Homeschooling Chronicles: Summertime Blues

Homeschooling parents and children may experience what I like to call the “summertime blues.” It is hardly worthy of the crooning of Billie Holiday or Big Maybelle. However, I could really use their rich voices to convey the sad melancholy we’re all feeling. Some homeschoolers may be familiar with the old song “School Ain’t Done Yet”.  It’s summer, but school is anything but over.

We had plenty of time in the beginning, back in the fall. We were excited and full of the fresh vigor that the new school year brings. We had topics to tackle, and those that weren’t as desirable were relegated to later. The bad news is that later is now. And time is running out.

It doesn’t help that we all want a break.  My homeschooling family desperately needs a little rest and relaxation. While I would love to just call it a day, and close up shop for the summer, I know I can’t.  So I’m trying to stay positive and chipper. Mary Poppins would be so pleased.  I can throw back the window shades and sing rousing songs like the best of them. However, some days my tone is less pleasing and tends to meld into the sounds of a menacing character from a Roald Dahl book saying things like “Get to work! Work, work, faster, faster!” 

But don’t hate me because I’m desperate. I’m desperate for that break too.  I could quit and throw in the towel, but that wouldn’t teach the responsibility and the need to finish a job that is so important for students to learn. 

So, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I’ve reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out creative ways to teach the topics we still have to cover. We’re competing in contests. I’ve decided to teach the remaining social studies subjects by choosing historical fiction on the topic. We’re cooking traditional meals from the time periods. Apple turnovers are one of our lunch time creations.  When we measure the ingredients for our feasts we slip in math reinforcement. Learning never tasted so good. 

This summer crunching hasn’t given me abs of steel, but it has made me reinvent the idea of learning and teaching. I have had to be more creative to keep student interest alive. I’ve also had to show my students that even though you want to stop, it doesn’t mean you should, or even can. It is one of those life lessons that stinks to learn, but is invaluable. Like all stinky smells, you can take a bath in tomato juice and everything starts to smell sweet again. So, I may desperately long to live a life like people in those summer time lemonade commercials, lying on fluffy grass and getting fanned with palm fronds, but, for now, I’ll just have to settle for the comforting whir of the air conditioner running in time to the scratching of a pencil on lined paper.