Switching to year round school?

[tdbates78]

I pulled my girls out of public school and began homeschooling in January. So because of this I'm following the PS schedule for the remainder of this school year.

I'm starting to get more interested in year round schooling so we can take advantage of the fantastic spring age fall weather around here. And I like being able to do things while everyone else is still in school ;)

How do I start? Do I cut their summer break short and start then? I don't want to burn them out and this has been a tough year for them and we jumped right into homeschool so this options concerns me a bit. Do I give them their summer break and start in August when we start up again?

FWIW our state doesn't mandate a specific schedule. The only requirement is 180 days of school per year.

Thanks!
Tracy

Edited March 24, 2017 by tdbates78

[G5052]

Figure out what works for you. Certainly they need some break time. I homeschooled mine year-round until they hit high school. Then they seemed to need the whole summer off although both of them had bits-and-pieces of work they had to finish into July or so most years. In particular we usually did math, grammar, and Latin year-round, sometimes just light materials over the summer to keep those skills polished. I also often did arts and crafts over the summer when they were younger so that they had more time on their projects.

 

My state also requires 180 days, so at the beginning of August I'd start counting days by checking them off on a one-page calendar in my homeschool notebook. I'd stop counting when I hit 180, which was usually in June or so. We always took off a week in early October (the best season here) for a vacation or a week of local field trips, the week of Thanksgiving, various snow days to play outside, a week or two in the spring to enjoy being outside and field trips, and then of course sick days. My husband has very challenging medical problems, so there were times we had to take off for that. Sometimes they stayed with a homeschooling family with similar priorities during those periods, and I usually sent just math and reading to keep them going.

 

For each kid, I'd look at the calendar and their curriculum at the end of the month to make sure they were making progress toward being somewhat finished. If you divide the number of lessons in a book by 9 or 10, you can see approximately how many you need to complete per month to be on track.  This also went into my homeschool notebook.

 

My youngest graduates in June. My husband has been in-and-out of the hospital this whole school year, but she's going to graduate on time with just her physics labs to finish over the summer. That's quite an achievement!

[Guest]

We school year round for multiple reasons. It provides a buffer on time if you hit a problematic subject/topic and need more time. It also keeps us on somewhat of a schedule, because I need that and so do my kids or things fall to pieces.

 

If I were you, I would pull out my calendar and figure out how you want to try and schedule your school time. How many weeks on/off. We do more than 180 days, but TX has no requirements.

 

We school about 42 weeks a year, but during the summer when public school friends are out and visiting, we aren't covering every subject and usually Friday's are completely free. I like summers for electives for my oldest. The schedule is nice to plan, but I never stick to it 100%- I'm just not built that way, but it puts a mental image in my head of where we're going. I like building in extra weeks off in December and then usually April and June. You might check with your dh and see when he's going to have days off etc and add that to your plan.

 

Plan Your Year by Pam Barnhill over on edsnapshots.com might be worth the $ for you since you're new to this. I have it and found it to be really helpful as I'm not a natural planner anymore. She has multiple templates and approaches with something that works for everyone. She updates it every year too, which saves me a lot of time. Once you buy it you get the updates free indefinitely.

 

ETA- you might start with the six weeks on, one off to start for the rest of the year and see how you like it. That's a fairly common one. Then take a couple of longer breaks when you need them.

Edited March 24, 2017 by texasmom33

[rocassie]

I school year round, but I've done it from the beginning.  I do take a 2-3 week break around Christmas into the 1st week of January and then another 2-3 week break in July.  Throughout the year, we will take a week here and there as needed and desired.   Also, we do not do school on Friday.  Fridays are for fun trips, co-op, or just catching up on life.  During the really nice weather times, I will keep school at the very basics (Math, LA, and our Reading program) so we can explore and play in the great outdoors.  I treat this season as beefed up Science and Physical Education.  In addition, I will bring school work outside.  Spelling words are done in chalk on the driveway.  Reading together on a blanket.  Finding pictures in the clouds.  Planting and caring for our garden.

 

If I were to start year round after following a different schedule, I would probably give them a good break of 4-6 weeks and then start (probably August 1st) with a light load of the basics and by September be back in the full swing of things. 

[Bluegoat]

We do some school in summer, but not nearly as much as during the year.  The biggest thing is to take advantage of the weather, at least here where our winter is long and cold and often snowy.  So we really like to use summer as part of our nature study program, both out in the community, on vacations, and in our garden.  It's just too good an opportunity to miss. 

