More questions about schooling year round

[tdbates78]

Thank you to everyone who responding to my post regarding year round schooling!

 

I'm really thinking about implementing this in our homeschool soon. We are currently following our PS calendar since starting in January. We leave for 2.5 weeks in Europe and we will need a vacation after our vacation :) So I'm planning on taking the last week in April off and then starting back in May with breaks throughout the year. I have a few more questions for those of you who do this. Thank you in advance!

 

1) Do you plan all of your breaks in advance, or do you reserve some flexibility? I was trying to come up with some magic formula that naturally follows some of the breaks I would like to take, like a 6 week on/1 week off situation, and it's just not happening. Right now my calendar has some periods of 6-8 weeks of school followed by a break, then 4 weeks, then another break. And so forth. Does it really matter how many weeks of school you need in between breaks? NC only requires 9 months of schooling, btw, with no scheduled reporting.

 

2) Do you plan for every subject during every school term? I'm considering the idea of rotations. For example, 6 weeks of science, break, 6 weeks of SOTW, break, and switching between the two so we can devote more time to really diving into the curriculum, reading and watching extras that may pertain to what we are studying at the time. One of my girls has high functioning autism, the other has major focus issues, so our school days have to end by lunch time for everyone's sanity. Sometimes it is difficult to fit everything into our day and really get into a topic, kwim?

 

3) I like the idea of keeping summer days lighter and only doing LA and math and maybe something fun like art. This is difficult for me to grasp, though, without feeling guilty about such a short school day. It's the public school experience still rubbing off on me. Does anyone else keep summers lighter? I want time for them to play with their friends, trips to the pool and some general laziness in between school terms.

 

 

[Ellie]

Thank you to everyone who responding to my post regarding year round schooling!

 

I'm really thinking about implementing this in our homeschool soon. We are currently following our PS calendar since starting in January. We leave for 2.5 weeks in Europe and we will need a vacation after our vacation :) So I'm planning on taking the last week in April off and then starting back in May with breaks throughout the year. I have a few more questions for those of you who do this. Thank you in advance!

 

1) Do you plan all of your breaks in advance, or do you reserve some flexibility? I was trying to come up with some magic formula that naturally follows some of the breaks I would like to take, like a 6 week on/1 week off situation, and it's just not happening. Right now my calendar has some periods of 6-8 weeks of school followed by a break, then 4 weeks, then another break. And so forth. Does it really matter how many weeks of school you need in between breaks? NC only requires 9 months of schooling, btw, with no scheduled reporting.

 

2) Do you plan for every subject during every school term? I'm considering the idea of rotations. For example, 6 weeks of science, break, 6 weeks of SOTW, break, and switching between the two so we can devote more time to really diving into the curriculum, reading and watching extras that may pertain to what we are studying at the time. One of my girls has high functioning autism, the other has major focus issues, so our school days have to end by lunch time for everyone's sanity. Sometimes it is difficult to fit everything into our day and really get into a topic, kwim?

 

3) I like the idea of keeping summer days lighter and only doing LA and math and maybe something fun like art. This is difficult for me to grasp, though, without feeling guilty about such a short school day. It's the public school experience still rubbing off on me. Does anyone else keep summers lighter? I want time for them to play with their friends, trips to the pool and some general laziness in between school terms.

 

1. I planned major breaks: two weeks in the spring around Easter; two weeks in late August/early September, when the weather is hot and other children are going back to school; Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. Other breaks were spontaneous.

 

2. I didn't think about "school terms." We just worked on stuff until we were finished or got tired of it, then moved on to the next thing, whenever that happened to be. Also, when the children were young, we were finished by noon, because we weren't very productive after lunch.

 

3. Do NOT NOT NOT worry about what the public school does. You are not public school. You are you. You do your Official School Stuff around your schedule. You don't ever have to prove anything to anyone. 

