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How do your 180 days look?


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We took the local public school calendar and modified it a bit here and there to fit our family. My kids participated in church and sports that ps kids participated in and it was easier for us if our school calendar was similar to that of the ps.

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We do school 4 days a week and we're usually able to finish in 40 weeks (give or take a few). We take a few weeks off around the holidays, but other than that I don't have set weeks off. If we're sick, or go on vacation, or just need a little break, we'll take a week off when needed. During the summer, we usually have about 6 weeks off, so there's room for flexibility during the school year. I like to start in August and finish up early to mid-June....by then we're all ready for a break. :)

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California doesn't require a specific number of days, so I didn't count them. :-)

 

We took off Thanksgiving through about the middle of January, a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter, and a couple of weeks in late August/early September when everyone was gong back to school. We also took off random days as needed for mental health, trips to Disneyland in the middle of the week, and so on. :-) Otherwise, we just kept working on stuff until we finished and then moved on to the next thing, whenever that happened.

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Many (if not most) of the public schools in our area are year round, so there is almost always a large percentage of kids not in school at any given time.  They cycle through 9 weeks on- 3 weeks off.  We try to do something loosely similar to that, but I'm not as strict about the 9/3 as they are.  I do like having a nice long break each season.

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To maximize my youngest's time with her ps friends we take the same Fall, Winter and Spring Breaks.  We start a week later than ps and end a week earlier. I add in a floating week to be used as needed, so any of the below dates could get pushed back by a week if we need to. 

 

Start date: Aug. 1st (PS starts Mon. July 25th)

9 weeks of school

Fall Break: Mon. Oct. 3rd- Fri. the 14th (PS has those days and Mon. the 17-Tuesday the 18th off too)

10 weeks of school

Winter Break: Mon. Dec. 26th (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are on a weekend)-Fri. Jan. 6th (PS has those days and Mon. the 9th off too.)

9 weeks of school

Spring Break:  Mon. Mar. 13-Fri. the 24th (PS has those days and Mon. the 27th off too.)

8 weeks of school

Summer Break: May 22nd-first full week in August (PS Summer Break starts Tues. June 1st.)

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We do about 220 short days. No long breaks (unless we're traveling or receiving visitors) because DS thrives on routine, but we're never rushed to get things done, and sick days don't do any harm.

 

My kids also did well with more, but shorter, days.  A long summer break was a disaster when they were in elementary! 

 

Even now (high school), we don't do a full summer break. We start the first Monday in August and hit it hard until the inevitable holiday slowdown. Then, we don't take weeks and weeks off, but just do shorter days as needed, but generally getting at least a couple of subjects done per day. People don't realize how much bits and pieces add up over time. We take off several days at once around Christmas, and several days here and there in the holiday season (plus many shorter than usual days). 

 

We will usually have about 2 other weeks off during our school year, one week all at once for vacation and one week for random non-holiday days. On most sick days, they can watch a documentary or do a bit of reading, but no big deal if they have to take completely off. When they were younger, we almost always did at least one subject on field trip days. Again, little bits and pieces do add up. 

 

June is spent wrapping up as needed. We have work to do but not full days and no big deal to take extra days off. If they are motivated, and the schedule cooperates, they generally have a very easy schedule in June, usually some literature and history and maybe wrapping up one other subject. This year, 10th-grade dd was finished with math in April, and then wrapped up all but science by the first week in June (mostly due to taking off for other things!). 

 

July we take completely off, although dd above did have a few scraps of science to finish up that first week. 

 

First Monday in August, back at it. 

 

I am not an advocate of taking extended time off when life happens (a move, a death in the family, whatever crisis). I'd rather keep on trucking, even if we aren't at full power. One, I think it's better for the kids to keep in a routine. Two, life is always happening. If I took off for ever crisis, it would take an extra five years to graduate. 

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We want to travel in May so we scoot the schedule earlier into August - a full 2 weeks before the public school starts. We take the same breaks (and then some) as public school so the kids can hang with their friends, but not the half-days.  BTW our district is in session for 173 days this year - 6 more than us. 

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Edited by J&JMom
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We start the 3rd week of August and end by the last week of May.

 

We take off time for major holidays, like 2 or 3 days for Thanksgiving, and 2-3 weeks for Christmas. I plan out the holiday vacation days ahead of time.