 

Then during the winter, we tend to rely more often on books and videos, and just do a little less science, which leaves room for other things, academic or otherwise.

 

We've also sometimes done some group projects, usually all the kids together, in summer.  I am thinking this summer we might do a little project on the Victorians, as they all really enjoyed watching Victoria, and there are lots of fun things including a local history element they could all enjoy. 

 

We've also done math in summer, often on rainy days we will do a lesson.

 

For us, I don't plan too much in summer because there is so much other stuff going on - swimming lessons and vacation and such.  In your case, I might try and take it really easy this year.

[Ellie]

I pulled my girls out of public school and Evan homeschooling in January. So because of this I'm following the PS schedule for the remainder of this school year.

 

I'm starting to get more interested in year round schooling so we can take advantage of the fantastic spring age fall weather around here. And I like being able to do things while everyone else is still in school ;)

 

How do I start? Do I cut their summer break short and start then? I don't want to burn them out and this has been a tough year for them and we jumped right into homeschool so this options concerns me a bit. Do I give them their summer break and start in August when we start up again?

 

FWIW our state doesn't mandate a specific schedule. The only requirement is 180 days of school per year.

 

Thanks!

Tracy

 

You don't need to make a big deal out of it. In fact, my recommendation would be to put away your school stuff at Easter, and start again when y'all feel like it. You would still "promote" them in the fall. :-)

 

In our home, our school year began January 1 and ended December 31. We took off a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter, a couple of weeks in late August/early September (when all the schools were starting), and Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. We also took off random days as needed. And we "promoted" in the fall, just to keep things straight for Sunday school and grandparents. :-) Otherwise, we just kept working on things until we finished them or got tired of them and then we moved on to the next thing.

 

What state are you in? I promise that there are 365 days in a year, and that your children will be learning on at least 180 of them. :-)

[2_girls_mommy]

Our public schools are considered year round. They still get a summer break. It is just much shorter. So they do school until the end of May and start back up at the very end of July or more often the first week of August. So they get around 8 weeks off of school vs. the closer to 12 weeks off that other schools do. Then they get two weeks off for Fall break in October and two weeks off for fall break in March and a slightly longer Christmas break. 

 

We do something similar here. Each year officially starts for us on the first week of August. We hit school hard those first two months with almost no field trips and full 5 day weeks of bookwork for at least the full month of August. In September outside extracurriculars kick up. Then the holidays start coming, etc. I don't schedule a full two weeks off for fall and spring break. Sometimes we plan a whole week off and go somewhere for a vacation. Other times we do a lighter load but take more days off to go to a park or a museum or a mini visit with family. We have to stick somewhat to the school calendars because our co-op does and all of our outside activities do. 

 

By the end of May several subjects will have been completed in full. Vacation for us starts the first week of June as well. Kids go to camps, volunteer in church at VBS. We babysit a PS child. We spend days at the pool and at the library teen and kid programs. 

 

But we continue school in some form. Sometimes it is just continuing a subject like math or writing or Latin on the days we are home. Sometimes it is a unit study and theme for the summer. I call this our "summer camp." We do something that incorporates everyone including the babysitting child. We read aloud from a chosen novel for the summer. We do silent reading and record books for prizes at the summer library program. We do projects around our theme or activities from a unit study. And on top of that, one dd might be doing math 2-3 days a week for the weeks she doesn't have camp. But it is very light. It is all in the afternoons after a morning at the park, pool, or library with friends. 

 

So we school year round, but a day of summer school looks a lot different from the days of full on school on say a February afternoon. 

 

This freedom allows us to take all of those field trips during the year when the museums and zoos are less crowded without worrying about how will we finish Algebra.  It allows us to take long weekends to visit family.  And once in awhile it allows us to take our family vacations off season. 

 

For school days recording, I try to keep a journal during our official school year of what we do each day. We end up with more than enough to satisfy the 180 days requirement. And I try to record at least some of the summer learning main points, but I don't sweat recording every day what was done like I do in the school year. I might keep books read added to the books list and volunteer hours, etc. 

[happypamama]

You do whatever works for you.

 

Our state allows us to start counting July 1, so we typically finish up by Memorial Day and have off until sometime in July. That gives us flexibility to have three weeks off at Christmas, plus birthdays, spring break, fall break if we want, and other times as well. It's so hot in July and August that we might as well be doing our bookwork then and having the nice June weather off.

