For Teens: Why Homeschool in the Summer?
If you are a Catholic homeschooling student, no doubt you look forward to the coming of summer with giddy anticipation: the warm days outside, family vacations, and the cessation of the weekly grind of class, study, and schoolwork. It’s a time to kick back, take a breather, and say, “Phew…no more school!”
Resting and leisure are important parts of education, so we do not suggest you plow through the summer months without any sort of let up. If you do homeschool during the summer, I recommend homeschooling “light.” Homeschooling light means fewer classes on easier subject matter with less coursework. This approach allows you to maintain the restfulness of summer while keeping your mind limber. There are actually several great reasons to consider homeschooling in the summer in this way:
1. Homeschooling light over the summer helps to have less review in the fall so that you actually have less work overall.
Summer is a great time for review! Don’t you hate when you get back to math in the fall and can’t remember your formulas? Or when you go on to your next Latin class and find you’ve forgotten half of the vocab? Consider a mid-summer refresher to bone up on your knowledge so you are better prepared for the fall. This will actually save you work in the long run, as you won’t have as much intellectual catch-up to do when classes start in the autumn.
2. You can earn extra credits so that you can graduate early or have a lighter load in the fall/spring.
If you can fit in even one course in the summer, you can earn an extra credit that will lighten your load in the fall/spring semester. Besides making your school year easier, it could help you graduate earlier. For example, taking only one or two extra courses each summer over the course of high school could enable you to graduate an entire semester early. Is sitting down for one or two more hours of math each week worth finishing high school five months early?
3. It is your chance to take fun, high-interest classes that a parent may not be open to in the regular school year.
Summer can be a time to homeschool for fun—taking online classes not because they are required but because they pique your curiosity. Your parent might not want you to take a class in Minecraft coding during the regular school year, but during the summer such high-interest classes become more feasible. Homeschool Connection has tons of “outside the box” options for Catholic online courses for the summer: classes on pirates, gross science, Gregorian chant, Sherlock Holmes, and much more! So it can be an excellent time to reconnect with the notion of education just for the sheer fun of it!
4. Get a tough subject out of the way.
Conversely, sometimes it is helpful to take a tough subject over the summer to hyper-focus on one thing at a time. For example, if you’d like to be able to get Catholic philosophy under your belt before fall, you could complete Hellenistic Philosophy or Introduction to the Summa in just three weeks.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are some really weighty reasons to consider getting some homeschooling done over the summer months. Homeschooling “light” during the summer can really reduce your workload—and stress!—during the school year, as well as be a source of summer fun. To learn more about what Homeschool Connections offers LIVE in the Summer, click this link to view our selection of Catholic online classes. Or, click this link if you prefer self-paced, independent-learning Catholic online courses.
