Summer Schoolin'

We have always "done school" straight through the summer. We live in central Florida where summer days are guaranteed to be hot, humid and bug filled. So far it hasn't been so hot, but has been rainy. I think today is the 11th straight day of heavy rains. Our yard is looking quite lush where it isn't looking dead.

This photo is from our pool deck several years ago, check the temp! No, of course it isn't accurate, but it was hot enough to cause it to fail.


It has never made sense to me to take a long break over the summer months. I understand the reason for this arrangement for public schools. Schools began this way when our country was younger and many children helped their families in the maintenance of their farms or more modest family gardens. Summer is harvest time, the children were needed as farmhands. This has long since not been the typical family arrangement, but public schools stick with what has or hasn't worked for the duration. As a homeschool family, we can and will do what works for us.

For our family, summer is a break from the extra curricular. There is a saying often seen on homeschool t-shirts and bumper stickers, "How can it be called homeschooling if we are always in the car?" During the public school year, we are just as likely to not be home while we are schooling as we are to be sitting here in the house "doing school". We are in a very active homeschool support group, Lighthouse Homeschoolers, attending field trips on average once a week. We participate in the large group Lakeland Homeschool PE, a physical education coop that meets in the soccer fields of a public park once per week. We are in a small homeschool art co-op that meets once a week. We have been in both small and large 4H groups that have monthly meetings and weekly cooperative topical classes. We also attend a performing arts event about once a month, a group social about once a month and hit the library and/or park at least once a week. We had to make a plan a couple of years ago that we would only do school work 3 days a week. This both relieved the stress of feeling we were skipping school when attending all these extra curriculars, and helped us keep on track with the schooling we were doing. All of these events we'd attend follow the public school schedule, in part due to the availability of venues when less crowded, in part due to the summer heat, and in part due to those families that do like to take summers off.

By schooling during the summer, we are able to really focus our time on academics. We do school in the morning and swim in the afternoons every day, weather permitting. If we were to take the summer off, I'm afraid our children would suffer the effects of lazy brains or loss of skills when late August rolls around. I believe we'd also be fighting against a lack of motivation if we were to take so much time out of an academic plan. By doing schoolwork through the summer, we are able to really focus on a class giving trouble, or just take it easy and roll through the work at a quicker pace.

This is the schooling that is going on here now. Tori is in her Sociology class twice a week for 1.5 hours at PCC, soon to be renamed Polk State College. This is her first dual enrolled class. She is really enjoying this class, but finds it is quite easy so far, it's mostly discussion of the news. She is taking American History-Conspiracy Code through FLVS.
This class is a typical American History class set in the format of a video game. In the game, the bad guys are changing historical facts, she has to find the correct information before it gets changed. Its a cute premise and an interesting way to teach the class. We expect her to be placed a World History class soon, also through FLVS. She is working in the last book of Wordly Wise 3000 and doing Bible study each day.

Beth is in the second half of both Algebra I and M/J Language Arts 3 through FLVS. She is sailing through Language Arts, loving that class. I've been working with her on Algebra each day. She gets it faster than I do, and is doing well with the extra attention, but is clearly not a math girl. She is also doing Bible study and Wordly Wise. Beth is working the last lesson of Book 5, the first edition. In the new - 2nd edition, she'd be finishing book 8, 8th grade level.

Lili is taking Spanish I through FLVS, and is almost finished with the first semester. I goofed and thought I'd signed her up for Spanish I before this class, but it was actually M/J Spanish. Oops. So, for this semester's work, it's basically been a repeat of last year's Spanish. The second semester should be mostly new learning, so I think it will be more interesting for her. She is also just about to finish M/J Math 2, and will move on to Algebra I next. Math seems to come quite easy for her, so I don't think she'll have any trouble. Lili is also working in Wordly Wise Book 5, first edition and doing Bible study. She's just started Book 5 in Wordly Wise.

Evie has just been activated in her first FLVS class, Keyboarding. She will start in the class on Monday. Evie is working on Bible study and is about halfway through Wordly Wise Book 2, first edition. She does Math U See, Delta level which is almost complete. She will move on to Epsilon next.


I couldn't figure out how we could make the computer arrangement in our house work with all four girls taking classes online and all doing the bulk of their schoolwork in the morning, without having to play musical chairs. Phil was about due for a new laptop, he uses his mostly for work, but it is his personal computer. I suggested he get a new one and his old one go to the girls. He agreed and picked up a new one yesterday. Evie needs a desktop computer for the full size keyboard. So she will have the computer Lili has been using in their room, and Phil's old laptop will be Lili's to use. Tori has been using my old laptop. Beth uses the desktop in her room. So, crazy as it may seem, we now have 6 working, up to date computers in use, 3 laptops, 3 desktop, plus a couple in the closet as backups. I can't imagine what we'd do if the computers had to be hard wired to the network. That would be a real mess.