[tdbates78]

Thanks everyone! And yikes...sorry for all of the typos in my original post. Typing on my phone isn't the easiest.

 

I'm in North Carolina. We leave for 2.5 weeks in Europe in early April. I'm counting much of this as school though, as they will be immersed in culture, visiting museums and journaling their experience. And I already had it excused prior to pulling them out so I'm keeping it :)

 

Okay so I think I may start with this next school year when I plan, but ignore the start/end dates and plan our schedule accordingly eventually working towards and January-December school year. I do want to keep our summers lighter, if possible, to have plenty of time for the pool and playing with the neighborhood children. It's really hot here though, so the majority of our time in spent indoors, in the air conditioning, anyways. But I really like the idea of not taking a lengthy break so the material stays fresh. TexasMom, thank you for the link! I will definitely use it!!

 

[....]

We've always schooled year-round, but we take breaks when we need to.  With year-round schooling, you can almost fit two mini-school years into one (that's been our experience, anyway).  

[WistfulRidge]

We school year round and love it! Summers are disgusting​ here so we tend to do the bulk of our days then and in the "winter" months. While we don't take off all the days in spring/fall we definitely move to a much more relaxed schedule. When the weather is really nice we tend to just do math, language arts, and fit in read alouds and science/history reading or videos when we feel like it. For instance, this week we took Monday off but had a great day planting in the garden and having a picnic. We did full days of school on Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday we ran errands (per usual for our schedule this year) and today we're just doing math and reading and then everybody is playing outside while it's nice (we're supposed to have t-storms starting around lunch and going through the end of the day tomorrow). Mr. Inquisitive will probably end up doing some Khan Academy this afternoon and everyone will probably want to watch some of Planet Earth 2. I'd say this definitely an average week for us during the nice weather times of the year (end of October through the end of November, and mid march through the end of April/beginning of May).

 

On paper, for the state, we follow a traditional school year. I'm not required to actually track days but every year when I file our intent to homeschool I have to give them a starting date and a general schedule outline. Schools here start sometime in August depending on the school (or type of school - there's a few local ones that school "year round" as well). So I generally put something like "Starting [first Monday in August] we will school 5 days week/36 weeks for 180 days for [insert hours per day - I stick to 1 hour per grade level]." While not 100% true this is the format they prefer to hear it in. Our first year here I put a more honest "4 days a week/ 45 weeks" but they called me and asked if they could change it to the 5/36 module because it was less confusing to their file system. So now that's what we go with, lol.

 

In your case I'd either give them a traditional summer break and then just start year-rounding it at the start of your next school year OR I'd just jump into it now and take a shorter "summer" break and continue on as usual. I think it really just depends on how burnt out you and your kids are feeling.

[BooksandBoys]

We school year round for many reasons. Generally, what this looks like is that I plan about 3 weeks off in June, then we return to a lighter schedule (math, phonics or spelling, fun audiobooks/read-aloud, and at least an hour a day of free reading during mandatory quiet time) through the month of July. We hit the ground running with a full schedule in August. I usually school a minimum of 225 days a year, but we also aren't opposed to the occasional weekend day of school around here, so that's easy to accomplish. Because my kids do best with routine, I rarely take vacations, instead, we do 3-4 day weeks during traditional holiday/vacation times or when we are sick, trying not to take more than two days off in a row (routine, man!). So, the weeks surrounding Christmas, for example, we might school Monday/Tuesday, take Wednesday/Thursday off, then school Friday/Saturday with Sunday off.

Every year is different though.

 

My kindergartner went to public school this year while his older brother was still homeschooled, but we are 90% sure he'll be back home next year. He'll go right into the year-round school routine. (After all, he's been afterschooling evenings and during school vacations anyway and full homeschool won't actually be much more work). So, he'll have 3 weeks off in June, then he'll resume his work. He'll continue daily phonics even during that June break because he believes he can't read (he can), so we are backing up to the beginning of his phonics program to make it ridiculously easy and rebuild his confidence. Even if he goes back to PS next year, he'll school with us in late June/July because our family culture includes daly learning. I'm not concerned about burn-out on my kids because I'm not expecting a massive amount of work out of anyone on any given day. Schooling an "extra" 45ish days a year gives me the flexibility to keep their daily schedules lighter.

 

In your case, you might consider a month or so off, then a month of light schedule, then back to normal in August.

