Best time for homeschoolers to vacation: September
Each year I see more benefits to be had from homeschooling schedules.
Ask for private lessons during school hours so you can get the best teachers who are booked after school.
Do most of your academic tutoring during the summer so you have your pick of all the teachers who are out of school.
Apply for fall and winter internships so you don’t have to compete with kids who are in school.
Never go to museums during school vacation.
Go to water parks on weekdays.
Go to open rehearsals for major orchestras during the day.
Vacation in September. Even families who pull their kids out of school to beat the vacation crowds don’t pull their kids out in September. But here we are in September again, and I didn’t book anything. I did a lot of research, though.
I realize that the times we have gone on trips to different places did not feel like a vacation to me. Because the hardest part of homeschooling isn’t being with the kids all day, but rather the pressure I put on myself to make sure the kids are aiming high and making every minute of their day count. It’s a messed up trait of mine. I mean, maybe not messed up, but definitely not conducive to relaxed vacations.
Really, I just want to sit and watch the kids have a fun childhood. That would be a vacation for me. And my kids want to have some time where they don’t feel pressure to reach for the stars, or whatever we are calling what I’m encouraging them to do. Melissa set up a vacation where the dog was so fun he was like a resort.
But not quite.
Really, we need one of those all-inclusive Beaches resort vacations. I look at the list of activities and I imagine myself laying on the sand, totally relaxed, while I watch the kids do whatever great activities they choose and I don’t have to do any planning. The activities just happen. And the kids magically are engaged and excited and childhood is full of joy.
I can imagine all that happening. But I get scared that we’ll miss something. It’s not a rational thought. And what I really want to teach my kids is that taking time to relax and do something outside of the ordinary is important and fun. It always comes down to this: the lessons that are most difficult to teach the kids are the lessons I have not yet learned myself.
Too bad home learning families can’t have their own Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those are the worst for our family.
Have you seen the websites talking to people about Disney World? You can only have a vacation if the school says yes. I guess you need forms? This https://www.smartmomsplandisney.com/school-excuse-template-walt-disney-world/
is a form people probably use if you want to know. Homeschoolers don’t need forms!
We usually vacation in mid-October near my son’s birthday. He’s had lots of birthdays at Disney World. (Late Jan is also an excellent time to go.)
In 2016 we road tripped to NYC, Quebec City and Montreal. (Road tripping is not really our thing.) In 2017 we spent 10 days at Beaches Turks & Caicos. My young teen was still fairly clingy then but this trip gave him the confidence to do his own thing, even meals. Last year we did a 3.5 week land/sea trip down under, cruised the Great Barrier Reef and the east coast of Australia and then hopped over to New Zealand. The cruise in the middle of a land touring vacation gave us some forced downtime so we don’t over plan. That worked well so we’re doing it again. This year it’s Italy and Greece.
It was disappointing that my son will be taking a CC class next fall so we had to book next year’s trip in peak summer season squeezed in between debate Nationals and camp. Total bummer. But since it could be my son’s last family trip, I can’t complain too much. He got to choose so next year it’s France and Spain.
Absolutely agree, I remember as we were in Spain in the end-August- early September and it was a really big difference https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/parents-sue-fairfax-schools-allege-improper-seclusion-and-restraint-of-students-with-disabilities/2019/10/08/066166dc-e9f8-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html because a lot of people leave because of school begininng and the weather was not so hot.