 

I set aside a few days for unexpected days off, like a great field trip opportunity or illness: about 2 days per school month, so about 18 a year. Well, I think I don't set aside 2 days in Nov and Dec because of the long holidays. So I guess I have 14 days that I can take off whenever I want to. 2 per month for 7 months.

 

I just plug away, working Mon thru Fri and doing my best not to slack off and take days off here and there. I have done that in the past and I don't like the feeling that I get that we're not living up the the standards I want us to live up to. I rarely have us take a day off for a "mental health" day anymore.

 

But that's my personality. I like to have all my i's dotted and t's crossed. I like a solid schedule that I can stick to.

 

I reassess my schedule in December to see if we've used up a lot of our 14 free days off or if we have extras to use before May.

 

I try to keep up with the work as much as possible in the year so that when May hits, we can start dropping things. I like it when we finish up a curric a week or two early so that the last couple of weeks of school are lighter than the rest of the year.

 

Again: this is my personality. I like order. I don't like to go with the flow. I like having a plan. I feel safe and comforted by a plan. Other people feel constricted and resentful toward plans.

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I'm in PA and we have to count days (180 days).  I'm much like Garga in that I like a schedule.  My goal is always 160 days of "lessons" or typical school days where we follow the schedule and 20 days of field trips.  The field trip days are often sprinkled throughout the school year, but I also count summer camps.  We start counting days July 1.  I start "lesson days" the last week of August.  We really don't take off much during the school year except around Thanksgiving, Christmas and a few days at Easter.  We are typically done by the first week of May.

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We loosely follow the local ps schedule, it's just easier to be off when their friends are off. And around here there's so much to do with 4H and outdoor/swimming/vacation activities and teen jobs that doing school would not only lead to mutiny but would be all but impossible anyway.

 

We do 4 days/week of "regular" school and Fridays are our "fun" days where we do math games, art, and either PE or speech/debate club, so it doesn't feel grueling at all. I'm still able to get to all of our curricula in the 144 days of "regular" school. Well, except for February. February is grueling no matter how you structure your year, it seems lol

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Honestly - very disjointed. This year I'm giving up sticking to the local PS schedule - it just doesn't work for us. I don't even count on being able to school 5 days a week anymore - again it often doesn't work. 

 

This year I made my schedule free of days of the week / calendars / etc. It's a spiral notebook with "day 1, day 2, etc" on each page. I'll check off the page when we complete it, and we'll school until our subjects are done and we're past day 180. 

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4 full days a week, 1 half day a week because of our martial arts class. We take off for birthdays, a week at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, and some time around Easter. We are starting this week because if we don't, we won't finish before mid-May. We like to have off for all of June and most of May. This year we didn't start the first week of July because of camp.

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We usually start a week before the public schools. We take off:

-a week at Thanksgiving

-2 weeks at Christmas

-a week at some point in the Spring to go on vacation

 

We still finish about 2-3 weeks before the public schools since we don't have all the random half-days or 4/5-day weekends that they schedule in.

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This is interesting. I don't have to keep track of days. I live in NJ. I just thought that it would be good to keep track of days in case anyone ever decided to question us. It is interesting to me that some of you don't do 180 days. I thought that was the gold standard. 

 

Right now I know we have to have the last half of November off. We have a planned vacation. Daddy has off the week between Christmas and New Years but I figure DS can do school for 3 of those days. I planned a floating week off in the spring for whenever my in-laws come out. It is impossible to get him to do ANYTHING when they are out and they just yell at us about our parenting if we try (been there, done that, will not do that again!). They also don't tell me when they are coming out till about 3-4 weeks ahead of time so I need to be prepared. 

 

I think I will try 4 day weeks with my son with a few 5 day weeks sprinkled in there. I am thinking if I do it right it would be 4 days, weekend, 4 days, 4 day weekend; type of thing. 

 

Thanks for all the help!

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We school about 4.5 days per week: Monday-Thursday, and half-day Fridays (Fridays are our "friend days," so we don't try to do everything on that day. When they were in elementary, Fridays were not "half days," but we did focus just on basics--reading, math, something for LA, Bible...)

 

I don't try to plan our days off (that really didn't work well for us, other than holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter...). We just keep doing our 4.5 days most weeks, but if we need a day here or there, we take it. I keep track of where we are and how many days I want in by Christmas etc..., so I know if we're on track. 

 

 

Edited by MerryAtHope
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I should clarify that we school 4-4.5 days a week because Homeschool PE is at 10:30 on Thursday mornings and the kids stay for lunch and socialize after, but we do 5 full days worth of assignments every week which works out to 36 full weeks of school, so our school day is a little longer.