 

I should mention that we are do-the-next-thing schoolers. I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish in a year, but books never really line up. Instead, when a child finishes a book, they get a mini celebration (ice cream come is a popular treat) and a week off of that subject before going on to the next level. I expect that I'll stop doing this eventually, but it works at their younger ages.

[Ellie]

Thanks everyone! And yikes...sorry for all of the typos in my original post. Typing on my phone isn't the easiest.

 

I'm in North Carolina. We leave for 2.5 weeks in Europe in early April. I'm counting much of this as school though, as they will be immersed in culture, visiting museums and journaling their experience. And I already had it excused prior to pulling them out so I'm keeping it :)

 

Okay so I think I may start with this next school year when I plan, but ignore the start/end dates and plan our schedule accordingly eventually working towards and January-December school year. I do want to keep our summers lighter, if possible, to have plenty of time for the pool and playing with the neighborhood children. It's really hot here though, so the majority of our time in spent indoors, in the air conditioning, anyways. But I really like the idea of not taking a lengthy break so the material stays fresh. TexasMom, thank you for the link! I will definitely use it!!

 

Ah. FTR, NC does not require 180 days. It requires "nine calendar months, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations." Also, the law does not require you to submit attendance records. And personally, I believe that children learn something every day of the year, so I would have no qualms about filling out an attendance calendar with nine months of learning checked off. :-)

[Ellie]

 

 

I'm in North Carolina. We leave for 2.5 weeks in Europe in early April. I'm counting much of this as school though, as they will be immersed in culture, visiting museums and journaling their experience. And I already had it excused prior to pulling them out so I'm keeping it :)

 

 

 

All 2.5 weeks would "count." :-) But then you don't have to prove anything to anyone, so I wouldn't worry much about it. :-)

[Farrar]

I don't know why you feel you need to finish out the year following the ps schedule. I'd give a solid week or two break after the April trip to Europe. Maybe even longer. An extended spring break. And then I'd pick up again and go until we felt done. And then I'd give a solid monthlong break over the summer. And then pick up again. Generally by August, it's miserable outside and getting school done is good. And there aren't activities. I usually give a break in September when the weather gets a little more bearable and the kids start their fall activities.

 

But, of course, do whatever works. There's really not a magic formula.

Edited March 24, 2017 by Farrar

[blue daisy]

We'll be doing some light school in the summer.  We'll take a few weeks off when we finish, end of May, then do some basics (math and reading) and some fun extras that we didn't get to during the school year.  Then take off August and be ready to start again in September.  My kids get bored way too easily when we don't have a general routine, so I'm planning to keep both their bodies and their minds busy over the summer. :)  Plus, it helps when we need a break during the school year.  I don't feel "behind" if we take a week or two off when we need to.

[CuriculumMom]

Just echoing what others have already stated, do what works for you. For us, this may vary year to year depending on what we have going on.  We take vacations when we want, (which is usually during the off season so we can take advantage of less crowds). We take a break in the summer, but it is shorter than your traditional summer break. We also try to do reading practice whenever we are on break, My kids are still building fluency so I think it's important to keep that up.  And yes, definitely count your trip to Europe as school! :)

[lllll]

nm

Edited March 27, 2017 by 1234

[mamaraby]

We start the first week in August, take a week off at the end of Oct/beginning of Nov. Go until the first week of December, then take off all the rest of December. Then start back early January and take a week off in Feb. this year we also took a week off in March. I think we'll finish up in early June. I want ds to finish WWS1 so he'll probably take another week or so just to work on that in the mornings.

 

In previous years, we'd finish up in early May and the start again in July sometime after the 4th, but then the kids started going camping with my parents and summer camp on their own so we pushed it back to the start of August. I also tried to roughly follow a 8-10 weeks on, one week off kind of rotation. That kind of fell apart this year, but meh. We also follow a 5 day week, 2 day weekend/5 day week, 3 day weekend rotation because that's what dh's job does.

 

Long story short, you do what works for you. :D

[Pegs]

We school year round with a break of a few weeks over Christmas and New Year, which are in the summer here.

 

We also do lessons on weekends, but we start later in the day.

 

We usually hit four subjects a day (I pick two and DS picks two) and we keep it all pretty short. On very busy days or sick days we can afford to do very light schooling. On days when we have nothing else to do, we dig a little deeper into particular topics. It feels comfortable and sustainable, and we don't have the bother of transitioning back into seat work after breaks. I think DS and I would both find that pretty tedious.