Most Homeschoolers I speak to are quickly nearing the time when they take a break for the summer, or at least call the academic year complete. For some that might mean meeting all of the requirements of their online or virtual school for the year and receiving their final grades. For others it may mean finishing a set of books or curriculum. For others (I included) local homeschool classes are nearing an end. I realized our year was almost over when my kids’ math teacher gave me their 3rd semester grades.
It is time to plan for next year’s homeschool program. I had pretty much already decided what programs I planned to use to homeschool my kids next year, but I need to make some final decisions as well as plan for any enrichment activities that we should do over the summer.
For us it means looking at how much my kids have progressed over the past year. This evaluation is not strictly academic, but is also based on maturity, emotional development and life skills. I need to look at all of their strengths and weaknesses and try to determine how to steer them in a direction that makes the most of their strengths while helping them improve where they are weak.
As my son starts High School level next year, such analysis is extremely important and he should also be involved in this evaluation. While he did very well this year in all subjects, math was quite a struggle so while we are using the same local homeschool classes next year, we will spend the summer working on more math skills. He has also agreed to start giving more thought to what he wants to do when he grows up so we can gear his education in the right direction.
My daughter also had a very good year, and her only weakness was in writing. This means we will probably spend the summer writing letters to friends and doing book reports. (Our local movie theatre gives certificates for doing book reports).
During previous years when the kids struggled more, our evaluation time was followed by an intense period of searching for a new homeschool program or curriculum. Fortunately we did not have to do that this year. If you should find that you need to alter or change your child’s homeshool program next year, you can start by viewing this Homeschool Curriculum Glossary.