
Homeschool Horizons
“Homeschool Horizons” is a podcast dedicated to sharing insights, tips, and stories from my seven years of homeschooling experience. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for new ideas, this podcast offers practical advice, encouragement, and strategies to help families thrive! Tune in for a down-to-earth, supportive space to grow along your homeschooling journey.
Homeschool Horizons
Summer
What are you doing this summer? Will you continue homeschooling throughout the summer or take a break?
Improve writing skills while having fun!
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Welcome to Homeschool Horizons! I’m Yvette, your host! What’s everyone got planned for summer this year? Do you all homeschool year round or do you take a break during the summer? I typically give my boys the summer off from all the academic work except for math. That’s about all they can handle because since my husband goes on summer vacation himself, when he’s home, my boys don’t want to do any schoolwork at all. I mean they usually don’t want to do schoolwork during the school year either, but during summer it’s way worse. Still, I make them do their math because I have witnessed firsthand that in the early years, when I would give them a complete break for summer, by the time their break was over, they would forget everything they learned, especially math. My husband, who is a public-school teacher can attest to this. He has shared with me that he wishes his students could learn year-round, because not doing anything for two months causes them to regress and when they return from summer break, they end up forgetting many of the things that they have already learned.
This summer, however, in addition to math, I am also going to be adding writing to their schedule. Our charter placed a huge emphasis on writing this past year! I personally believe that children should be able to write because it will help them so much in the future in so many different ways! I ordered 2 writing prompt books for each of my boys and I can’t wait to see all of the things they write about this summer! It really does bring me a lot joy when I hear them read me something they’ve written.
Are my boys happy about doing math and writing this summer? Nope! But I don’t care! I know it’s good for them! My 10-year-old son has come so far as a writer in just one year! He was having the hardest time with writing because he struggles with spelling. He was getting so discouraged about it and so was I! Over the past years, I have done everything I possibly can to help him overcome this, but nothing has worked.
One day, while having our monthly meeting with our HST, I shared my frustration with her. She told me something I did not expect to hear. She said that we shouldn’t worry so much about spelling. That the most important thing was for my son to be able to write out his ideas and create stories. She shared with my son and I, that there are some very famous authors who are not great spellers! This surprised me very much and liberated me as well. After that, I didn’t hassle my son about his spelling and you know what happened? The boy began producing stories that were fun and descriptive. He began using paragraphs and with my help, he actually wrote his first story with 3 full paragraphs! He was so proud of himself and so was I!
My older son has always been a great writer. Ever since he was little, writing came naturally to him. This doesn’t mean that he loves to write though. I still have to assign it to him and then he delivers the material! Sometimes happily, and other times with a growl. But no matter what he turns in, it’s always good! Recently he told me that he wrote a prologue for a book he is going to be working on! He showed me his prologue and the beginning of chapter 1! He’s excited about it and is planning on turning it into an e-book. I’m so proud of both of my sons!
Now, just because I will have them working on math and writing this summer, doesn’t mean that we won’t have fun! Math only takes them like 20 to 30 minutes to complete and writing will probably take them another 30 minutes max. So that’s only 1 hour of schoolwork a day. That includes me grading and helping them if they need it. Which leaves plenty of time for us to enjoy summer. This weekend our nation celebrates Memorial Day. We honor and mourn all of our military who have died serving our country with their sacrifice and dedication. I want thank their families as well for their support and sacrifice. Next weekend, my older son will be turning 13! We’re heading to the beach to celebrate his birthday and the beginning of our summer vacation!
I’ll keep you updated on how our summer learning is going and feel free to send me a message letting me know what you are doing this summer. Whatever it is you decide to do, please don’t feel pressured to continue teaching in the summer just because I am or your friend is. If you rather take the summer off, go ahead and do that! You deserve it! We all deserve it and that’s why next week I am actually giving my boys the complete week off because of the holiday and my son’s birthday. I hope you have a wonderful week and I want you to know that in case you would like to have your children write this summer too, I have also linked the two writing prompt books here on my podcast. The links are available for you right under my episode description. Thank you so much for listening today! Talk to you soon!