No matter what type of homeschooler you are, it can be really helpful to adapt your homeschooling to the seasons. Every season has strengths, weaknesses and unique opportunities that you can take advantage of with a little bit of flexibility. This will also keep things fresh for you and the kids!
How do you adapt your homeschool to suit the season?
Identify what that season offers for your family, and work around unique challenges of that time of year. For instance, here in Minnesota our winters can get pretty intense. It’s often so cold that it’s hard to get outside, and the roads may make it hard to get to activities. That makes winter a perfect season for doing more home projects like lapbooks, along with longer unit studies and more free reading. Spending lots of time inside in the glorious summer with these things might lead to some cranky kids though — and some missed opportunities!
Families in other parts of the country can end up with quite different plans. We have friends in Arizona who do more of their indoor projects in the summer since the heat is so intense during that time of year that it’s hard to be outside during the main part of the day. The end result is the same though — they adapt to make the most of the different times of year.
Here are some ideal ways we make the most of each season:
Summer
Summer is an ideal time for extra nature studies and time spent outdoors. It’s also the season when there are the most physical education opportunities for many homeschoolers. Summer rec programs offer T-ball, soccer, softball and other sports programs, and local pools open for swimming lessons and swim team membership. Camping and travel opportunities offer their own unique educational opportunities. Theme-specific camps are often available for children’s interests such as foreign language immersion, science and theater. This is a good season for taking the lessons outdoors — doing driveway math, ant science experiments and summer crafts.
Autumn
Autumn offers a host of opportunities for homeschoolers. The SOTH (school outside the home) kids are back in school but the weather is usually still nice. This is a great season for visiting zoos, science museums and other fun and educational sites now that they’re nearly empty, not to mention nature walks and animal studies. There are also a lot of great events and programs that are offered in the fall, such as reenacting events and fall festivals. Even if your family doesn’t garden or farm, fall is also the time to learn harvest and homemaking skills. Our family buys up large quantities of produce like green and red peppers, pumpkins and tomatoes from local farmers and spend days preserving them for the winter. We also pick apples from our neighbors’ trees and peel, preserve, bake and cook like crazy with them. Autumn also offers lots of great harvest related field trips to apple orchards, pumpkin patches and the like. Good physical education activities include hiking, bike riding and back yard sports. Fire and safety lessons are traditional for this time of year as well.
Winter
Winter is an ideal time for slowing down and doing longer projects. You can introduce a lot more read-alouds of fun fiction, history, science and more. Winter sports can include ice skating, skiing and playing in the snow, but can also incorporate more inside activities like Wii fitness games, yoga and using mini trampolines. Homemaking skills can be part of the learning, teaching kids skills like bread making and knitting (if you don’t know how to do these, this is a perfect excuse to learn along with them!). Computers can play a bigger part in homeschooling this time of year, using educational sites like Khan Academy, online curricula such as the free ACS middle school chemistry curriculum and the free ACS high school energy curriculum. Educational apps and games are perfect for this time of year. This is also an ideal time to use educational videos from Netflix or the library. The Christmas season offers its own challenges and opportunities. Homeschoolers are lucky that we can take full advantage of the season without having to squeeze in the same schedule as usual. Many homeschoolers cut back on the traditional lessons during December and let Christmas (from baking to budgeting to religious education) be a main part of homeschooling.
Spring
Once spring finally arrives, it would be nearly criminal to keep the kids inside for most of the day! Nature studies such as bird watching are a perfect fit for this time of year, along with the science involved in seed starting and garden planning. Home ec skills can be learned through spring cleaning, servicing cars and lawnmowers, and simple renovation projects. Get out the bikes, balls, volleyball net, jump ropes, tennis rackets, roller blades and other fun outdoor props and kids will take care of all of their physical education needs on their own. Many homeschool families test during this time of year (here in Minnesota, annual testing is required), which offers its own time requirements and needs. This is a good time to evaluate what you’ve accomplished in your homeschool this year and cover any missed subjects that were a priority for your family.
Other seasons
Homeschooling can easily adapt to other seasons in life, too. New babies, family moves, illnesses, vacations and other changes can all be easier when everybody tries to adapt schooling to life and not the other way around. Each of these offers a host of educational opportunities, life lessons and benefits if you let them take priority. When I was diagnosed with a serious illness when my children were younger, I was very weak and told that it was imperative to rest. Instead of trying to force homeschooling, I concentrated on spending quality time with my children in ways that were best for all of us. I cuddled on the couch or bed with my children and read through piles of picture books, watched fun and educational TV programs and videos, had long talks with my kids and taught them how to do simple household jobs to help me out. It became a time that strengthened us as a family — and they learned quite a lot through the experience, as well.
We homeschoolers are so lucky that we get to tailor our homeschools to fit not only the strengths and needs of our children, but also of ourselves as teachers. Adapting homeschooling to fit the seasons is just another way that we can make the most of every opportunity.
