simply just sitting outside in the evening by a fire. As a music teacher, I've always seen a lot of growth when we rest. Because it's when you rest like and come back, it's like you're even better. Especially with all the music that I teach. They didn't even practice and they'll come back and they'll sound like they practiced a lot. And it's really wild. It just it's like they practice in their head and it's just they're sleeping, but when it comes back, it comes back even better. So I think summer can be less about trying to keep up with all the things, but more about becoming. This is just a beautiful season for you guys. Take it easy, relax, enjoy, create, bring your family together and during these beautiful times, and don't rush.

Jean Miller, Host 11:31

All right, I hope that's helpful. This phrase really stays with me. It's less about keeping up and more about becoming. That feels like summertime to me. We're not abandoning learning, but rather trusting that growth is still happening underneath the surface. Here are some thoughts on what summer can look like.

A Gentle Summer Rhythm That Holds

Jean Miller, Host 11:56

In our family, summertime looked very different from the more formal homeschool year. We still had a rhythm, but it was way simpler. It was gentler, lighter, and more seasonal. I love summertime for a simpler rhythm. We all needed a break in our family from formal lesson time, a time when we could be outside more, gardening or just sitting on the deck or the porch. Our kiddos might go to summer camp, swim at the pool, or bike ride with neighborhood buddies, but we also needed a regular rhythm. We couldn't just throw rhythm out the window because I would find if I tried that approach, things would fall apart pretty quickly. So we would have special days for different types of activities during the summer, such as going to the library on Mondays, having a park day with friends on Fridays, and go to the pool in the afternoons on the other days. We'd also take a few out-of-town trips to go camping with friends or head to northern Michigan to visit grandparents. When my kiddos were little, we enjoyed going berry picking or reading aloud in the yard on a blanket, making homemade ice cream. We had this basket full of books for reading aloud and card games, other games that we could easily carry to the backyard on a sunny day or the front porch on a rainy day. Having these things set up really helped our more relaxed summer rhythm go more smoothly. I do want to underscore the importance of unscheduled time. We want to protect that unstructured time for play, rest, reflection. It's important for children to have time for creating their own little worlds, their imagination, their creativity. Summer is a beautiful time for imagination and also simple traditions. The smallest things can become meaningful family memories when repeated with intention. Here are some thoughts from Allison.

Simple Traditions Kids Remember

SPEAKER_00 14:11

This is Alison from Austin, Texas, and just thought I'd share with you a couple things that we used to do in the summers when the kids were younger. The most memorable one was probably the fairy table for Midsummer Night's Eve. We did a beautiful just gathering any stones and just whatever we had, little figures and shells and sticks and leaves. Just created a fairy table on a surface. And in the evening, then I would leave a few treats there sprinkled from the fairies when they visited the fairy table on midsummer night's eve. And the kids just loved it. A little bit on that fairy houses. We also had the fairy houses video from the library and we would build fairy houses out in the yard. Very simple things that you all probably know how to do and have done, but when you do them with intention, it just adds up. And the other thing that was really fun is I used to babysit some of my husband's colleagues' kits in the summer, so I'd make it kind of a summer camp. And the biggest hit was an obstacle course, again, made with any kind of stuff in the backyard. We'd change it almost every day, and they loved to build it and do it and turn it into a game, and it was so simple and so fun. And then another tip I got from a friend in Texas, because it's hot, was to just get those simple plastic splash pools and sit with your feet in them and put a hat on and have a popsicle. And that was always fun to do too. And again, so simple and cost virtually nothing. So enjoy your summer, and I look forward to seeing y'all in Taproot in uh August. Bye-bye.

Jean Miller, Host 15:58

I love Alison's reminder that simple things add up over time. Children remember the feeling of summer, the rhythms, the magic, the togetherness, not whether we've checked every box. And underneath all of this is something really important. Learning is still happening. Maybe even more deeply than we realize. Karen shared this beautiful reminder about lifelong learning.