 

FTR, when my dc were young, our weeks were scheduled thusly:

 

Monday, Tuesday: Official School Stuff. We stayed home. No field trips, no errands, no major crafting for me, just stay home. Official School Stuff set out on the kitchen table. Because we weren't doing anything else, dc would do their Official School Stuff. Or not. I didn't worry about it.

 

Wednesday: Library. Every week, we went to the library and hung out until we were finished. We all checked out as many books as we wanted, or none at all. All books were returned every week, whether they had been read or not. Sometimes we dropped by friends' homes on the way to our home; mostly we came home and spent the rest of the day reading. Or not. :-)

 

Thursday: Field trip. Every.single.week we left the house for a field trip. It might have had something to do with what we were learning about at home. It might have been working on a Camp Fire badge. It might have been something I read about in the newspaper. But whatever.

 

Friday: Clean house, monthly park day.

 

Weekends: Free to goof off with Mr. Ellie.

[Guest]

I plan some breaks in advance. But not all, which came to my advantage this school year. This year has been a bear between me having two surgeries and my kids having a million times more viruses and things than usual. So my breaks have been eaten up. Luckily we had plenty of buffer. I also am having an unexpectedly heavy "camp month" for all three in June, so that shifted things yet again. I was planning on taking a few weeks in May- won't be happening. Oldest is going a Biology intensive week and a photography course, younger two found some day camps. Anyway, I think you have to look at your personality and decide what you can cope with on scheduling. I am a play it by ear kind of gal and I know it will still get done. My approach to scheduling would make some people here bust a vein. There are people who lay out every minute of every day or have 36 weeks of school assignments lined out. You have to decide which fits you better. Since you're new at this, you probably won't know yet! Just try to roll with it and enjoy your trip! :)

 

As far as planning, I know what subjects we're doing and we do the next thing each day. It's a little different between high school and elementary. But I do not pass Go until the concept is definitely achieved anymore when it comes to Phonics or math. So we spend what we need to spend, be it a day, a week or a month. That's when plans can bite you. I think at some point you have to look at doing it everyday rather than checking a box and moving on. Checked boxes don't count if the kid is drowning in math. As for history or science in elementary, I do a loop schedule. For my high schooler I lean towards block scheduling with some electives and science. She usually does her Logic courses over the summer. You might look at loop and block schedules if you haven't already- I think it's Sarah McKenzie's blog maybe that has a good description??

 

And yes- summers I keep lighter. A couple of hours a day out of oldest and we're done. And we don't do school on Fridays. My two little ones will simply continue on. Their work doesn't take long anyway so we will keep plugging along with their hour or so of work.

[FawnsFunnyFarm]

So, how I have traditionally scheduled had been our new year officially starts the Monday after the 4th July. We school for 9 weeks then take one off, then hit the books for one more 9 week session. This brings us to the Friday before Thanksgiving. We take off 6 weeks. We begin again the Monday after New Years for a 9 week session. Take a week off then school 9 more weeks. We finish our year in early May.

 

Why does this work for us? December is crazy here! 3 of my 4 kids were born the week of Christmas! No, I'm not kidding! We are still learning this month but it's more home ec like.. cooking, cleaning, etc. My 4th kiddo has May birthday, we finish in time for his birthday.

 

In recent years we have strayed from this. We school when we feel like it, have the time, etc. But, I think next year we are going back to a schedule. It may be my traditional one or i may play with the calendar to work out a 6 week on 1 ok type thing.

Edited March 26, 2017 by FawnsFunnyFarm

[Julie Smith]

I'm trying to get 180 days of school in this year. I looked at the calendar and decided that in most months we will get in 16 days, but will only accomplish 12 days of school in December, July, and august - since we usually travel to see family during those months. We are currently on schedule so far, even one day ahead.

 

Beyond that if we are home, and daddy is at work then it is a school day. Except Friday. Friday the boys have piano lessons and then we finish all unfinished school work. (Both boys get a day off school for their birthday. They are allowed to use it whenever they want. It works for both boys, not just the birthday boy.)

