Summer Planning for Homeschooling Solopreneur in 2024
Summer Planning for Homeschooling Solopreneur in 2024
Summer is officially here! Hooray! For some of us that means slower days filled with leisurely reading books, lying in your hammock, sipping lemonade and getting out of town for a few camping trips. For others of us it's a busy season for work and homeschool planning. I fall a bit in the middle.
I like to really experience the warmer days and sunshine that summer affords but I also do a significant amount of work, homeschool planning, as well as continue one to three school subjects and finish up the unpacking and organizing as we recently moved this spring in March.
Last week I shared my 1st of the month planning routine that works for me as a homeschooling mom and solopreneur. If you missed it, read it now: 1st of the Month Routine for Homeschooling Solopreneur in 2024. For the rest of us grab a tall glass of lemonade and we’ll get started on Summer Planning:
Step 1 | Print a Physical 3 Month Calendar
The very first thing I do is find and print a 3 month calendar. I need a birds eye view of all of the months so I don’t accidentally over book or double book myself or one of our kids.
While I love my Google Calendar for more detailed planning and still add in all my summer events into it, I find it really hard to see the big picture and see how much you’ve really got going on. This year I used a 3 month calendar template from Printabulls.
Step 2 | Add Birthdays, Camping Trips, Vacations, and Overnight Guests
Once I have my hard copy I start with marking down birthdays. Our youngest two kids both have summer birthdays one mid June and the other mid July. Last year we celebrated our littlest guy at the local water park and the kids got to use the free passes they earned for reading earlier in the year.
This year we are doing the same but for our daughter. The reading passes had to be used in June to get the full value so this works out perfectly. It’s also not quite as local any more so it will make for a long day now that we are a two and a half hour drive away.
For a number of years now we’ve had an extended family camping trip so that gets blocked in next. This year we have quite a few relatives flying in to join us so will also have several different overnight guests before and after.
Our oldest was invited to join my brother on an 18 day trip to Austria in July to visit a former colleague. Then in August we’re hosting their oldest daughter for two weeks for a high school graduation trip.
Now that we’re in south central Idaho this involves 4 three hour drives to the Salt Lake City Airport! I’m so excited for them, and admittedly a little bit jealous. It will be our oldest’s first trip out of the country and has motivated her to start learning German on her own time!
Step 3 | Review Camps & Homeschool Activities
Similarly to my 1st of the month routine I like to set aside these events early in my planning. We’ve been pretty hesitant to sign up for too many things in the past years. Last year at 13, was the first time our oldest got to go on any overnight trips.
Over the summer she got to go on one leadership retreat through our church and my husband took her back to Florida for a week long Dolphin Research Camp. This Dolphin Camp was definitely one of her life highlights!
This summer my two girls are attending a week long Theater day camp at our local community college. Our younger 2 want to attend a local VBS unfortunately we have conflicts with the ones I’ve found so far.
My 2nd oldest really wants to build computer games, but so far all of the tech classes if found are geared towards robotics or manufacturing. So he’s focusing on attending all the free tech classes offered at the local library.
There were a few other things that are/were on the table. My older two opted not to go to a summer church camp because they felt they were already doing a lot in June.
My younger daughter has asked to take dance classes again. We were able to find a local studio or two that might be a great fit. Unfortunately most of the summer options conflict with our other plans. There is one week that might work in Juy that I might surprise her with depending on how we are all feeling!
Step 4 | Review Local Events & Festivals
Next, I like to research local traditions. Since we are new to the area it takes a little bit of time and a bit of sleuthing. Our small town summer celebration is the 2nd week of July including a fun run. Our little two might love this as they truly love running!
My oldest heard that there is a local Comic Con being held for the 1st time. Magic Valley Comic Con will be held in Twin Falls in early August. She said she’d be happy going to this local one and wouldn’t need to spend our spring break next year at the Gem State Comic Con. Yay!
Our kids have also really enjoyed going to Renaissance Faires over the years. With a little looking I found one in Burley! It's a two day event the last weekend of August. Check out more info: Southern Idaho Renaissance Faire. This will be a fun way to celebrate the end of summer!
