Fans of Year-Round Schooling?

[J'etudie]

We just finished week 7, and I feel frazzled. The first two weeks we were finding our routines, the next few weeks were smooth sailing, and this week I'm ready to tear my hair out. I'm wondering if a 4 (or 5 or 6 or something) week on, 1 week off schedule would provide a respite that would help prevent this feeling.

 

Last summer we took June and July off and I really used what little free time I had to do lesson planning so I'm wondering how that would fit in with a year-round approach. Are you always planning just a little bit? I find that I'm always looking, researching, planning anyway so maybe it would be okay if it was spread throughout the year.

 

If you love the year-round approach, would you tell me how it has helped you?

 

Thanks!

[Happy]

I loved it. Nine weeks on and three weeks off. Makes for great off season travel.

[J'etudie]

I didn't consider longer periods of school/time off, mostly because the kids do better right now with a little more structure to the days. I'll think about it now, though.

[J'etudie]

I don't year-round school but I do take off ever 6 or 7th week. I think of it like my Sabbath week. I have found over the years that I just can't go past that. I need a break!

 

So I'm not the only one who hits the wall at that point? That's good to know. :D

 

I just realized that 6 on/1 off is our same schedule but just spacing our breaks out more evenly, which could be useful. To go year round that way would just add 6 weeks to our year. Not sure I need to go there!

[J'etudie]

I year round school. And I don't plan our breaks ahead. We take breaks as needed. Things come up. Or we just need a break sometimes. I don't worry about it. It has worked out very well doing it this way.

 

I'm such an obsessive planner that this would be hard for me to start doing, but I can see how it could evolve over time and then I'd look back and realize, "Hey, look how great that was!"

 

Thanks!

[lionfamily1999]

We took off July and take off one week a month. I plan our schedule on the week off and clean house then... I'd go nuts without it (the time off) and by going year round I've found we do more moving forward than reviewing, not to mention it's more realistic in terms of teaching him how real life works. Granted, not many people get a week off a month, but who gets an entire season off?!?

[K&Rs Mom]

We love it. We can take time off whenever, without worrying about falling behind, and we can go lots of places when they're not busy because outschoolers are in school. I like that we don't have to review to start a new "year" because they forgot things over the summer. I like that we don't have to try to coordinate all the subjects to begin/end at the same time - when it's time for a new math book, it may not be time for a new spelling book or science topic.

 

I am always planning a little - usually 2-3 weeks ahead. I use a ton of library resources, which I only have for 3 weeks anyway, so can't plan too much further ahead. I do make an outline for subjects that don't have a spine, like science, then check that to see what's next. History is SOTW, so we just do the next chapter, and I look 1-2 chapters ahead to see what to look for at the library and what supplies I'll need for crafts. Workbook subjects, like math & spelling, they just do the next page. It doesn't take much planning all at once, I just keep adding on to what I have and stay a little ahead of "now."

[Moni]

I started wondering if a 4 (or 5 or 6 or something) week on, 1 week off schedule would provide a respite that would help prevent this feeling.

!

 

Sounds as if it would :)

 

would you tell me how it has helped you

We do what we can, when we can. I imagine every day is a Lite Day

I never did Not Year Round, so I'm not sure what that would have been like to compare it to what we do now, in order to determine how it "helped."

 

take breaks as needed. Things come up. Or we just need a break sometimes. I don't worry about it.

This is how we do it too.

 

But if you need a rest day or week, take it :)

 

:seeya:

Edited September 19, 2009 by Moni

[Mandy in TN]

My older two boys are from a previous marriage and due to visitation agreements I was never able to hs year round.

 

With the little guy last summer and this summer we did light homeschooling during the summer- mostly just LA and math. It is nice, because it adds structure to the day and that is very helpful.:)

 

I am a planner. I had to get things done within a time frame with the older two, but I am trying to let that go. The little guy works fast and is ahead of the game, so I am trying to let workboxes take care of the schedule and just do what is next as we get to it.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[TxMama]

My goal is 9 weeks of school each season( 13 calendar weeks). I try not to ever take more than 2 weeks off of school at a time and never go more than 6 weeks without a break. This way we stay in the "smooth sailing" groove that you wrote about.

 

I only plan 9 weeks at a time so it is not overly time consuming. Actually my planning is so simplified that I can plan a quarter in less than an hour.

[J'etudie]

We took off July and take off one week a month. I plan our schedule on the week off and clean house then... I'd go nuts without it (the time off) and by going year round I've found we do more moving forward than reviewing, not to mention it's more realistic in terms of teaching him how real life works. Granted, not many people get a week off a month, but who gets an entire season off?!?

