TOS Blog Cruise ~ Schooling through the Summer

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It’s Monday, so it must be time for another TOS Blog Cruise post!

This week’s question is “Do you school during the summer? What do you do? Why or why not?”

Historically, we have NOT done regular schoolwork during the summer.  Instead, the boys have been free to just enjoy the outdoors with the only ‘requirement’ resembling work to be reading.  For years, we have participated in summer reading programs through local libraries as well as the Barnes and Noble program.  This year will be the first time in a long time that we’ll be enrolled in less than THREE different library systems. 
 
Another change for us is that all the time off from Little J’s birth and the move have us behind in our learning schedule.  So, this summer will have some school included in the mix.  Below are my plans at this time, with the thought that life does happen and we might decide to modify the schedule to better fit our needs.
 
We’ll be forging ahead with our world history studies using Story of the World.  We are about to start Chapter 27 in Vol. 3, so I am hopeful that we’ll begin Volume 4 by summertime.  Whether we’ll complete all those chapters before September is yet to be seen.  It just might mean that we kick off American History studies a little later in the year. Or, we might end up pushing American History back another year to spend more time delving into more modern world history.
 
Math is one subject that really needs the continuity of summer school.  It amazes me how quickly the kids can ‘forget’ how to do something when they have those long breaks.  P recently began using Math 7 from Teaching Textbooks and will most likely keep plugging away at it in preparation for Pre-Algebra this coming year.  R and D will continue using the Math U See materials we already own supplemented with ‘fun’ math time on Mathletics or the games from Math Galaxy.
 
Science studies have been guided by Apologia’s Zoology texts this year.  We’ve done insects and began the aquatic animals.  Birds were put on hold until the weather warmed up again.  Given that we have nature practically in our own backyard, I figure that more of their science learning will be experiential in nature.  Hiking or biking and noting what you see along the way is far more fun than just reading about something.  I am also trying to plan in at least on ‘field trip’ to see marine mammals in a day or overnight trip format.
 
What I am NOT going to be especially ambitious about is playing catch up on some subjects that we struggle to find time to do.  Latin is one that pops to mind in that category.  I am also not going to have them plug along in grammar studies during the summer.  Instead, we’ll have our typical reading fill most of our language arts time with the occasional writing assignment thrown in to keep those skills developing.
 
So that’s our family’s approach to learning during the summer this year.  Depending on how it goes, we might adjust our learning schedule to become more of a year round school.  Shortening those gaps in study of some subjects (especially math!) seems to help with retention.  Besides, we’re trying to grow life-long learners and learning never truly stops.