We’ve also enjoyed attending cultural events and outdoor Shakespeare performances. In late July I found the Magic Valley Folk Festival. This looks to be an amazing multi-city event from July 22-27th, with a mix of free and paid events including parades, a youth culture day and gala performances.
In mid August the Laughing Stock Theater Company is hosting Shakespeare in the Park. You’ll find them at Rotary Park in Ketchum, Idaho, August 7-17th. Be sure to check out the website as tickets go on sale in July.
It looks like there might be Scottish Highland Games held in September at the community college but I haven’t been able to find much info about it. I know there are a few in the Treasure Valley every year and one in Mountain Home, so we might have to travel a bit if we want to add this event to the calendar this year.
Step 5 | Schedule Summer Homeschool Subjects
We’ve nearly always done a bit of school throughout the summer month every year. Most years we’ve had one to two moves either locally or cross country. This year we moved partway across the state in March and had an unexpected cross country road trip to Washington DC to celebrate the life of my dear cousin, last November.
Needless to say both cut into any school routine we managed to forge. Although Math was one of my favorite subjects and I always found it came naturally to me, so far my kids have not had the same experience.
Early on in our homeschool experience tears were first shed when the curriculum we were using started using an online timed addition table practice. My oldest became frustrated trying to navigate using the keyboard and mouse under the pressure of a timer. Since then I’ve been trying to find something that myself and my kids have enjoyed without much success.
This May I was determined to research and try something new again. After several weeks of testing different options I decided to go with Beast Academy. My hesitations were that I didn’t love the comic characters and that it's not a spiral program.
Most importantly, I want my kids to really like math and so far they have dreaded it. I opted for the online plus hard copy books and workbooks. The online access was instant and the physical books came in less than a week. After just one week of starting, all of my kids have told me that they actually liked doing math and “Math was fun!” A few times I’ve had to tell them they’d done enough for the day.
My plan is to have the older three do two 25 minute sessions and my 5 year old to do one 25 minute session with the option to do a little more if he wants to keep going. So far this has worked really well. They’ve primarily used the online version and the workbooks as a supplement with the areas that didn’t come as easily.
In addition to Math the other subject the older three are doing daily is either piano or guitar for 25 minutes. I’ve also asked them all to spend some time drawing or painting and reading each day.
Both music and art got dropped more than I’d like to admit over the school year. Both are things my kids naturally enjoy and I hope it allows for a lot of relaxed learning while still leaving plenty of time for being outdoors, soaking up the sun and fun adventures!
One final thing that I am doing alongside my oldest is learning how to use Notion. I think it will be a great resource for her as she starts taking more demanding classes as well as a tool to house her creative writing endeavors and her coding snippets in her own code toolkit.
I have been using Notion for a few years now but really wanting to dive deeper and finally figure out how to do more complicated things I really want to be able to use Notion in my business and homeschool planning.
We’re watching Thomas Frank’s newer YouTube Channel Thomas Frank Explains as he dives deep into all things Notion and building his templates from scratch together.
Step 6 | Review Work Commitments & Set Summer Priorities
Now it’s time to dive into work commitments. Currently I am offering VIP Design Days, Paid Dusbado Strategy Calls, and have several days for free Discovery calls available each week.
At this time I have two different Google Calendars for work and home. When I truly have a home or school conflict with work I do have to manually add the event to my work calendar so my scheduling program Dubsado automatically adjusts my availability.
In addition to client work including Website VIP Design Days and Dubsado Setups I have a few internal projects I am working on. First I am in the process of updating my website to showcase the newer features that Squarespace has released in the last year.
I also am diving deep into Notion as I mentioned earlier and creating a truly customized Personal Dashboard that works across all of my endeavors. I also want to create a homeschool planning, tracking and resource guide to house all the things I try to incorporate every year.
I am also wanting to finally move my free resources to Membervault and start building a few new client resources and an introduction to Squarespace Course.
One thing that’s been on my heart for a few years now is trying to build something useful to homeschooling parents who are also business owners who want to learn how to build and manage their own website. I think this is the first step!
I am so tempted to take another course as well, but I’ve decided to focus on what I already have and not let myself be distracted by shiny object syndrome. Oh but it's so hard. I have such a craving to just learn it all!
In the hope of not spending too much time getting distracted and encouraged/discouraged by social media but needing an avenue to market my small business I’ve joined BossMom+.