 

I have a check list requiring a check for every subject. But they are allowed to work ahead a day or two, or get behind a day. They are allowed to decide what order they do subjects, but they have to be done when daddy is at work if they are going to need me. On the off chance they get to far behind they wouldn't be allowed to play computers till they are caught up. (This has never happened)

[mamaraby]

I plan 34 weeks with a rough idea of end date and the breaks at the points I know I'll need them based upon experience. I need 35 weeks of 5 school days that last 5 hours to get a total of 875 hours to meet my state requirements. That extra week is made up of days that are "off days," but genuinely end up as school days for sure plus a few more.

 

We take an entire week off around kid birthdays and the day off for parent birthdays. Periodically we take a few days off here and there so that dh or I can run a race or because I need a break or it's unseasonably warm or just because we're kooky. I have no idea what the public schools do here beyond vague awareness of what's posted on school signs when I drive past or what's written in the newspaper. Heck, since our school days are often weekend days I sometimes am puzzled why there are kids around during school hours. Lol, oh yeah, it's Sunday.

 

I put our plans in OneNote and I plan an entire school year up front because that's how I roll. Other people would hate that or say I'm silly for doing so. Meh, you do you. If it works? Great! If it doesn't? Reschedule. How do you work? Are you a planner? Do you feel like you need greater wiggle room? Are you a big picture kind of gal? A do the next thing kind of gal? Depending on how you answer them, do that. Or try different things on for size. Like shoes. You never know what fits until you try it on.

 

This is one of those n=1 kind of things. What works for me or Ellie of texasmom might really flop over there. Treat your first year as an experiment. Keep it more open ended so you can adjust more as you gain experience. The second year you can apply what you learned and fine tune your plans. The third year you do the same. Six years out? You'll still be fine tuning. :D

[jaredluvsjoanie]

1. I planned major breaks: two weeks in the spring around Easter; two weeks in late August/early September, when the weather is hot and other children are going back to school; Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. Other breaks were spontaneous.

 

2. I didn't think about "school terms." We just worked on stuff until we were finished or got tired of it, then moved on to the next thing, whenever that happened to be. Also, when the children were young, we were finished by noon, because we weren't very productive after lunch.

 

3. Do NOT NOT NOT worry about what the public school does. You are not public school. You are you. You do your Official School Stuff around your schedule. You don't ever have to prove anything to anyone.

 

FTR, when my dc were young, our weeks were scheduled thusly:

 

Monday, Tuesday: Official School Stuff. We stayed home. No field trips, no errands, no major crafting for me, just stay home. Official School Stuff set out on the kitchen table. Because we weren't doing anything else, dc would do their Official School Stuff. Or not. I didn't worry about it.

 

Wednesday: Library. Every week, we went to the library and hung out until we were finished. We all checked out as many books as we wanted, or none at all. All books were returned every week, whether they had been read or not. Sometimes we dropped by friends' homes on the way to our home; mostly we came home and spent the rest of the day reading. Or not. :-)

 

Thursday: Field trip. Every.single.week we left the house for a field trip. It might have had something to do with what we were learning about at home. It might have been working on a Camp Fire badge. It might have been something I read about in the newspaper. But whatever.

 

Friday: Clean house, monthly park day.

 

Weekends: Free to goof off with Mr. Ellie.

[jaredluvsjoanie]

Oops! I hit "reply" too soon. I just want to say, Ellie, that you are my inspiration.

[Wheres Toto]

I wanted to go back to a year-round schedule when I came back home last year.  Instead we had two close family deaths, had to take a trip to Florida with my mother, lots of disruptions helping her out with things.  Combined with the disruption of me returning to being their teacher for the first time in 3 years, it really made things crazy and we needed more of a break than usual over the summer.