36 is a very useful number.  You can divide it up into trimesters, semesters and quarters and other divisions very easily which can be useful for many planning situations involving units.

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We follow the public school calendar.

 

Pools close on weekdays when school starts here, it feels like back to school, and it's hot outside and everyone is bored of being out there, so school it is.  :)  It's easier for us to just follow their basic breaks, too, though we will probably shift spring break to a week that works better for us. 

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I outlined how I plan our school year in this blog post: http://www.theplantedtrees.com/2012/06/how-i-plan-our-homeschool-year-part-one.html

 

Basically you figure out your minimum number of days to complete each month to finish in a year and aim for that number each month, however that looks for your family.

Edited by Chelli
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This is interesting. I don't have to keep track of days. I live in NJ. I just thought that it would be good to keep track of days in case anyone ever decided to question us. It is interesting to me that some of you don't do 180 days. I thought that was the gold standard.

 

The number of days varies per country, etc. And in our school district in WNY, they schedule 185 days, even though they're required to do only 180 (and I'm not counting make-up days for snow days - they schedule those too, but those are not included in the 185 day count - that said, if there are fewer than 6 snow days they just say "hey, we still have 180+ days, so we're all good" and don't actually make people show up for make-up days). I Googled NL, and they seem to have about 200 school days per year (but it varies a little per year). FWIW, in elementary school in NL we had 4.5 day weeks, as Wednesdays was a half day, so 200 days is not 200 full days - if you adjust for half days, you do end up with 180. That said, there are probably countries that have more days no matter how you count them.

 

I live in a state where I'm supposed to count days and hours, and I'd drive myself insane if I did, since I'm a very rigid thinker if I try to go by rules (I overthink everything, and I'd end up spending a ton of time every day wondering whether this or that counted, and sit there with a stop watch, etc - I know that from when my oldest was supposed to do half an hour of homework per night, plus 20 minutes of reading per night when he was in first grade). So, my 180 days look like 365.25 days - I'm sure they learn something every day, and I'm sure they get enough hours per quarter too.

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We are supposed to do 180 days, I'm planning on 150 scheduled days and the other 30 will come from daily life.  We often sit around watching documentaries, having discussions on quantum theory and Chaos theory (DH and DD mainly) they read or listen to audio books and watch TGC for fun.  

So our schedule will be:

Start Aug 22nd

Off Week of Sept 5th (labor day, DH has almost a week off)

Off week of Oct. 17th (DN is going to Indiana for visit)

Off Week of Nov. 21 

Off Christmas Dec 22nd

Back on Week of Jan 16

Off week of Feb 6th

Off for 2 weeks starting March 6th (DN will go visit Indiana again)

Off Week of Apr 17th

And we're done by May 26th.

 

Like PP I' would drive myself nuts if I had to try to follow someone else's rules, so instead I'm interpreting them in a way that works for me.

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We do four weeks on one week off, five days a week. My sons like it because they get a break so often. Four weeks is about all their little brains can handle. We take two weeks off in the summer after each four weeks. It's not quite so perfect in the summer because of all the camps they did this summer though. We worked five and got three weeks off and then worked two and got two weeks off or something.

 

Schools only a half day every day though.

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We are Iowa IPI so we have no requirements. If we were Iowa PI we have a 148 day requirement. Here's our schedule:

 

 

August 8th - (first day of regular studies) 18 days

September (one day off for dentist appts, one day for labor day) 20 days

October (untraditional day on Halloween) 20 days

November (one day off for birthday, veterans day doing community service, all Thanksgiving week off) 15 days

December - OFF

January (resume on the 2nd) 22 days

February (nontraditional day on Valentines day with local homeschoolers) 19 days

March - 22 days

April - 20 days if needed

 

(This is a total of 156 days)

 

We give ourselves till the end of April to finish up - usually the older one is done a few weeks ahead. He gets motivated when we hit the last month. 

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We do a modified year-round schedule, but there's no real rhyme and reason to it. In my state a school day is any day in which an educational activity occurs. According to that standard, we rack up WAAAAY more than the required 180, so I don't need to count days. Generally, though, I plan for about 36 weeks, because I need some kind of structure to go on.

