STEP-BY-STEP plans for summer homeschooling to help your child catch up in a subject or work through an entire year’s education.
Over the years, I’ve been asked if I thought it was possible to “catch a child up” over the summer. Often, the mom asking me this question is wondering about a child who is behind in math or needs to work on reading skills.
I can easily say, “Absolutely!” to this question because all it takes is a concerted effort, a plan, and focused energy.
But, a couple of months ago, I was asked if I thought a mother could homeschool through an entire grade over the summer. This particular mother wasn’t sure if she would want to return her child to public school or continue to homeschool, but she felt desperate to get her child “caught up,” and wanted to know if I thought she could do it during the summer months.
What follows is my answer to this not so easy question…
Table of contents
Can you homeschool to catch up an entire year?
This is not an easy question. There are a lot of factors to consider, but the biggest one is whether or not the child will be homeschooling or traditional schooling in the future. Here is why that is something you will need to ask yourself.
Difference between public school and homeschool “catching up.”
First of all, there is a big difference between “catching up” for public school and “catching up” for homeschool.
When you homeschool, YOU decide which classes are most important to the actual “catch up” process. Typically, this will be math and reading, occasionally science and/or history. Every other subject can usually be picked up at a later date.
However, if you are returning a child to public school, you will need to know what the school system wants your child to be caught up in. What will they want to test the child on before allowing them to join the next grade? All of this will need to be discussed with the administrators and teachers.
So, while I do believe an entire “public school” grade could quite possible be homeschooled over the summer, I am not going to definitively speak to that in particular. What I can speak to is homeschooling an entire grade over the summer without the intent of placing a child into the public school system the following school year.
Is “catching up” necessary?
Homeschooling a full grade over a 3 month period will be hard work, and your child probably won’t have much of a summer, but I am going to give you some guidelines to help you navigate the possibility with confidence.
But, first a warning – true mastery of subjects may not occur at such a quick pace. Really consider WHY you feel your child needs to finish an entire grade over the summer.
Is it in order to take a test?
Is it because you feel behind?
Is it a feeling of pressure coming from somewhere?
Whatever it is, be absolutely certain you NEED to homeschool an entire grade over the summer before you do it.
How to catch up a grade over the summer
Step 1: Decide which subjects MUST be taken.
As a homeschool mom, you know which subjects your child is having difficulty with. If you are trying to catch them up over the summer, choose only the subjects that absolutely MUST be tackled.
Again, this is typically going to be Math and/or Reading. Science and History rarely need to be handled in this way unless your child is needing graduation credits in order to make a certain time table, or there is a test needing to be taken to meet state requirements.
You may have special circumstances that require your child to have a prerequisite class in order to be accepted into a certain program, or you might want to get some “easy” credits out of the way over the summer.
Don’t add more to your plate than necessary!
Step 2: Plan your Scope & Sequence.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to look online. Nearly every curriculum and every school system out there posts their Scope & Sequence lists for each subject.
From there, you can decide what parts of that list apply to your child and which parts they have already mastered. (DO NOT WASTE TIME on things your child already knows!)
Then, you can decide how much needs to be done each day (or week) to get through the subject or subjects your child needs to get through over the summer.
Step 3: Decide on a curriculum or method.
You will need to make a plan for how your child is going to learn the things they need to learn over the summer. If you need help choosing a curriculum or method to do this, scroll toward the end of this post!
Step 4: Clear your schedule.
I cannot stress enough how important this step is. There is absolutely NO WAY you are going to be able to school an entire grade, or even subject, over the summer if you or your child are busy.
This may be the most difficult thing you face because it may mean you drop summer sports or swim lessons or time out with friends.
But it will be worth it in the long run!
Step 5: Stay consistent!
And here is the second most difficult thing you will face…consistency.
You have to commit to doing this. If your child is older, they need to be responsible for their work, and you will need to check up on them. If your child is younger, you will need to fight through the days when your child wants to give up.
And one of the best ways to stay consistent is…
Step 6: Plan rewards!
