August in The Life Of Our Homeschooling Family

🌿 A Busy August in the Life of our Homeschooling Family

Can you believe it’s almost the end of summer? Well, not quite—we’ve still got a whole month to go! But August is definitely the busiest month in our homeschool calendar, packed full with summer camps, early wake-ups, planning the year ahead, and navigating those ever-changing sleep schedules. You know the drill!

If you’re just getting into homeschooling in Ireland, or are curious about how we manage during this time of year, here’s a peek behind the curtain 💫.

🎒 Finding the Best Summer Camps (and Booking Fast!)

Living in the Irish countryside has many perks, and one of them is affordable summer camps—typically €70 for two kids for 4–5 days, usually from 9am to 1pm. The trick? Finding them on time. Here’s how I do it:

I search Facebook and Eventbrite using terms like “summer camps near me” or follow local community groups where camps are posted.
If there’s no booking link, I take a screenshot of the info and ring the number as soon as possible (Irish mamas, you know what I’m talking about!).
Camps vary widely—sports, nature, creative arts—so I try to balance what each child enjoys.

Then comes the prep! I make sure clean sports clothes are ready the night before (no early morning sock hunt, please 😅) and pack healthy lunch bags with snacks, fruit, water, and the odd sweet treat—more on that in an upcoming post!

💤 Resetting Our Sleep Routine

With summer fun comes late bedtimes, but camps mean early starts, so we gently reset our routine:

Bedtime by 8pm (no movies!)
Wake-up around 7am with enough buffer for breakfast, brushing teeth, and getting out the door without stress
And yes…there may be some pre-camp grumbling, but honestly, my kids love their camps and never complain once we’re there.

👶 What About the Littlest One?

While the big two are off enjoying their mornings, I’ve got my 2-year-old Savannah with me. She adores her siblings and gets a bit emotional when we leave them behind—cue some real toddler tears. 💔

But we make the most of our time together. We’ll hit a local coffee spot, browse a charity shop, or just have a quiet snack in the car. I also stay nearby during camp hours—just in case there’s a call (Irish weather + flying footballs = anything can happen).

📚 Planning Our Homeschool Year

Now’s the time I start thinking about curriculum, books, and planning our year—not rigid schedules, just gentle structure and exciting ideas.

So bear in mind that these are just a slight idea of what we do, we also use a lot of board games, lego, science experiment kit, building kits from amazon, smyths.ie and other places, what I am listing below is just the top of the iceberg, I’ll be adding so much more as we go 🙂

Here’s what I’ve lined up:

📘 Language & Literacy:

Spellbound 5 by CJ Fallon
Creative Writer C – 5th Class (for my daughter)
All Write Now Cursive Book – 5th Class

➕ Maths:

Busy at Maths 5 (no workbook) – It’s pricier, but super practical, and I love picking and choosing the lessons!

🎯 Extras:
We top things up with:

Fun homework helper books from Mr Price (stickers, certificates = extra motivation!)
Outschool.com online classes (coding, science, art—you name it!)
YouTube educational channels
Library books (we’re big fans of borrowing instead of buying!)
Cookbooks and hands-on life learning

🤹 Blending Learning—Our Homeschool Style

I don’t follow a strict curriculum. Instead, I blend. Because every child learns differently, and part of the joy of homeschooling is freedom—freedom to learn through doing, exploring, and living.

Sure, we cover the core pillars: reading, writing, maths—but we also learn through play, kitchen experiments, nature walks, and sibling debates over how many eggs are left in the fridge 😆.

💬 So, Is Homeschooling for You?

When I think about the difference between what we do and what a traditional classroom offers, I’m reminded why we chose this path. Our kids get one-on-one time, space to be themselves, and a learning rhythm that flows with family life.

Most classrooms have 21+ kids—sometimes even split classes. Meanwhile, we’re here building something flexible, personal, and yes, a bit wild—but wildly rewarding, too.