Anyone do a shortened school year?

[mycalling]

We do a 28-week year then once or twice a week review or units through Summer. This works and we fit in everything for all subjects. Some 2-yr books I want them to finish in one year take longer than the 28 weeks, but everything else fits fine. Does anyone else (who obviously doesn't have state required day count) do something similar?

[mycalling]

Anyone at all? Anything shorter than 36 weeks? What about shorter than 5 days per week?

[ereks mom]

However, we are required to have 180 days (36 weeks) of school per calendar year. Here's how it works for us: We do "book work" lessons Monday through Thursday (using Friday as a "catch-up" day and/or field trip day) for 32-34 weeks. The remaining 2-4 weeks are spent on summer activities that I consider educational, and therefore count as "school time".

 

My dc do a week of intensive music camp each summer -- choir rehearsals, theory classes, voice lessons, instrument lessons, etc. all day long for 5 days, plus a final concert on the 6th day. That week is counted as a week of school. Other camps are sometimes counted as school time, depending on whether the camp is "just for fun" or there is any learning going on. VBS week is counted as a week of school, since the dc are in class for at least 3 hours per day (and Bible is one of our school subjects anyway). If we take summer field trips, we count them as school time as well.

 

By the end of each summer, we've usually logged 2-4 weeks of school time. I plan our "book work" so that we cover those lessons in the remaining 32-34 weeks.

Edited July 18, 2009 by ereks mom

[Tap]

I don't really count days or weeks, I do a years worth of each subject and then we are done with it. She is the type of student who will complete 3-4 lessons in one sitting, so I don't penalize her for putting in some hard hours by adding to her year. We usually school from Sept to early May (a month early for ps) but take time off when ever we want and definitely extra around holidays. We usually do some work in summer like math lite, just to keep skills fresh, but nothing intensive. We are supposed to do 180 days, but our is more like an intense 150.

[Pamela H in Texas]

We don't count.

 

The work is scheduled for just under 5 days worth of work but kiddo is encouraged to do a little extra and have Friday (sometimes even Thurs or at least part of Thurs) off. And we try to finish most things in April sometime, but a few things sometimes trickle into May. We also take as much breaktime as we wish. We get a fall break and then longer breaks when other people are out. Spring Break is always 2-3 weeks.

 

Basically, we tend to go by "early in the day, early in the week, early in the month, early in the year." You just never know what may come up so get crackin'.

 

We ARE finishers though. School ain't over unless the work is done and done correctly. The year ain't over unless the book is done and done correctly.

[katilac]

I think it can easily be done with younger children - - are you hs'ing the 11yrold, or just the younger ones? We never counted days in the very early years, but we took plenty of time off throughout the year.

 

Seems like it would get harder around the 4th grade. My oldest is entering 6th, and I don't know that we could pull that off. Languages, more involved projects . . . a very short school year would probably create more stress for us, not less.

[mycalling]

Yes, the 11yo will be hsing. The older 5 will all hs this year. It's my first year having more than 2...:blink: Thankfully 2 will be part-time. But I see that making our days longer, not adding days. I have added Art, Music Appreciation, and Science experiments to our Wednesday, which were our days off each week. So I have increased our day count by 20% without adding weeks.

 

The older two are doing a lot of research-based learning on Cosmeo for Science, History, Biographies, Geography, and Math concepts and drill. Logic has been switched from Building Thinking Skills (BTS) workbooks to group perplexors and mysteries, and BTS CDRoms. Also, we use Math on the Level, which being concept-based takes use through a year's worth of math far more quickly than workbook-based curricula.

 

I'll add our curricula to my sig so you can see how much we can get done in 28 weeks.

[Desert Rat]

No, we actually have a 39-42 week year, depending. But, I wouldn't mind a shorter school year if my boys could handle it. LOL Without school, I get crazy monkeys. They are bored and restless and miss learning (although they won't admit to missing school).

We do work 4 days a week with Friday being spelling and latin tests, art and library. It's a super short day and we love to relax and get ready for a fun weekend with dad.

[Pretty in Pink]

With my little ones I do three days a week plus read-alouds on the off days. I'm not sure the short year would work for an older student. We use TOG and it is very content-rich. I would hate to cram it into less than 36 weeks. We've done 4-day weeks and we've done 3 weeks on, 1 week off. I much prefer to school year-round and take breaks as needed but this may change now that I am returning to school as well.

