OK, Mom’s! Fess up! How many of you homeschool during summer vacation. One of the advantages of homeschooling, is that “school” “learning” and “family vacation” all become synonymous. How many homeschoolers have taken the summer vacation only to have their children write reports, fill out essays, journal their experiences, or even record the trip via a web page! I know that many homeschooling families choose to continue their academic “seat work” studies year round, while others tend to take a more “hands on” real life educational approach.
My advice is that you should do what works best for you and your children. Summer is also a time where some homeschooling families may choose to supplement their children’s schooling with Vacation Bible School, camps, or trips to see grandparents. Whatever your style or preferred family summer vacation hobbies include, make sure that your children are learning and having fun.
You may find that creating a summer journal is a great way to record their activities. One creative way to do this is through scrapbooking. Personally, I think scrapbooking is Mom’s way of journaling or Lapbooking. A great idea is to encourage your children to make their own “Summer Scrapbooks”. This can be in the form of a journal or it may be a photo-based scrapbook. Now, I have five daughters and three sons, so I understand the difference between most genders and if your son has a tough time with the concept of “scrapbooking”, you can encourage him to record his summer experience through a program like Power Point or even in a Word.doc that can be uploaded as an html page to the family website.
Recording the summer experience is not only educational (and try to encourage them to put as much writing into their Summer Scrapbook as possible) but it also serves as a great memory maker.