Thursday, July 28, 2011

So much for summer school

Two months of summer vacation is too long.   Kids get bored, they forget important skills such as how to get up in the morning and do basic math, they get lazy.

So I try to avoid a long summer vacation in my little homeschool when I can. This year, as in the past,  I had some nice summer school plans made. 

And then, it all just went out the window.  Yesterday, I decided to surrender to summer and set a back-to-school date.  I've never had a back-to-school date before.  But this year I need one, because at some point we need to get back to school work.

So why didn't summer school happen?

I am not sure.  We did go on a vacation; that took three days.  The kids participated in Vacation Bible School; that took a week (and counted as school hours).   Both of my kids went to day camps that were educational and fun.  They also spent time working for other people!  Babysitting and yard work took up a bit of time.  Both kids have done a lot of  reading on their own, and we have done some reading together.  We've been to the movies and we've gone hiking. We've had a lot of doctor and dentist appointments.  Boy Scout summer camp is coming up and there is always a lot of preparation for that. 

Some of those activities count as school time, but... it wasn't the summer school that I had planned on.

Well, we know that planning doesn't equal getting it done, does it?

So school starts on August 23.  I have to admit that once I made the decision to call of the summer school that wasn't happening anyway, I felt better.   The pressure is off a little, so I feel like I can take some time to do some better planning than I usually manage to do.  Most homeschool moms like the planning better than the actual schooling, anyway. We can achieve something close to perfection in the planning stage; that's not possible during implementation.

Maybe there is a good reason for summer vacation after all. 

2 comments:

Sandy said...

"Well, we know that planning doesn't equal getting it done, does it?"

You're preaching to the choir, here, Margaret. :)

Leslie said...

I didn't get what I had hoped done either. Good for you setting a date. I need to do that...