[Radish4ever]

We're not really counting! My DD is just now starting K at 4 (we're starting week 3 on Monday), but honestly it doesn't bother me if we miss a few days or weeks or whatever due to life! I'm due in 9 1/2 weeks and we'll probably get VERY relaxed with school when the baby arrives and IDK how long that will last....but I'm not worried about it :)

 

I will agree with the PP though that when I DON'T have some planned activities, my children get restless and bored and start acting up a LOT more than when we do some learning activites.

With homeschooling, it's so easy to turn everything into a learning experience, so really I guess we don't take any days off, right? :)

[Karen in CO]

We do mostly 4-day weeks (but squeeze in 5 day weeks for art camps and zoo camps) because I work weekends and rest on Mondays. I like the 42 weeks so that we have plenty of time to slowly make our way through things and enjoy them.

 

We take breaks when need to throughout the year. I prefer to not have three months off in the summer so that we don't loose so much math progress. I am required to school at 172 days (I think) so we aim to do around 180. We start in the fall when the school bus starts coming by and end when we are done.

 

My older had been in ps and had ps friends so he always loosely followed the ps schedule.

 

I wouldn't trade my 4-day weeks for fewer weeks for anything.

[mamaof2andtwins]

We have the 180 day requirement in our state as well. I usually do about 40 weeks.

 

Jennie

[mycalling]

What about a shorter school year then starting the next year early? An accelerated schedule. I agree with kids getting restless and bored and like to do more lessons, but I still don't see the need to take 36+ weeks per grade.

 

Last year we co-oped full-time with another family and did a total of 36 weeks but were finished with Kindergarten and 2nd grade by 28wks. Now of my 2 HSers from last year, my older one is starting 5th grade math and 4th grade in other subjects while my younger one has a month or so of 1st grade left. This year I am adding even more (last year I had doubled the 2nd grader's work load) plus 5th grade and PreK, and yet still don't see the need to take 36 weeks.

[Moni]

We probably do.

We homeschool year round, week round, etc.,

 

But we do it in a very timer-efficient manner, so likely we do less than other folks ?

 

:seeya:

[Amber in AUS]

So how many hours would you say you do on a school day? I am curious because I am tossing up a few things for next year. I don't think i am prepared to commit entire days to schooling even if that means getting through quickly because my kiddos are little and things come up and we like to be spontanious. I am actually thinking about doing less each day and doing something every single day. My kiddos seem to do better with some structure to their days. I think little and often might work???

[Tap]

What about a shorter school year then starting the next year early? An accelerated schedule. I agree with kids getting restless and bored and like to do more lessons, but I still don't see the need to take 36+ weeks per grade.

 

Last year we co-oped full-time with another family and did a total of 36 weeks but were finished with Kindergarten and 2nd grade by 28wks. Now of my 2 HSers from last year, my older one is starting 5th grade math and 4th grade in other subjects while my younger one has a month or so of 1st grade left. This year I am adding even more (last year I had doubled the 2nd grader's work load) plus 5th grade and PreK, and yet still don't see the need to take 36 weeks.

 

We took this approach with ds and if I gave him credit for everything he has done at highschool level, he would already have 12 credits of 23 required by our state ... at 14yo. He would graduate at 16yo. A year early, with 4 years of Spanish, Calculus, and 2 years of advanced science. He would essentially go into college with college junior level classes....at 16yo. When I started down this path of homeschooling, I still had the idea that graduation was the goal, and getting to place out of college classes was the prize. Now that I have a 14yo, who is starting to struggle with the stress of carrying an advanced load at a young age, I am reconsidering my position. He has always liked the challenge so it was easy to pile it on until he hit highschool. He wanted the classes he took. But now I wish we would have taken the path less traveled more and spent more time learning about different topics instead of just pushing through level after level of curriculum. There is soooooo much more than what the state requires that would benefit any learner. I just wish I would have taken more time to really delve into these paths instead of staying so focused on the prize.

 

We are doing that with dd10. She is very bright and is on level, but with many more tangents. Many more rabbit holes. Many more paths. If I could do it again with ds....I would do the same with him, and left him with another year of academics before college. I have not given him credit for 5 credits I could count because they were in 8th grade. The only class I let him claim from 8th grade is Spanish 1, and only so that he can do 3 years of Spanish (for his college req.), and then take 2 more years of another language he will pick then (he says Japanese now).

[Amber in AUS]

Great to have some views from a BTDT Mum, i liked your post Tap, tap, tap.

[TammyinTN]

We are doing things differently this year. We are schooling for 45 day terms and then taking 2 weeks off. One week is field trips and fun things to enhance what we have been studying. So each term comes out to 50 days of educational stuff. That equals for us 180 instruction days and 20 field trip/travel days for the year. I'm taking advantage of all the great stuff here in Europe.

