Summer Break?

Recently, several people have asked me about our plans for summer break.

"Will you take summer vacation?"

"Don't you think your kids need a break?"

Now mind you, this is only our second summer as a homeschool family. And our first summer was a little different.

Unschooling Summer

How is it different? If you really want to know, here is the link to one of my first blog posts that will give you all the details.

Unschooling Summer Blog

In short, my eldest was enrolled in kindergarten at a local private school for the 2024-2025 school year. My middle child began preschool at a local preschool for the same school year, but after a week, we withdrew her and started homeschooling. That is a long story in itself, which I won't go into today. Anyway, it was a long school year. It was hectic, and my eldest was exhausted and missed being at home. After all that, we decided to have an unschooling summer before starting to homeschool everyone in the fall of 2025.

It truly was the best summer. We spent time outdoors, explored, visited different parks, and played with friends from our homeschool group. It was great to disconnect and take a break from early mornings, parent volunteer hours, early care, aftercare, pick-up, drop-off, dress codes, and so on. It's safe to say we needed a break.

Planning Ahead

As I got ready for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, which would be our first year homeschooling all the kids, I reviewed my planner and mapped out my vision for the year. This involved scheduling breaks, holidays, winter breaks, summer breaks, and anything else that came to mind. Why? Because I have my type A tendencies, but truthfully... I'm more of a type C mom, so my daily planner wasn't always followed faithfully.

I'm genuinely learning as I go, just like everyone else. My initial vision for our homeschool routine soon turned out to be unrealistic for us. Homeschooling just one child at the preschool level was fairly simple because, let's face it, it's mostly play with a bit of preschool curriculum mixed in. Now, with a 1st grader and a kindergartener, things have certainly become more complex and there's a lot more to manage.

I'm Learning

I feel incredibly fortunate to have discovered our homeschool social group, along with connecting with other homeschool moms online who inspire me on our homeschooling journey. I've realized that we can take our time and adjust our plans as needed.

This doesn't always mean we skip school for the day. In fact, it can mean the opposite. For instance, I initially planned for us to have a 2-week Christmas break, but when the time came, we decided to continue our lessons until Christmas Eve. We then took 3 days off and resumed our routine afterward. Spring break? I honestly forgot that there was such a thing. We simply maintain our regular schedule because our days aren't overly packed. So, it's easy for us to complete our 2-3 hours of curriculum workbooks during the day and then spend the rest of the day on outdoor activities, read-alouds, puzzles, library visits, co-op meetups, or even spur-of-the-moment adventures.

Summer Break?

So here's the answer I've been giving to everyone.

No, we will not be taking a summer break. We will continue with our schoolwork.

"Why?"

Because why would we stop? Our schoolwork is completed in a short amount of time. We still get plenty of downtime during the day, and we also take random days off as we need to. Like, oh, it's Monday and we're just not feeling it today. Let's relax, clean up the house, play outside, make muffins, and get back to our lessons tomorrow. But also, why would I risk the chance of them forgetting everything we've learned while on break for 3 months? It's really an easy decision if you ask me.

I don't know

Who knows what will happen as time goes on. There may come a day when we decide we need a summer break, but for right now, this is what works for us. Our school days will eventually become busier, I'm sure, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then, we will continue doing what we think is the right thing for our family.

And with that being said, I hope y'all have a great summer break! I know we will!

You got this mama!