 

We like to start in mid-July and take off whenever we schedule our family vacations (4 weeks per year, which are usually taken when everyone else is in school), at least two weeks in December, and about six weeks in June/July. Other than that, we just take off days when we need to. This year I'm going to schedule some week-long school breaks in addition to our vacations so I have time to regroup and adjust here and there. 

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I am following the public school schedule for the most part. They start August 3rd but have some very nice breaks throughout the year so the year doesn't feel so much like a sprint. For example, they have two weeks off in October. I can't follow it exactly because I am required by law to have 180 days and they have less than that. Go figure...

 

My bigger issue is that with all the classes I outsource, I am having to coordinate four different school schedules. That gets a little confusing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I've never bothered to count days. I didn't have to in CA, and I don't have to do it here either.

 

For the last couple of years, #4 did a 4 day week while my high school age kids did 5 days. Then we just take breaks when I feel like it. We usually take off the entire week of Thanksgiving, and a couple of weeks around Christmas. My girls both did full-time dual enrollment in 11th and 12th grade, so they followed their college schedules from that point on.

 

The public schools here usually do spring break at the end of February or early March, when it's below freezing and the ground is still covered in snow. I wait until it's actually spring in May, which results in my kids asking "When are we taking spring break?" for about four months. ;)

 

I always intended to do light summer work when my older kids were young, but our schedule would fill and we'd end up dropping formal academics for the summer. #4 is doing summer "fun" school with me this year for the first time (math, board games and reading lots of library books), because he has some medical issues and special needs that warranted a lighter school schedule this past year. #3 is done with his 9th grade work and hardly ever home.

 

We start formal academics again the week after Labor Day.

Edited by ghostwheel
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In response to your title: Bleak and Frightening.   :tongue_smilie: 

 

 

We planned 36 weeks - 5 days a week.  I'm skeptical we'll actually get everything done in 5 days.  I think the teenagers are going to have work to do over the weekend, too.  We start on Monday, but we are easing into the mayhem.  The first week, we are only doing math, art, reading and foreign languages.  The next week we are adding in science.  The third week, we are adding in everything else - history, geography, music, P.E., etc.  I planned a lot of extras for my kids this year.

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In MA we have to the equivalent of 180 days or 900 hours (2nd grade). We will follow the public school schedule during the majority of the year, as DH is a school teacher, with 1/2 day Wednesdays for field trips, two weeks off for birth of new baby, one week for Thanksgiving, and two weeks at Christmas.  With #5 due in October, I've modified our year to run September through August, but not all subjects will happen at the same time. Some subjects will get 37 weeks, some will get 34 weeks.

 

Sept - Dec: Start with the subjects he can easily do with little help needed from me... (DO handwriting, spelling, grammar, math)

Jan - Jun: Add in remaining subjects, now that life with baby has *hopefully* settled down... (DO handwriting, spelling, grammar, math, reading, writing, history, science, art/music, religion)

Jul - Aug: Fall subjects should be finished; finish remaining subjects. DH will be home to help... (DO reading, writing, history, science)

 

Hope that makes sense!

 

 

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We do year-round, and with getting a bit behind last year, we did closer to 300 days! Dd will be full-time at the uni, so to get stuff done at home, she has "homework" when she doesn't have college classes.

We go year round with no scheduled breaks as well. Inevitably they happen with appointments, play dates, health issues and sickness. It works much better for my default to be 'school' daily and then just adjust as needed. I always get closer to 240+ days and never have to stress about being behind or speeding up and condensing lessons.

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I've really enjoyed reading through this thread. I'm a numbers girl, so I always work through numbers of lessons to complete plus days to complete them to come up with a 160 day lesson plan. Each day has 6 subjects. My dd does 4 before lunch and break. Two more after break.

 

While I like the organization of our day, sometimes I don't feel like we have enough time in our day for the extras during the school year. My dd is involved with a few youth programs, theater, skating, art classes, and friend time. She easily gets overwhelmed with our busy days.

 

Our summers tend to be the opposite. Most programs don't go through the summer. She goes to one summer camp and we take a 2 week vacation. Other than that, she asks to do school because it's too hot outside and she's bored.

 

I've decided to change my schedule from 160 six subject days to 240 four subject days. This seems so much better for my family. Less stress during the "school year" and less boredom over the summer. Basically covering the same amount of work in 3 weeks instead of 2. Love it!!!

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We are in NYS and do not need to count days but instead hrs (either 900 for grades 1-6 or 990 grades 7-12).  Since any educational activity any educational activity (not just what you plan for school) can count towards your hours which means that you do more than the required without even trying.