[Moni]

but I still don't see the need to take 36+ weeks per grade..

 

Well, I'm a step ahead of you.

I don't see the need to do "grade levels." ;)

 

And, no, it doesn't "need" to take 36+ weeks per grade.....unless your (her, their) opinion of "need" and "grade" (level) vary. :)

And it can likely take 30, 40 or 50 weeks to do a 'grade level' if one has an inefficient homeschool method.

And it can likely take 30, 40 or 50 weeks to do a 'grade level' if one has a different definitino of grade level.

 

For example, in 4th grade my son read 2 hours a day.

He could not read 2 hours a day for 28 weeks and finish early.

 

He had to do his math an hour a day. He could not do math for 28 weeks, five hours a week, and "finish early"

So did his grade level "take longer"?

 

This is what I was trying to indicate earlier.

We likely do less, more efficiently, although we homeschool year round.

But we don't stop at Week 29 and wait for Week 53 to come around

We just keep going.

 

:seeya:

Edited July 19, 2009 by Moni

[mycalling]

So how many hours would you say you do on a school day?

My 6yo K'er did about 60-90 min a day, 4 days a week and my 2nd grader did about 2 1/2, maybe 3 hours when he got on a roll and kept going. All I do to lessen our days is divide the subjects' curricula/topics into 112 days, this is only adding about 1 page extra of work per day/subject or one extra topic per week in content subjects and once they delve into something, they often want to keep going.

 

So basically I have a plan for the whole year and they often get weeks worth of work done in a subject and next week it might be a different subject they delve into. Sometimes I ask them to spend extra time during the week with a subject they are getting behind on, but they can chose when. For content subjects I give them topics to cover (with related subtopics they might find interesting) and resources to choose from including a library list, recorded shows, and field trip ideas. I don't focus on content subjects for non-readers.

[mycalling]

Now that I have a 14yo, who is starting to struggle with the stress of carrying an advanced load at a young age, I am reconsidering my position. He has always liked the challenge so it was easy to pile it on until he hit highschool. He wanted the classes he took. But now I wish we would have taken the path less traveled more and spent more time learning about different topics instead of just pushing through level after level of curriculum.

 

We are doing that with dd10. She is very bright and is on level, but with many more tangents. Many more rabbit holes. Many more paths.

If he enjoyed the load before, that's what he liked! Now that he doesn't, back off. I don't see it as an all or nothing choice or how the accelorated path never allowed for rabbit holes. I make the minimum mandatory and let them help choose the manor in which they learn it as much as their needs in that subject allow.

 

But, aren't there enough hours in a week to do both structured learning and tangents? Can't you switch to more mastery-based curricula instead of anything repetitive? What about topic-based guidelines for content subjects instead of a curriculum? They can choose which topics to delve into more in the manner they choose and what tangents those take them on.

 

I feel things they choose to add in aren't things I need to regulate and they can choose to spend 20 hours at it over a week or just 30 minutes. It's their choice and they'll want to add it in even if it brings their "schooling" up to 12 hours that day. I guess I just have kids who get obsessed with things they find interesting. Whether it's learning how a telescope works and mapping our stars for nights on end or learning about medieval construction through books, shows, and online animations, that's what they want to do and don't see it as schooling.

[mycalling]

For example, in 4th grade my son read 2 hours a day.

He could not read 2 hours a day for 28 weeks and finish early.

...

This is what I was trying to indicate earlier.

We likely do less, more efficiently, although we homeschool year round.

But we don't stop at Week 29 and wait for Week 53 to come around

We just keep going.

 

:seeya:

I agree, we do less more efficiently also. My DSD has been in public school off and on and is the one that needs an official start and stop reference with grades, but she knows this year we will dive right into the next year's plan when this year's is done. I also find grades more confusing than helpful.

 

I've moved toward having full-childhood educational goals, but I've never known anyone who does it that way so I think of it more as my theory and hold onto grades for normalcy. Basically I think, what subject does this child need more work on - what's an acceptable amount to expect in that subject...divide it by 112 days. What subject is good to cover - how much is a good amount to cover in that subject for a school year - divide by 28 weeks. Etc. These are my guidelines and they go faster or slower or delve deeper at will.

 

You said "In 4th grade..." how does that work? Is 4th 52 weeks, but the work not at a grade level? When does 5th start? So he has a mandatory time he has to spend on each subject per day to do as much or little as he wants? I can't switch to time limits because my 2 ADD kids see staying on task is not rewarded and therefore would stare out the window or bounce around the whole time. I have to reward staying on task...another reason I have a grade and end of the 'year.'

