What Are Simple Summer Homeschooling Goals?

Thanks to my guest Penny from Our Crazy Adventures In Autismland. Based on her own personal experiences with autism, she educates autism families on how to navigate their world from diagnosis to adulthood. She offers real life advice and ideas through her blog by providing homeschool printables, at home therapy techniques, e-books and DIY posts. You can also follow her adventures on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or in her group, Life In Autismland.

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No more pencils. No more books. No more teacher’s…. wait, what?

Not quite.

We have always lived in hot states while homeschooling. Arizona and Florida. Both uber hot in the summer albeit in different ways. But here in Autismland, sensory needs negate any outdoor activities. I don’t like to be hot either. Who does?

We decided many years ago to continue working on our homeschool goals over the summer. I mean, if you’re going to be stuck in the house anyway, why not make it productive?

During the fall and winter, we go on field trips and being ahead of schedule means we don’t do lessons on those days. The kids are always excited to remember that when the other kids at the field trip lament still having to do lessons that day.

It’s not all toil and trouble all day, every day, in summer. Just a few minutes a day. An hour at most. We always have simple goals for summer. Play is learning.

Simple Summer Homeschooling Goals

1.Learn to sign their names in cursive.

This sounds innocuous, except you must remember that we have learning disabilities which
severely affect their ability to write. Logan’s autism keeps his brain and his hand from
communicating effectively. Dysgraphia which goes hand in hand with autism along with
severe fine motor issues make his handwriting illegible. Adaptive technology helps with
homeschool issues but as an adult, he will need to be able to sign his name. Summer is the
perfect time to work in this.

When a look of panic crosses your child’s face because you’ve just handed him a birthday card
saying “Sign this for Gramma”, something needs to be done. He can’t go on like this. As they get
older,they start to notice things like this. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Legible is the hopeful result.

2. Do science experiments

Admit it. During the school year the first thing to get put to the side when you are tired and out of time during the school year are the extras. Science experiments fall into that category. We do the ones we passed over during the previous school year or if those are all done, the next years. You don’t have to do the experiments when you do the actual lesson. Mind blown, right?

3. Art Projects

Summer is the time to get messy. You can chalk paint, finger paint, sand paint. The possibilities are endless. Learn about an artist or two and have that done for the next school year.

4. Family Read A Loud

Start that reading list early and get a jump on it. Now you don’t feel bad when you don’t get it done every day of the week.

5. Play games.

Keep skills fresh by playing games. Gameschool Academy has a fantastic list of every game and its educational value. This is a great way to introduce new skills as well as refresh and cement old skills. Play is learning.

Do you have any summer goals for your kids? What are they? Drop a note in the comments below!

This guest post from Penny is part of the Homeschool Summer Fun Series. Make sure to check out the series landing page to learn more about the series and find all of the posts in one place!