I’ve been in a group coaching program with Dana Malstaff, founder of BossMom and really enjoy her energy, encouragement and wealth of marketing knowledge. I love her mission to create a new way/platform for moms to market their business without the need to constantly be on social media and grasping for traction with ever changing algorithms.
I'll let you know how it goes in a few months! In the meantime, check out her website: BossMom.com for more details!
Step 7 | Homeschool Planning for 2024-25 School Year
Next up, I’ll spend a few hours planning for my summer planning. Sounds ridiculous, but I find it so important to draft a plan and strategically set aside time each week to plan some aspect of next year or my last few weeks of summer sneak up on me and get spent in panic planning rather than enjoying myself.
I naturally love to plan. Over the years, I’ve learned to accept that I tend to overplan for what my children and I can actually accomplish every week. I’ve worked each year to pair back my expectations and leave room for the unexpected learning opportunities.
I fall in the category of a Charlotte Mason Inspired in my methodology. I love her philosophy of education and have read nearly all of her volumes of work. It truly is beautiful. But I have had to realize that I am only one person and do not have unlimited financial resources to buy all the books I desire for my children’s education, nor do we have all the time to implement all the subjects.
When I have tried in the past, it started to feel like checking off the boxes and hurriedly trying to fit everything in and less like the relaxed and grace filled days I envisioned for our homeschool. So I am learning to compromise and pray about what God’s vision is for our school.
One thing I had never ruled out, but honestly didn’t expect was my oldest deciding to attend public High School this fall. I attended public school and had a mostly good experience, I am so hopeful she does as well.
With our lifestyle of frequent moves I didn’t expect that to ever be an option, but she’s always wanted to go to school and this is the first opportunity that's been a viable possibility.
I’ve taken a few weeks to let this sink in. There is a small part of me that is grieving what I had always imagined to be the culmination of our school years together. Now, I'm trying to imagine what next year will look like without her to include in our day to day school routine.
This 1st week of June is my planning to plan week. Then I’ll take a week off to go on our family camping trip. The 3rd week of June I will spend determining which subjects we will combine all together, what I will do with just the older two together, and finally what subjects they will do individually or with my help.
I’ll have 7th, 5th, and 1st grade students this year. With that in mind I’ll be needing to spend about two hours hands-on with the youngest to work on foundational reading, writing, math.
Starting the last week of June I will have 6 weeks to plan if I want to be done before our European student guest arrives and 8 weeks if I decide to continue planning while she is here. In a Charlotte Mason based education there are 17 subjects give or take.
That breaks down to planning 3 subjects most weeks. I will spend tomorrow figuring out which subjects I will plan for each specific week.
Step 8 | Make Time For Doing Nothing & Mini Adventures
My husband is only a few months into his latest job of helping open a new restaurant. That means he's still training his people, setting up systems and troubleshooting all the variables that come along with the territory.
As a family we do really try to prioritize rest and time to recuperate. Many of our days off are for spending time together and relaxing when the world allows. Lately we’ve felt the pressure of time consuming car repairs and unplanned trips and expenses and are running a bit tired.
A few weeks ago we took a day-long scouting trip up to the Sawtooths. It’s been years since either of us have been. We drove all the way up to Stanley and back.
We only had time for a short walk around the fish hatchery where Ben grew up, to dip our toes in Redfish Lake and check out one other smaller lake before we needed to head back towards home. It was a beautiful day and a good reminder that summer had not yet come to the mountains as there were many patches of snow still gracing the side of the roads.
In order to really get out and spend time out of the car, we will need to stay this side of the pass. But if we can swing a two-day outing sometime this summer the Stanley basin would be an amazing option.
The hard thing with two day trips is you often need a day to pack and a day to recover, rest and unpack. Needless to say there are several weeks throughout the summer with nothing planned intentionally for rest and impromptu small excursions.
So those are all the steps that go into planning my summer for fun, learning, and rejuvenation. I hope you are able to take a few helpful ideas as you go into planning your own amazing summers.
Over the summer I’ll be sharing more details in my homeschool planning as well as sharing the journey and lessons learned in my business as I dive into new tools and make updates to my own website. If your interested in learning more about how to set goals for your life and business check out my goals series below.
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