 

I tried to plan regularly scheduled breaks, then I tried to pick the weeks we were most likely to want off (Spring Break, Holidays, etc.), and now we pretty much decide that on a week-to-week basis.   We're going away for 2 weeks in May, we'll take off in the summer the week before our big party, week of Thanksgiving, at least 2 or 3 weeks at Christmas.

 

Almost all of our curriculum is do-the-next-thing, so long term planning isn't really necessary.  I make notes of what books I want from the library and buy supplies for activities.  

[Desert Strawberry]

I plan breaks around things we have planned.

We are always off when D is off work. Whatever holidays and vacations he has, we have, too.

If there is a special event, class, etc, I plan around that. This summer, I want to take the kids swimming no less than four days a week. Whatever we have planned will have to be finished by noon, to leave time for picnic lunch and swimming.

In general, though, I don't plan breaks. We take them when we need them.

 

We do similar rotations to what you describe. We spend roughly a month on creative writing, spelling, science,history, mythology, whatever we want or need to study. Then we put that away and do something else.

 

Light days in summer, or whenever you want, are fine. We took a light year for personal reasons. My kids are learning fine. We could have packed in more, but what we did is more than adequate.

[Farrar]

1) We fly by the seat of our pants. I don't count days.

 

2) We do all the subjects. Except when we don't. We do always do math and something for language arts.

 

3) We go lighter or heavier depending on the time of year. To me, August is actually a time to push harder. No outside commitments, too hot to enjoy the weather. May as well do a lot of school. But around Christmas is a time to go lighter. Nutcracker rehearsals, holiday commitments, tired kids up too late. So it just depends.

 

Mostly I just try to be responsive. And every year looks different. In my ideal world, we would do hardcore school all of August and take off most of September when the weather is nicer and we're getting back into the groove of activities and friends. But this year, I have one kid doing a ballet festival all of July, the other at sleepaway camp for three weeks in August. So I'm not sure what we'll do.

[73349]

My calendar for each year is on the spreadsheet in my signature. We do over 200 days so that each day is short--DS has little stamina for seat-work even at 9, although he'll read on his own for hours. July and August are the summer term, and everything else is the regular school year. I promote him to a new grade on Labor Day, complete with an increase in allowance.

 

Using a calendar like timeanddate.com to see what falls when, I

• mark off holidays
• plan breaks for a few weeks a year (e.g., DH's parents always come a certain Friday or Saturday through Thursday in the fall)
• leave two weeks open for potential travel
• block a week off for summer camp, though I don't know until February or March which week it'll be
• and maybe one other week for deep cleaning or projects.

Then I deliberately make certain weeks just light work or review, and make sure we can get through the materials I want to use in that time.

 

Being rigid about 6 weeks on, 1 week off, or pretty much other system, would be hard for me. I need to plan ahead, but also to go with the rhythm of our year.

[daijobu]

I'm a big fan of schooling year round.  Like the pp's we don't do school is dh is off work for holiday or we are on vacation or they have a camp.  The great thing about schooling year round is it gives you a buffer for when you need to take the day off for a field trip or something spontaneous.  Since I'm a worrier about missing academic time, I could tell myself that we more than make up for it by working during the summer.  Also the kids are less bored and there's no backsliding in knowledge over the summer.  

 

Like a pp, we also plan only for the next "thing" or lesson, or possibly the next 2 "things."  

 

We always begin with the most important subjects.  Less important subjects are scheduled last and are more likely to be skipped due to after activities.  Spelling was something I didn't mind skipping, e.g.  

 

My older dd is in high school and schooling year round has really paid off this year.  She wants to take AP physics next year which at a minimum requires concurrent enrollment in AP calculus.  Since we school year round, we finished precalculus last month, and she began on calculus 7 months ahead of schedule for her junior year, giving her a head start on learning derivatives and integrals and easing her schedule at the start of next year, which her official AP calculus class begins.  Good luck!  

