Summer has officially arrived! We have been finished with our school for a couple of weeks now and are ready to relax and enjoy our summer. With the more relaxed routine we still want to focus on the true, good, and beautiful to have a Charlotte Mason style summer.
We do not school year round, although I know that works well for many families. For our family we love the break from a full school schedule for many reasons. We do a lot of gardening and other outdoor work. I like to use our break to do alot of planning for the next schoolyear. We also do alot of other projects that don’t always fit into our school year. And this year we are building a house which takes quite a bit of time!
Over our years of homeschooling our summers have always looked a bit different but there are some common threads that run through them. Here are a few ways we create a Charlotte Mason summer in our home.
Reading Aloud
One thing that we always do over the summer is read aloud! If you have read my blog you know that we love living books. We almost always have read alouds going, but sometimes during the schoolyear with all the school reading we don’t always fit in fun read alouds for the whole family. Summer is the perfect time for that! I try to pick something that will appeal to a variety of ages, is a bit lighter than our school readings, and is still rich and beautiful. So far this summer we already finished Straw into Gold by Gary D. Schmidt. It is a retelling of Rumplesttiltskin and was simply lovely. Other summer reads we have enjoyed are Just David, The Year of Miss Agnes, Love, Mary Elizabeth, and Swallows and Amazons.
Nature and Outdoors
Summer is the perfect time to spend lots of time outdoors. Especially in our northern climate where we have such a short period of really nice weather! During the summer I try to have a nice mix of structured and unstructured out door time. We take nature walks and I have scheduled times for nature journaling. We also spend time gardening, laying in the hammocks reading, playing in the sprinklers, and going to nearby lakes.
Outdoor time can include a variety of learning opportunities. From growing a garden to learning about foraging local herbs and edibles.
Eating Outdoors
During the long summer days we try to eat quite a few meals outside. Whether that is sandwiches on a picnic blanket in the backyard, breakfast on the deck, or packing dinner to the lake. When planning meals for outdoors it is good to keep it simple. I have found it also helps to have a list of easy to pack and prepare foods for bringing on outings away from the house.
Habits
As a part of our Charlotte Mason summer I try to work on habits that we need to develop or that just need a refresher. This might be getting back on track with chores, training younger children in new chores, or any other habit that needs attention. I take some time to reflect on what we need to work on and come up with a plan to implement. For us this year these include tidying up after a project before moving onto something else, speaking kindly to siblings, obedience, and general chore routines.
The Riches
In a Charlotte Mason education, the riches refers to all the lovely things like art, poetry, and music. We try to incorporate this into our days over the summer as well. It is easy to sing a folksong and hymn at breakfast or lunch, look at some beautiful art or listen to a lovely piece of music, and read a few poems.
Free Reading
Our curriculum, Ambleside Online, has a list of extra free reads for each year. We usually don’t get to them all during the school year so I make a list for each of my children to read over the summer. They can read a physical book or listen to them an audio. This allows their minds to stay engaged with enriching ideas over the summer! I have turned this into our own little summer reading program. When they finish the reward they get is to choose a new book and I will buy it for them!
Rest
Our Charlotte Mason summer wouldn’t be complete without plenty of time for rest and play. Summer is a wonderful time for hours of unstructured free play. For my younger kids this might be tea parties in the playhouse or building forts. For my older kids it might be electronic projects or making something on the 3d printer. Children thrive with time to think, explore, and grow.
In order to achieve a quiet, restful summer I am careful not ot over-schedule our days. We don’t run around to a lot of activities. Of course we do get out of the house to do fun things. One of my goals is to have weekly lake or nature outings and invite friends along. We selectively enjoy other activities as well, like an old fashioned dance we enjoyed last Friday evening. One thing that will make it more challenging this year to have a restful summer is the fact that we are building a house. That is a lot of work and time!
Our Summer Schedule
I have talked about several of the elements that go into our Charlotte Mason summer days, now I will give you my loose summer schedule. We do not follow this perfectly everyday, it is more of a guideline. I do find it helpful to have bit of structure to our days though. So here is our routine:
- Kids get up
- Breakfast with Bible, hymn, poetry, riches
- Kitchen cleanup and chores, sing or listen to folksong
- Take a walk or bike ride
- Journaling, reading, math catch up, etc
- Outdoor and gardening
- Lunch, read aloud
- Clean up
- Quiet time/ Free play
- Tidy up house
- Dinner
- Family time
- Bedtime
This simple schedule is the guideline for any day we are staying at home. If we are out for the whole day then this doesn’t apply. If we go out for part of a day we still will do part of the routine.
I hope this has been helpful for inspiring ideas of ways to slow down, connect, and create a Charlotte Mason summer in your home. Let me know in the comments below how you enjoy your summer!
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