It is that time of the year again when the same old question arises – what do you do about Summer Holidays? And this year with the whole lockdown and distance learning everyone has been doing more and more people want to know. So here goes.

Firstly we do what suits our family (that is the beauty of home education). So that being said you might read this and think we are totally mad (which is okay).

No, we do not stick to school holidays. School holidays do not work in our house. There are 2 main reasons why we don’t. Firstly we take breaks during school term when it is quieter to go and do everything and there are less queues (Why struggle with the summer holiday crowds when you don’t need too – we have actually just had a lovely 2 week break with their dad off work and did a number of fun days out.)

And secondly my kids actually thrive on a routine and 6 weeks off is just too big a break. And yes I know this is not going to be popular but when we totally stop my kids struggle. They takes weeks and weeks to adust to the new routine of stopping and then just when they are starting to adjust it is time to start again and once again they need to spend weeks readjusting. We have tried this before and it just leads to lots of tears and frustration and 2 very unhappy kids.

My kids were never going to fit the school model so I don’t try and recreate it at home. The idea that I stand in front of them and teach them subjects based on a timetable is just not something we have ever done in our home education. We don’t stick to school timetables, school hours or school term time. Home education allows you to adjust the way your kids learn to suit them and that includes things like holiday schedules.

Over the summer we tend to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the good weather (fingers crossed there is good weather) but we still do a bit of Maths every day and we work on projects.

What do I mean by projects? My son wants to go back to his Space topic and explore that further with his dad and he is currently do a lot of writing about dinosaurs so that will continue (plus he has a long book list that he wants to read). My daughter wants to start her new Art Award, work on some sewing skills, start with one of her Year 8 English Literature Books and work on a History project plus she wants to keep her Science sessions with her dad going.  It is really – just continue with the normal but enjoy the good weather as much as we can.

I get that our way does not suit a lot of people.  I do get that.  But it is what suites our kids.