[Chelli]

1) The only breaks I plan in advance are ones that I know we'll be out of town or too busy to do school. Usually that works out to a break from the middle of June to the middle of July because VBS, church camp, summer theater, and trip to my parents all falls in that time period. I also definitely schedule off the the month of December because we're just too busy during that time to come back after Thanksgiving and try to get anything done. My parents always come down every Spring Break in March so I block that off as well. I figure out the minimum number of days we need to complete each month to stay on track using this formula I wrote about in this blog post. Once I've done those two things we're good to go and I can take off days as needed and wanted the rest of the year, yet know exactly where we are in terms of completing the year.

 

2) We block schedule science and history like you are describing. It was one of the best things I've ever done in our homeschool. I blocked it by semester this year though so 18 weeks of science in the spring/summer and 18 weeks of history in the fall/winter.

 

3) The beauty of homeschooling is that you can create your homeschool year to be however you wish it to be. We actually do full days all summer long because it is too hot in Houston to do much except stay inside in the A/C and because all of our outside commitments of co-op, extracurriculars, etc. stop for the summer so we have more time at home to do school.

[wendyroo]

Some of our breaks I plan, but mostly they just happen as needed.  

 

The summer (mid-June to mid-August) is usually pretty light.  We don't do any formal history or science, but all of our do-the-next-thing subjects (math, language arts, Spanish, art, spelling, etc) continue at about half speed.  Some weeks we take off completely when we are busy with summer fun, some we do a light day with only a couple subjects and some are full school weeks.  We rarely take more than one week in a row completely off, because my kids thrive on a consistent routine.

 

Then, in mid-August, we bump up our do-the-next-thing subjects to full speed and start history.  We push hard so that we are done with a full year's worth of history by mid-December (taking off a week in early September to go camping and a few days around Thanksgiving).  I find that this is prime school time; we have fresh enthusiasm, the kids aren't normally sick, we don't have many birthdays or holidays in this period, etc.

 

After the new year, our do-the-next-thing subjects keep on keeping on and we start science, but we never really get into the same groove as we did before Christmas.  Someone is always sick, the weather is depressing at first and then enticing once spring hits, we have a lot of birthdays and holidays, etc.  We limp along, taking off days and weeks as necessary, and eventually finish our year's worth of science around mid-June.

 

Wendy

[Seeking Squirrels]

I use a one-page calendar of July-June. I mark off weeks I know we won't be schooling such as the week of Thanksgiving, two weeks over Christmas, a week in spring. Then I look for stretches of no break and I schedule in an "off" week here and there. But that isn't to take that week off, it's more to account for the accumulation of skipped days. So then I can map out roughly 36 weeks skipping all the weeks I've marked off. This ends up starting earlier and going later than a traditional PS year. Then we can take days when we want them. Super nice outside in the fall? We can skip school and take a play day instead. The random off weeks I've built in (ends up similar to a 6-on, 1-off schedule) absorb the skipped days, rather than being a week off on those dates. Then in that summer break between we still school, but lighter and not necessarily every day. If it's too hot to go out and we have no plans, we do a lot of school. Need some down time in the afternoon, we do a little. Nice out or plans with friends, we don't worry about it. 

 

DD8 is in PS this year and it's been hard sticking to their schedule! I admit to 3 times this year keeping her home for a hooky day because we were able to make plans with dear friends who now live too far away for regular get togethers. I would not have thought twice about skipping those days while homeschooling but I felt guilty keeping her home from PS. I can't wait to be back to our own flexible schedule next year!

[Dramorellis]

The only breaks I plan are those longer than a day or two. We take two weeks at Christmas/New Years, a week in the Spring and then three weeks in August. I call sometime in June (usually when our co-op classes end) as the end of our "school year" and then we begin "Summer School". We keep doing anything that works on skill sets like math, spelling, grammar and we read daily. Everything else stops where it stopped and we pick it up again in a couple months. The last week of August is the start of our new school year and grade promotion. None of this really matters other than it keeps it organized in my head and it gives them something to look forward to. Last summer I did theme days and they really enjoyed it. For example Monday was Math Games Monday, Tuesday Tea-Time, Wacky Science Wednesday, Reader's Theater Thursday and field trip on Friday. By keeping it simple in the summer we still had lots of time to head to the pool or meet up with friends. I also like having that break in August because I can rearrange our books, clear out and bind work I would like to keep, put together our little year book and reflect on what actually worked. 