[Tap]

If he enjoyed the load before, that's what he liked! Now that he doesn't, back off. I don't see it as an all or nothing choice or how the accelerated path never allowed for rabbit holes. I make the minimum mandatory and let them help choose the manor in which they learn it as much as their needs in that subject allow.

 

But, aren't there enough hours in a week to do both structured learning and tangents? Can't you switch to more mastery-based curricula instead of anything repetitive? What about topic-based guidelines for content subjects instead of a curriculum? They can choose which topics to delve into more in the manner they choose and what tangents those take them on.

 

I feel things they choose to add in aren't things I need to regulate and they can choose to spend 20 hours at it over a week or just 30 minutes. It's their choice and they'll want to add it in even if it brings their "schooling" up to 12 hours that day. I guess I just have kids who get obsessed with things they find interesting. Whether it's learning how a telescope works and mapping our stars for nights on end or learning about medieval construction through books, shows, and online animations, that's what they want to do and don't see it as schooling.

 

This is easy for the elementary years, not so much for highschool because of credits.

 

He has already taken General Science/Physical science, and Biology. He is going to do Chemistry in the fall. Our school district requires 2 years of science so he will be done with his requirements, but since science is his passion, he will take advanced science classes his jr./sr. years (undetermined topics).

 

He has already taken Algebra 1, 2 & Geometry. Again he has fulfilled his requirements, so he will take pre-calc, calc and physics.

 

He has Spanish 1 & 2. I require a foreign language each year so he will do either Spanish 3-5 or Spanish 3 and then another language for 2 years. Upper level languages don't get easier as you go along.

 

He has claimed a credit for PE by utilizing swim team so while that was a bonus credit, he devotes 25hours a week to swimming, so that comes at a very high cost to him in hours per day.

 

Technology is a passion so he will continue to take more advanced classes in that.

 

On top of these he takes his regular classes AP Eng (the level his naturally preforms at), SS/History.

 

So, while I can allow him to follow more rabbit holes, the problem is that the easier subjects have already been completed. He needs to take certain classes to fulfil credits requirements each year, and those classes are the more advanced classes now. They take more time, which allows less time for rabbit holes each year. He doesn't want to spend more time doing school. In the elementary years we do about 5 hours a day, highschool with advanced subjects is a minimum of 7 an up to 10 hours a day. So the answer is no, there is no longer time for tangents, in the advanced classes I can't just pick and choose topics...that is a big problem with this choice, the upper level subjects just require so much time for core topics...there isn't a lot of time left. Even if I wanted too, I don't know what parts of the Chemistry program are more optional. I don't know what knowledge he will need from chapt 2, when we get to chapter 10. I don't know what is on the required state assessment test from Biology or physical science to know what we can skip and what he really needs to know. It just isn't as easy in high school when you have moved up from a required 20 hours a week to 35-50.

 

Even for subjects like literature, he has read so many classics already, and he gets bored reading the simpler ones, so he chooses to read the heavier volumes. He still has reading requirements of a certain number of books, they just take more brain energy to get through.

 

His interest is math/science/technology so he plans to use his elective credits in these areas. This fall he plans to enter a public school into a magnet program for math/science/technology. It requires AP level classes in Eng too.

 

I think the hard thing for me is scenarios like this: if they are capable and consistently write at a jr. in high school level in 8th grade, then in 9th grade you don't suddenly relax your standards. I still expect some growth each year. Once you get to the higher levels, there is more work required to see less growth each year because the nature of leaning at the upper levels is learning more in depth, instead of the broader topics in the elementary years.

 

I don't want you to think that I disagree in anyway with how you are choosing to allow your kids to challenge themselves, but there is flip side to it, and I wish I would have thought about it more before I went down this path. There are huge benefits in fewer college years, but at a cost in the high school years. Ds was the one pushing for more challenges early on, so I may not have been able to hold him back. But I do wish that instead of allowing him to finish one program early and move on to the next mid year, I would have let him spend the rest of the year studying topics of interest more in depth, and to let his mind wander a bit!

 

I am very, very proud of him. He has worked hard and has overcome a lot of challenges this year. He has grown a lot in dealing with overlapping time lines and exams. He will benefit from what he has accomplished. I just also see that he would have also benefited from a bit slower pace, with more rabbit holes along the way.

[babysparkler]

We do 30 weeks of instruction plus 2 weeks of testing days. We also do 4 day weeks with day 5 being co-op art/p.e. type classes and field trips.

 

We work our school year around bi-monthly grandparent visits and take summers off. We accomplish the equivalent of a full school year because we are very disciplined and the kids love learning. We don't have many "down" days since we have week long breaks every 6-8 weeks to refresh us. It is a nice schedule for all of us.