 

Our school year schedule starts sometime in August and we end in May or June (depending on the subject these days)  The only big break that we have is in December.  We take off 2-3 weeks around the holidays.  Other than that we normally just take of a day here or there depending on what is going on.

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We are in NYS and do not need to count days but instead hrs (either 900 for grades 1-6 or 990 grades 7-12).

 

I read the regulations as sort of requiring both, but I'm not a lawyer and all that:

 

Attendance requirements. Each child shall attend upon instruction as follows:

  1. The substantial equivalent of 180 days of instruction shall be provided each school year.
  2. The cumulative hours of instruction for grades 1 through 6 shall be 900 hours per year. The cumulative hours of instruction for grades 7 through 12 shall be 990 hours per year.
  3. Absences shall be permitted on the same basis as provided in the policy of the school district for its own students.
  4. Records of attendance shall be maintained by the parent and shall be made available to the school district upon request.
  5. Instruction provided at a site other than the primary residence of the parents shall be provided in a building which has not been determined to be in violation of the local building code.
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Different every year!

We do have to count days in my state, but by now (6 years homeschooling) I know that we are always way over, so I just fill out the form and don't actually keep track.  :leaving:  No one needs more administrative busywork!  :svengo:

 

We did some math, writing and a little science this summer, but not a full school day. Very light. It helped to keep us in a routine and keep Ds from forgetting all his math facts! We did about 5-6 weeks of that.  We NEED a real break and the complete change of pace, mindset and activities that goes with it. We had a three week complete break at the beginning of the summer and are in the middle of another one now. I need that break, esp. as Ds is not a school-loving boy and it is serious work to get him to do anything, ever.  

 

We generally follow a traditional school year, adapting as we need to for life and sanity. Our main school year is mid-August to mid-May, with typical breaks for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter/Spring. We usually start back after a week or so at Christmas and have quite a few light days in December. We take a family vacation in the fall or spring, but we have no outsourced classes academic classes. My kids do an enrichment tutorial one morning a week, and while I do count that day as school, it does cut into our productivity. Both kids do piano, math and reading that day, in addition to their tutorial. This year Dd 11 will begin to schedule some of her own reading and coursework. I will give her a list and help her to plan her week. 

 

Last year we didn't start until very late because my Dh had major health issues. We have tried 6 weeks on, 1 week off and year-round, but both bombed. Maybe I am just too much a product of the school culture, but we do fine with a fairly traditional American school schedule, with added flexibility and a some light schoolwork in the summer. All our outside activities are geared to the school year and it is hard to be super independent from that. If I lived in a place with extreme weather or Dh had an unusual job or we did almost no outside activities, then we might be more creative. 

 

 

Edited by ScoutTN
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Dh is a public school teacher, so we follow his schedule. We live in an area that starts early and takes a lot of breaks. We will do some school here and there during breaks because of co-op. This will help us finish earlier than dh.

 

We start August 1. Dh's breaks are full weeks off in October, Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, February, and April. We should be done by early to mid-May.

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I read the regulations as sort of requiring both, but I'm not a lawyer and all that:

 

Attendance requirements. Each child shall attend upon instruction as follows:

  1. The substantial equivalent of 180 days of instruction shall be provided each school year.
  2. The cumulative hours of instruction for grades 1 through 6 shall be 900 hours per year. The cumulative hours of instruction for grades 7 through 12 shall be 990 hours per year.
  3. Absences shall be permitted on the same basis as provided in the policy of the school district for its own students.
  4. Records of attendance shall be maintained by the parent and shall be made available to the school district upon request.
  5. Instruction provided at a site other than the primary residence of the parents shall be provided in a building which has not been determined to be in violation of the local building code.

 

 

 

I can see where you could read that but the key is the term substantial equivalent of.  That means you need to do what would be the equivalent of 180 5 hr or 5.5 hr days which ends up being the 900 or 990 hrs.  That is what the districts look for.

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I can see where you could read that but the key is the term substantial equivalent of.  That means you need to do what would be the equivalent of 180 5 hr or 5.5 hr days which ends up being the 900 or 990 hrs.  That is what the districts look for.

