Kids Are Always Learning (Even on Vacation)

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Kids Are Always Learning Even on Vacation

”Do you ask a fish how it swims? Or a bird how it flies? No sirree, you don’t! They do it because they were born to do it!”

– Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Just like Willy Wonka was born to invent new candy bars, kids were born to learn!

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about why homeschooling works easily for kids of all ages. They’re even learning on sick days. And, on our recent trip to the lake, I was reminded (yet again) how kids are always learning – even on vacation!

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Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 4

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Our Homeschool Summer Break Year 4 on grass background

If you’ve been following this series (if not, start here), you’ll probably have noticed a pattern by now. We seem to keep ping-ponging back and forth between work-focused summers and play-focused summers, always trying to find the sweet spot.

Year 3 was a summer of virtually no advanced planning and no academic work. So, you probably won’t be too surprised when I tell you that Year 4 was the complete opposite. 

(And, according to my oldest son who was just reading over my shoulder a minute ago, Year 4’s summer was “horrible!”  Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.)

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Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 3

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Our Homeschool Summer Break Year 3 on grass background

In the last post, I promised you a summer on the other side of the continuum, so here it is! The summer of our mega home renovation! When all bets were off, plans were non-existent and I was living way, way outside my Type-A, Planner-Person comfort zone.

You can see more about the renovation, including before and after pictures, in this post.

I didn’t try to plan a more relaxed summer. I didn’t decide that we needed less formal school-ish work. By the time I had my head far enough above water to think about our summer homeschool plans, it was already August. 

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Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 2

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Our Homeschool Summer Break - Year 2 on grass background

In the last post, I described the summer break we had after our first official year of homeschooling. If you read it, you may recall that I said it was a “fun and balanced summer.” 

“Fun and balanced” sounds pretty good to me – so why, I ask myself now, why-oh-why did I try and fix what wasn’t broken? 

Looking back on Year 2 from a Year 5 perspective, I think it’s ultimately because I let the “you’re-not-doing-enough” worry-monster get to me.

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Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 1

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Our Homeschool Summer Break Year 1 title on grass background

I never know what to do with summer break. 

Wait. Let me rephrase that. 

I never know what to do for our homeschool during summer break. 

If I ever had the luxury of my own summer break, I’d know exactly what to do with it (i.e. unlimited ice cream, a beach and a stack of books)!

But I digress.

When it comes to planning out what to do for my kids’ education over summer break, I perpetually bounce back and forth between two extremes. 

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Your A to Z Guide: The Best Kids’ Stocking Stuffer Ideas

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Your A-Z Guide: The Best Kids' Stocking Stuffer Ideas on green banner with stocking background

It seems like every year I’m scrambling to figure out what to put in my kids’ Christmas stockings. If you’re like me, the last thing you want in your house is more plastic trinkets but I end up defaulting to that kind of filler when I can’t think of anything better. 

Well, no more!!  

This time I’m making a list, checking it twice and not wasting this opportunity to give my kids some useful, engaging and maybe even educational stocking stuffers!  

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