When you look at your Scope & Sequence, insert rewards for meeting certain milestones. Here are a few ideas:
- Family pizza night after getting 3 chapters finished.
- Trip to a Water Park halfway through the plan.
- Shopping Spree at a favorite store at the end of summer.
- A new app or game your child has been wanting.
- Stuffed animals
- Candy
Do your best to really incentivize summer school, and celebrate the victories and accomplishments your child has at every opportunity possible!
Now for a few ideas for curriculum for your homeschool summer school!
Summer School Curriculum Ideas
Note: Trying to use a boxed curriculum as a crash course over the summer will probably not be your best option here. You can use pieces of the curriculum, but do not try to implement the entire thing. You and your child will only end up immensely frustrated. It is better to piece together EXACTLY what you need.
This step actually has endless possibilities – which I find very exciting and encouraging. I’ll try to cover a few of the ones I believe to be the most helpful.
Video Resources
When we moved to a new state and found our oldest son needed an Economics course in order to graduate by our state’s standards, I turned to Compass Classroom’s video series. He worked his way through it at a good pace, and had it finished in record time.
Related post: Review of Compass Classroom Economics
Compass Classroom offers a multitude of video courses that would work very well to get your child through certain subjects, so definitely check them out!
A curriculum with a video component can often help mom out when she doesn’t have sufficient knowledge in a subject, and would like her child to work at a consistent pace.
Internet Resources
My oldest daughter currently works from a Scope and Sequence we found online for Algebra and then uses Khan Academy to work through that S&S. (By the way, she’s not doing this because she’s trying to “catch up,” but because traditional math curricula has never worked well for her.)
You might also consider using apps like Reading Eggs, Starfall, or ABC Mouse to help a child who is having trouble reading.
Similarly, if your child is behind in certain concepts in math, you can use an app or website to give them plenty of practice in that concept.
Related post: How Reading Eggs Helped my Struggling Reader
Workbooks
Math and Phonics both lend themselves to workbooks. By concentrating on getting several lessons done a day (with breaks in between), you can get quite far using the workbook method.
Book Lists
Suppose your child needs to have a Christian Worldview course under his belt before taking a certain co-op class in the fall. Snag a book list from online, and get him reading! Instead of written papers, try narration to help him retain and cut down on time spent in seat work.
Handbooks
Does your child need a composition class this summer, but you don’t know where to start? Grab a MLA Handbook! Yes, your child CAN read through the handbook and learn everything they need to know! – ask me how I know!
Do you have more questions? Check the comments section, ask you own questions, and even suggest more homeschool summer school ideas!
Tirza says
Thanks for this bit of encouragment! We feel behind this year due to my youngest, she is a micropremie and needed lots of attention. But she is doing well now and I can put more focus on all the children and schooling! I don’t feel as “lazy” now 😉
Leah says
Great advice, Amy. 🙂 I would also add an audio book version of a textbook; it helps get through the book much faster.My son needed to catch up a little with Science. He is not a fast reader, and the audio book (or mp3) helped him read along quickly. Workbooks are a great idea for catching up too. We’ve used workbooks for math and reading.
Amy says
Yes! Good idea on the audios!
Serenity says
I am in 7th grade and over the summer I want to complete 8th grade so when I go back in it school, I can be in 9th. I want to work my way up the ranks by completing grades over the summer. Though, I am completely unsure how to do this and it’s immensely causing me disarry, because I cannot figure out how I would be able to do it. I already have looked up many online schools and none of them have a course to complete a grade over the summer. I really want to get ahead and I have no clue where to start, ironically.
S says
If you don’t homeschool already, I would talk with your guidance counselor. I would think they could help you figure it out. There is also summer school & alternative schools. See if any offer mini semesters. I took a full 18 credit (6classes) semester over the summer in college once by taking many of the classes in the mini version. (Meaning the first half of the summer were different classes than the second half. About 6weeks each+/-). I loved it & did better. There is no time to forget if you can pay attention! Lecture/ class taught one day with a test the following day. These classes were not condensed either, they taught all the material. It’s a lot of work!