Lifelong Learning Beyond The Calendar

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Hello, this is Karen. We tend to look at homeschooling as traditional school just placed at home instead of at a designated location or an institutional type building. This usually means we think of school time in terms of both a daily and a yearly schedule or a rhythm. So this begs the question: does this mean that everyone stops learning? No learning takes place in June, July, and August? Some people believe that's true. I certainly don't. I believe that learning happens all the time that a human is alive. Lifelong learning happens both from reaching out and interacting with the world, but also from reflecting on the experiences from those interactions. So, what does a traditional summer break mean for those of us doing non-traditional education? It means an opportunity for every member of the family to learn from different people and in different settings, different from home. Interactions with people outside your usual environment is very beneficial for all of us. Summer Camp is designed to give kids, but families too, opportunities to be outside, play sports, learn a new craft, or make new friends. But it's also a time for homeschooling parents to reflect on their own learning. What worked well last year? What can I do differently to be a better parent? Or even a better spouse. What enriches me to feel excited about being with my kids all day? These are my recommendations to enrich your life learning, but also your kids. Take a summer class in something that's always interested you, or take it alongside your kids. If you can't afford to take a class, Google it or go to the library and look up how to do it and learn about it either on your own or with your kids. Make your opportunities for learning as valuable as the ones that you make for your kids. Grow a garden, go on vacations to new places. Even something as simple as a trip to the local park can be a wonderful chance to spark a new interest for you or your kids. Or maybe something you do together for a while. Start a new creative project. Expand on an existing skill set. Read a different genre of book. Or, my favorite, trade kids with a trusted friend so that you can have a weekend getaway with your spouse. And your kids get to learn about how other families' daily rhythms and foods happen. Summer is both a time to reflect on your experiences and to reach outside your comfort zone for interactions with others. That's where real learning happens.

Jean Miller, Host 19:21

And sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is simplify even further. Joe shared what mattered most in his family during the summer months.

Math Art Reading Plus Real Rest

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Summertime is here again, right after spring. Right after the end of a very long school year. So what should you do for the summer? I remember when I was young. Just not even thinking about anything until September came. Then I was homeschooling my kids. I remember just teaching year-round and trying to keep a rhythm. I do a little bit of both now. My kids go to a school, but we do stuff over the summer. Three things math, art, and reading. So visit your libraries for the reading part. They always have really cool programs. But the other thing to remember is summer's really important. Just explore and spend time doing nothing. As John Lubbock said in The Use of Life, rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water or watching the clouds float across the sky is by no means a waste of time. So find creative ways to not really waste your time, but rest together and create memories.

Taproot Renewal And Final Exhale

Jean Miller, Host 20:53

Math, art, reading, and rest. Time for exploration, time to just be. Honestly, that's probably enough more often than we think. And I want to close this conversation with a little wisdom from Barbara, the founder of the Tepper Teacher Training. Barbara's summertime advice is this take a break, enjoy the outdoors, read good books on rainy days, let your kiddos pursue new interests and have fun. So very simple. Summer integration isn't just for children, though, it's often for us too. As homeschooling parents, we need time to reflect, to reconnect with our creativity, to experience learning ourselves, and to remember why we chose this homeschooling path in the first place. And honestly, that's the reason I love the Teppert Teacher Training so much. It's not just information, it's an immersive experience. You sing patients. Paint, listen to stories, practice the lively arts, reflect, and learn alongside other homeschooling parents. You get to become the student again for a few days, and that kind of experience changes the way you return home to your homeschool. This year is especially meaningful because we're celebrating Teproot's 20th anniversary. So if your soul is craving renewal, inspiration, creativity, community, or simply space to integrate your homeschooling journey, we would absolutely love to welcome you there. You can learn more about the Teproot Teacher Training at Artofhomeschooling.com/slash Taproot. And until next time, take a breath, step outside, and trust that meaningful learning is still unfolding even in the spaciousness of summer.