 

It's not just that, it's also about attendance records and absences. It's my understanding that most districts, IF they ask to see an attendance record, just want to see a list of days of attendance, not 1.5 hours on July 24, 4.75 hours on July 25, 0 hours on July 26, etc, to add up to 900 hours at the end of the year. They just want to see checkmarks for July 24 and July 25, and no checkmark on July 26. Or at least that's what I've heard. And absences plain don't make any sense to me if you're just counting hours. I've logged absences on our quarterly reports when my oldest missed OT/PT/Speech (provided by the school) due to illness (to avoid confusion), but OTOH, missing OT/PT/Speech didn't prevent him from getting enough days/hours in, so it's a bit of a mystery to me.

Edited by luuknam
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I count weeks rather than days.  Even so I don't have written down exactly what will get done every week.  Most skill subjects are open and go.  I have book lists and will divide up the reading at the beginning of each book.  Etc.  Things may be added or subtracted.  It will all work out.   :coolgleamA:

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We are in England where I think the state schools have to run for 190 days (380 half day sessions) each year. Home schoolers don't have any required number of days and it would be very unlikely to be asked to provide that information to anyone. I like keeping count though so have a pretty spreadsheet and have always kept count just in case we are ever questioned.

 

PS here run on a roughly 6 weeks on, followed by 1 or 2 weeks off calendar with 6 weeks off in summer- 3rd week of July to 1st week of September. My job and the kids outside activities run on that system, so we have to stick to it somewhat but we also adapt it to better fit our needs.

 

What that looks like in reality is 30 weeks each year of full school for us, while the state schools are also in session. Then we have 13 weeks of school 'light' during the state school breaks. For light weeks I only plan to do Maths and English. If we have got behind in any other subject we use that week to catch up, or we do review/extension activities. The kids will be doing clubs that count as 'educational' in those weeks too and I will have to work longer hours (that extra money pays for us to homeschool) so we have less time for normal school those weeks anyway. The other 9 weeks will be our break weeks and ,with the exception of the Christmas break, are all taken when state schools are in session. That means we can take advantage of cheaper prices and smaller crowds :laugh: .

 

 

2016-17 Academic Year

Term 1

6 full weeks (starting 1 week after the state schools)

1 light week

1 week off

6 full weeks

2 weeks off (Christmas)

Total 12 full weeks, 1 light week, 3 weeks off

 

Term 2

6 full weeks

3 light weeks (only 1 is state school half-term break, the others are due to ALL our birthdays falling in these 3 weeks, plus it helps to combat the annual Feb/Mar slump)

4 full weeks

2 light weeks (Easter break)

2 weeks off (vacation to France)

Total 10 full weeks, 5 light weeks, 2 weeks off

 

Term 3

4 full weeks

1 light week

4 full weeks

2 weeks off (1 of those weeks they are usually at Music School, so I could probably count those days actually)

Total 8 full weeks, 1 light week, 2 weeks off

 

Term 4

6 light weeks

2 weeks off

Total 0 full weeks, 6 light weeks, 2 weeks off

 

This schedule means that we always start the school year later than state schools and are usually done by July 1st, so 2-3 weeks earlier than their state schooled friends, which my kids love. We do school through summer but it is only Maths and English (because I feel my kids need to keep practising these skill subjects year round to progress and prevent backsliding) and anything we didn't get finished during the year. It only works out as an hour or so out of their day and they admit they find it makes starting up full school again in September much easier.

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It's not just that, it's also about attendance records and absences. It's my understanding that most districts, IF they ask to see an attendance record, just want to see a list of days of attendance, not 1.5 hours on July 24, 4.75 hours on July 25, 0 hours on July 26, etc, to add up to 900 hours at the end of the year. They just want to see checkmarks for July 24 and July 25, and no checkmark on July 26. Or at least that's what I've heard. And absences plain don't make any sense to me if you're just counting hours. I've logged absences on our quarterly reports when my oldest missed OT/PT/Speech (provided by the school) due to illness (to avoid confusion), but OTOH, missing OT/PT/Speech didn't prevent him from getting enough days/hours in, so it's a bit of a mystery to me.

 

 

First I have never heard of a district, even the toughest ones, asking for the attendance (doesn't mean they can't but no one ever has to my knowledge.)  They are just concerned about making sure you have enough hours.  Absences do not make sense because we only are required to do hours.   There are several contradictions in the NYS regs and that is one of them.  I think that is why districts do not ask for them.

 

If they ever ask I will just print off a calendar and mark days.   I think the only time the attendance sheet might come into play is if a hs program was put on probation.  Then the district might want to see that you are actually having school days.  Otherwise everyday you can learn something educational so every day is a school day.

Edited by mschickie
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