Lisa Pierro says
Serenity – that is exactly what my daughter would like to do, as she started kindergarten at age 6 and wants to catch up to the grade that is equal to her age. Have you found something that would work? Thanks for any help.
Astrid says
I would like to do the same thing! Please let me kno what u did to do this 🙂
Niki says
Thank you so much for this post!! I don’t necessarily need to do a year over the summer but I definitely need to get caught up. We are BEHIND for several reasons. 1. Will was slower learning to read SO we fpcused on that for 6 months. Then my daddy got sick and died year later my grandmother got sick and died. 6 months were spent with them as priority.
Marilyn says
I was encouraged to see this post. My daughter was held back in public school in 1st grade We turned to homeschooling her to help her with dyslexia. In order to graduate 8th grade 6 years later with her age mates and go back to high school we spent the summer between 6th and 7th grade doing math, language arts and science. She did fabulously, was deeply motivated and we did do mini and major celebrations you spoke of in your post. Brought back wonderful memories and confirms our choice to homeschool. Thank you.
Dani says
I am so glad I found this page. My son was diagnosed with a Visual Processing Disorder at then end of his 1st grade year. We took him to vision and occupational therapy to help him. The school had no resources or experience. They encouraged us to hold him back. He was behind and he was frustrated and shutting down. His teacher worked with him and oral exams he aced but reading and writing or any computer work was always difficult. Our Drs didn’t see the benefit of him staying in the same grade so we opted to let him go to 2nd grade. We all worked extremely hard over the summer and at the beginning of the school year he was tested again and showed a significant increase in his reading. It was equally impressive because most kids decline but he worked with me at home and with therapy weekly and the effort showed. He worked so hard that year that he actually won the 2nd grade reading challenge! During that year there was a fine line of working hard in his independent therapies and not being overwhelmed with school work. By the end of 2nd grade we didn’t see the growth they felt he needed to move to 3rd grade, which is a state testing year where we live. He stayed in 2nd grade and was depressed and crying for the first month of school. We took a socially integrated child with academic insecurities and pulled him away from all of his close friends and made him repeat work. The year has gone on and he as made progress and doing well. He graduated from VT. He unfortunately hasn’t made many close friends in his current grade. He is in an inclusion class and the teacher mentioned many of the students have some young behavior and immaturity. We have pressed on. As the school year comes to a close and he is zipping though his work he asked me if he could homeschool over summer and next year so he could catch up to his other friends. It broke my heart. I don’t know that it would be possible and would probably be quite a bit for him to process but I did decide that I would try to find a way to work with him over the summer and give him a push so each grade he feels more confident and perhaps if we get to a point where we could “catch up” to his peers we would.
Chrissy Kellogg says
So how did it go? I hope your son was able to catch up with his friends.
Michelle says
We are going to try Math, Reading and Spanish for my 4th grader. It is not really catch up,, more for better proficiency. This post was helpful because I am a little intimidated due to it being summer. Our family likes to have a super flexible schedule in the summer!
Amy says
You can do it and still have fun! (I promise!)
Sarah says
Interesting. We plan to homeschool year round just because my daughter loses so much from a long break and we take LOTS of trips during the school year and summer. We are starting to “catch up” right now, so I imagine that she will be a little “ahead” of her public school peers by the time we are through summer. I don’t even know at this point how we would ever go back to the school system. It boggles my mind after only a year, that they expect all kids to be hitting the same benchmarks at the same time.
I guess I have been fully indoctrinated into the homeschool mine now, because it’s weird to me to think 20+ kids in a class will a) learn the same exact thing in the same exact timeframe.
Patricia Bevill says
Great post. I have enjoyed your blog for a long time.
Brandon Magnussen says
What if my 6 grade child flunked 6 grade do to suddenly moving and covid went from a to f. Could this give him the credit to move forward to the 7 grade
Reilly radzville says
What if I as a rising sixth grader, wanted to learn seventh grade math?
