This subject has been the regular pillow talk for myself and Duncan for a while now talking and deciding what to do about it how to go about it do we give up all together (and let them just get bored and doss around the house watching their little brains shrivel by the minute which as you might have guessed even when they were at school they never had a holiday summer of otherwise where they did nothing lol) or to carry on as normal and I was all for carrying on as normal and duncan wasn’t. Our children like most are hard to get going again after 6 weeks of doing nothing which was a big concern to me but as Duncan reminded me they need a break of some sort so we decided to look back through the different styles of home education to see if any of them would work well as a Summer break option and after much looking and discussion we decided that  a “learn through life” style may would be a good option.

I Personally don’t feel this is appropriate teaching style for us all year around due to my ADHD (and OCD if you believe my husband lol) which leave me needing a Structure.

I feel for those who use this wonderful teaching approach and put a lot of effort in (most probably more than I do in our children’s semi structured Education) because I feel the “learn through life” approach is made a mock of because of the Lazier People out there who have taken their children out of school then don’t do anything for their children using the “they learn through life so we don’t have to do anything” as an excuse for their laziness,  But I do feel strongly with the right attitude and approach it works well and this is why I feel it is the most suitable approach for us over our “summer Break”.

I think it is (for those who really do teach their children in this way) a Fantastic way for the younger and older children to learn but all year around I feel it would not suit us due to My ADHD I cope by being structured so short term I cope well with a lack of real structure but although I intend for 6-8 weeks of this style I fear it maybe more 4-6 weeks I will actually do. I have every thing in my life planned at least a month in advance I know what subjects we are going to cover in a month I know what spellings I want to cover even though the order in which  these are done is not set down I have a good idea what is coming up and where to look for the resources for it.

We came up with this plan and we have cut back their work load so for the remander of the the holidays their timetable will be alot quieter with Mondays off completely as Alderbury has closed down for the Summer and Tuesday mornings HEaT followed by the museum, Wednesday they will have playtime am then Sixpenny after, Thursdays we will keep free for social meet ups and Friday we will write letters and emails to their friends to keep their written and computer skills up in the am and cooking in the afternoon (or reasonable replacements for above) I will post on this weeks Timetable when I do it.

so I have decided to go with the learn through life way over the summer where the time isnt really planned but they learn what they need from life so very little to none formal structure I am also hoping that this will also hopefully let them feel like they are having a summer holiday without dropping everything and having problems getting them back into a working routine come September.

I can only try I hope I can cope with this being ADHD myself I need structure to ease my mind into what I am doing and for someone who has already started booking next years dairy up and organising Christmas Arrangements it could be hard work.

my main concern of this Child led learning is tom has a highly addictive personality and as with most ADHD he has little self restraint he could spend the whole time on one computer to an other if I let him lead but it is only for 5 weeks or so and I will not be upping their free time (used for computer,Tv,Games consoles etc) so who knows we will see they will still be attending their group based stuff.