[tdbates78]

Thank you all! Excellent information and really helpful. I'm excited to start (loosely) planning :)

[desertflower]

Summer months and the month of December are generally a lighter load for us.  Because like you I like for them to get out more.  Especially for swimming.  :) 

[lllll]

nm

Edited April 10, 2017 by 1234

[IvyInFlorida]

We do year-round school, and I feel that this is at least one thing I've got right so far.  :)

 

My husband has a weekday off, which is when we generally hike or do home projects, so we only do 4 days of school a week.  We just keep plodding through the next thing--done with Math-U-See Beta, move on to Gamma.  Done with Truthquest vol. 2, move to vol. 3.  When something interesting comes up, like if grandpa is doing a neat project that my son will be interested in, we take that time off without feeling guilty.  I schedule 2 weeks off in December and 1 week off for family birthdays (how in the world is it that everybody we are related to is born in August?)  Other breaks for beach trips, etc., as they come up.  We still manage to get through a lot more stuff than I expect.  I read aloud at breakfast every morning without fail.

 

We only do a half day of school.  I have a gifted, needy toddler that I have to read aloud to for hours and my hyper older son would waste away and die if he didn't have half a day to roam wild in the woods.  BUT, during lesson time, I've trained my son that there are no interruptions and no breaks.  I have all the materials ready on the table.  I don't answer my phone.  He doesn't leave the room, etc.  Since he knows that lesson time has a specific beginning and end and is not longer than he can endure, he pretty much cooperates and expects to have intensive learning time, cycling through subjects in short, intense lessons.  I don't do every subject every day except reading and math, and some sort of handwriting practice.  History 2 days, science 2 days, other stuff sprinkled in here and there.

 

We live in Florida, so even if we didn't do year-round, we would take cool months off and school through summer.  July-September you can barely leave the house for the heat and ticks and mosquitoes.

[mumto2]

We always did school year around. I always had a plan but it was rarely completed as envisioned! :)

 

A few basic rules that we developed over the years:

 

1) Math was a priority. Easy to forget so done most days.

 

2) Days at home mean getting some school done. Especially rainy days at home.

 

3) If dh was available that meant family time, field trips etc

 

4) Curriculum, when a book is finished you move on to the next level even if it is advancing a grade

 

5) We did take curriculum breaks throughout the year where we did unit studies that tended to be fairly creative in nature, lots of art and science. So every day had the potential for school but school was quite different some days.....we still did math

 

6) For holidays like Christmas I tried to create a natural break and just let things wind down during December. When a topic was finished the subject would be put away to be replaced by Christmas fun activities.

[Guest]

We school year round. Our rule is this: unless there's a compelling reason NOT to (ie, illness, traveling, etc), we do schoolwork. Exception is Saturdays and Sundays. We just don't do school on those days.

 

Core subjects (math, language arts) are done every school day. Others are added in if there's time.

[KT7673]

I schedule six 6 week terms for school during a school year (Aug to July).  The amount of time between terms all depends on whatever other life issues are happening that year (such as a new baby, holidays, vacation, moving).  Our breaks vary from 1 week to 2 months.  I schedule Morning Time (read alouds, character lesson, devotional), Math and English(grammar, spelling, writing, reading) every day of every term.  The rest of the subjects get scheduled on a loop during a term.  Some terms we touch all of the extra subjects sometimes only a few extra. Due to not having time to plan my own thing for next year (a new baby and a toddler), we are going to try using Heart of Dakota for our looped subjects (we will keep our English and Math as normal).