Amy says
That works too!
Margarita says
I want to do my Ninth grade year in home school because I have way to much free time during summer and I need to do something productive during that Time. If i do ninth grade in summer school will I go to tenth grade instead of ninth next year.
Amy says
More than likely you will need to “test out” of 9th grade. I did this with an English class between my 9th and 10th grade years. I had to prove I knew the material.
Stephanie says
I pulled my kids out of private school after the COVID drama and politics really messing up their education. My daughter finished 3rd grade in private school. I homeschooled her 4th grade over this summer, and you’re right she did not have much of a summer but she very much wanted to do this express grade so now she can do 5th grade homeschooling with her brother at the same time this school year 2021-2022. They are about a year apart. I plan to put them back in brick and morter for 6th grade, 2022-2023. This all sound ok? I know I still need to have a teacher evaluate her work for 4th grade to get it official. But she did all of the work.
Amy says
Hi Stephanie! Yes, if her teacher agrees that she is ready and completed all of the work, then I wouldn’t hesitate to move forward.
Tarynkay says
Our public schools are estimating that most students are now working one year behind grade level. Interestingly, they plan to fix this by putting students in 3 weeks of summer school. I have no idea how they plan to catch anyone up in 3 weeks! They did summer school last year as well, apparently it did not work to get the kids back on grade level. So hey, I guess why not do the same thing again?
Amy says
I’ve been hearing this same thing, but didn’t know what the plan was to fix it. 3 weeks isn’t enough time by a long shot, but they are going to be hard pressed to get kids (and parents) on board with much more than that. That said, it is absolutely possible to get kids caught up, but it will probably take one-on-one tutors focusing on weaknesses and reinforcing strengths…much like a homeschooling atmosphere.
Dee says
Wow, my kids “qualified” to be in summer school & the teachers highly recommended it but I declined bc they wouldn’t have much of a summer. They were burnt out from the school year, had no idea it was to catch them up but it makes
Sense!! I ended up pulling out all my kids to homeschool for the 22-23 school year & they’re back to themselves, when they were in school they were tired & just weren’t themselves, they were angry & cried to go to school & my oldest withdrew from everyone.
Suzanne L says
I find it interesting you have so many “takers” on “catching up” with homeschooling over the summer–especially to do a whole year. The homeschool world emphasizes that there is no “grade level”–you just keep progressing and working hard and smart.
The common denominator of those interested in a whole year seems to be if the kid is in school somewhere already and is wanting to advance quickly, OR is heading back to public school on a timeframe (with one exception being the sweet kid who wants to school with a sibling). (I apologize if I missed someone.)
I feel that my kid is “behind” in math. She’s advanced or average in other areas, with the exception of spelling. (Since I can tell she’s progressing with her spelling ability, and we can always do spell check for her papers if she suddenly had to be in school, I’m not worried about the spelling. Let’s also say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and spelling wasn’t natural for me, either).
I’d be interested if you have suggestions on math work, especially on-line with math fact review of basic arithmetic facts that are NOT timed. So many of the games involve timed challenges and that stresses my child. We need multiplication and division most, but review of addition and subtraction too wouldn’t be terrible.
By the way, I liked your idea of using a textbook to give you your scope and sequence, then using Khan Academy to work through practice problems. Clever! The different areas of math are easy or hard to learn, based on the kid, but the textbooks sometimes seem to spend as much time on the easy concepts as they do on the hard ones!
Amy says
Yes, most people who are interested in homeschooling in this way have kids going into a more traditional setting. As for math, you might take a look at Kumon workbooks. We are currently using this one – https://amzn.to/3nNnslj – to drill multiplication facts. They have workbooks for just about everything!
Suzanne L says
Thank you, Amy. I have used a Kumon book before (for a much younger age) and thought it was well-done. I didn’t consider it for math review. Good suggestion!
Amy says
Thanks! Hope it helps!