 

DS will be starting 4th grade, but is on 6-8th grade level materials... I don't worry about "grade level" so much as teaching them material that is appropriate for their educational levels.

Edited July 19, 2009 by babysparkler

[Moni]

You said "In 4th grade..." how does that work?

 

Age minus 5 equals grade.

 

Not that my son ever knows what grade he's in...sigh. ;) in 7th grade someone asked him , "What grade are you in" and he replied "....9th.....no...4th...!..." :lol:

 

But, yes, age minus 5 equals grade.

[mycalling]

This is easy for the elementary years, not so much for highschool because of credits.

 

But I do wish that instead of allowing him to finish one program early and move on to the next mid year, I would have let him spend the rest of the year studying topics of interest more in depth, and to let his mind wander a bit!

I see how hs credits would make things harder. It sounds like he's going down many rabbit holes still, just in math, science, tech.

 

What kinds of rabbit holes do you think he missed out on? I'm just thinking there must be a way to have my cake and eat it too! Maybe using our one day off a week to let them decide what to learn? Maybe a whole week here and there? I just see homeschooling as affording this most of the day/week around the few hours of homeschooling and don't see how they could possibly be missing out on anything of their choosing. I'm just thinking of all the hours a day Sponge Bob is on and just know they could squeeze out an hour or two for rabbit holes, if they wanted!:lol:

 

It sounds like your son has just chosen time consuming rabbit holes of whole courses. Even choosing more difficult literary works sounds like a rabbit hole of choice. It sounds like you might mean more humanities and art type rabbit holes. A more artsy-type child would be choosing those extras even at your son's skill level, if that's what they enjoyed.

[Tap]

I see how hs credits would make things harder. It sounds like he's going down many rabbit holes still, just in math, science, tech.

 

What kinds of rabbit holes do you think he missed out on? I'm just thinking there must be a way to have my cake and eat it too! Maybe using our one day off a week to let them decide what to learn? Maybe a whole week here and there? I just see homeschooling as affording this most of the day/week around the few hours of homeschooling and don't see how they could possibly be missing out on anything of their choosing. I'm just thinking of all the hours a day Sponge Bob is on and just know they could squeeze out an hour or two for rabbit holes, if they wanted!:lol:

 

It sounds like your son has just chosen time consuming rabbit holes of whole courses. Even choosing more difficult literary works sounds like a rabbit hole of choice. It sounds like you might mean more humanities and art type rabbit holes. A more artsy-type child would be choosing those extras even at your son's skill level, if that's what they enjoyed.

 

Hmmmm what rabbit holes....

 

Well, I guess I wish we would have spent more time on some topics that he seemed interested in. We have always had a lot of science books in the house but I wish I would have pulled in some extras with it. For writing he once wrote a research paper on Rocks and Minerals. He got to use his writing to delve deeper into his science. That is one project I wish we would have done more of. Taking a broad subject and breaking it into smaller parts and thinking about why the smaller parts belong together and not with other smaller parts.

 

More critical thinking in for topics we were working on. Like the above example of his paper, and breaking the parts into smaller pieces.

 

I wish we could have followed through more on field trips. Sometimes the greatest topics came up, like volcanoes, in the middle of winter. We live within an hour of Mt St Helen's. We didn't visit because the weather didn't permit when we were studying them and dad is busy during the week. So we put it off, and never ended up going that year. We moved on to other topics and other things got in the way. I wish I would have just moved the chapter to study in the spring....duhhh, now, but I didn't think about it then.

 

I wish I would have just had him pick a subject or two each year, just to learn about from the library. Nothing in a text book, no guides, just reading for enjoyment of learning. We did it a couple of times, but I wish I would have done it more.

 

I wish I would have taken more advantage of the live musical opportunities in our area.

 

I wish I would have looked at what was available in our area for study and develop topics around those things instead of just following a book. It wouldn't have mattered it we did a complete study, just investigated more.

 

What we did do well was going to places like the art museum (great place to wander on a bleak, wet school day), zoo, science museum. We had memberships for 5 or six consecutive years, and used them well. He is well read, and hasn't been shielded from complex topics (he did Omnibus 1 in 7th-that was one of our favorite years), turned math into a couple of fun projects (like building a 5ft tall pirate ship to rough scale for Talk Like a Pirate Day), and I hired a Shakespeare tutor for him one year to have someone to discuss his works with.

 

 

I will think more but hubby just walked in and I need to go. But I think this will give you the idea of what I am talking about.