 

I was just playing with this schedule on the calendar and really liked the look of it. If I could move some things to "not school weeks" I think I'd be happier (and therefore more patient) during school weeks.

[Plucky]

I'm not a fan of year round schooling. I'm more a hostage. I love homeschooling and now that my kids are older it literally takes a whole year to finish subjects properly. Plus, I don't like my kids getting rusty at math and LA. If it was just about what I want and not what I should do, we'd take the summer off.

[lionfamily1999]

I was just playing with this schedule on the calendar and really liked the look of it. If I could move some things to "not school weeks" I think I'd be happier (and therefore more patient) during school weeks.

It leaves a lot of room. I don't even choose our week off until we're in the month, lol. That way, right around the time I start to burn out, or something comes up, we're free to take off.

 

Glad I could help :)

[6packofun]

This is the first year that I've loved year-round homeschooling and that's mainly because my kids didn't complain about only having 5-6 weeks off for their summer break, got back to work and worked REALLY hard...and it paid off in their test scores! lol Oh how little I had to do with that, though. Props to my kids. :D It's just about a way of life now. Whew!

 

I think 6 weeks on, 1 week on is perfect for us because I like planning for that amount of time at once anyhow and we're always ready for our week off. It seems that usually we can time things perfectly with birthdays, events and major holidays. (We take 2 weeks off at Christmas and almost the same for Easter.)

[Snickerdoodle]

I year round school. And I don't plan our breaks ahead. We take breaks as needed. Things come up. Or we just need a break sometimes. I don't worry about it. It has worked out very well doing it this way.

 

This is how we do it and I'm in relaxed planning mode all the time.

[silvermine]

I just plan one week ahead (Or if there's something big coming up or something really cool, maybe two weeks. :D).

 

But, also, if there's a crazy week, or something comes up, we easily take a day, week, or month off. (Like last week -- the stars aligned in a horrible way, so I gave up part of the way through the week. Then we finished that week this week, and we'll start over with a new "full" week next week. :D)

[eternalknot]

We school year-round, and always have because of my weird work schedule. Our school year is broken down into three terms. Each term is 4 months long, with the first month of each term being our "off" month. I expect lots of independent and joint reading during the off months, and I do assign math or writing once a week if we're needing extra focus on certain concepts.

 

Our Winter Term is Feb/Mar/Apr/May - with FEB being our month off.

Our Summer Term is Jun/Jul/Aug/Sept - with JUN being our month off. Sept marks the end of our "old" year.

Our Fall Term is Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan - with OCT being our month off. Nov begins our "new" school year.

 

We also take off from Thanksgiving through New Year's, so the Fall term is a bit short and light - it's when we do a lot of our fine arts and science type of activities (things that don't need regular repetition to retain, such as math and language arts). We travel extensively during this period, which means tons of field trips (museums, plays, etc) that we mean to do but don't always get around to during the rest of the year. It's our unschool-ish term, and it balances out nicely with the other two more academic-focused terms.

 

I plan all year long, as well. I have an outline of goals for the year in advance, called my Master Plan. Then I hunker down a more concrete plan on a term-by-term basis in the term prior. So as we end our Summer term, I'm getting the specifics of our Fall term mapped out. I usually do this during our off month, and if necessary I'll tweak next term's plan throughout the current term to keep the general flow (if we fall behind, or move ahead, etc). I have to plan in small doses because my lifestyle doesn't allow me large chunks of time to sit and get 'er done in a single sitting. It helps me to have an ongoing general plan that I can tweak here and there as I go, rather than to do one big planning session for the upcoming year.

 

I keep a small flexi-binder with two Tabs (This Term and Next Term) with several lists: Master Reading List for the x-Time Era; Curricula to Look At for x-Time Era; Curricula to Buy Before Next Term; Books We Have/Need/Buy/Can Find At Library for x-Time Era; Potential Projects/Field Trips/Activities for y-Term; Notes to Myself; plus several different calendar pages, and more. I write in pencil ::grin:: and add notes to it as I hit bookstores, libraries, or just otherwise gleam helpful information from friends or forums. Just like my wallet, it's pretty much always with me.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We have been homeschooling year round for about 6 years now. This summer is the first summer that, because of circumstances and opportunities, we took off. My dc and I have decided we won't do that again. It has been too hard to get back into the routine.

 

We usually take about 3 weeks off at Christmas, 2 weeks or so around Easter (because of where we live and the work we do this just works for us better), and about 5 weeks in the summer. Of course, there are the occasional one or two days off for other reasons during the year and it usually equals about 3 months off.

 

Anyway, now I'm stressed about "getting it all done by May". I don't like this feeling!

[J'etudie]

We school year-round, and always have because of my weird work schedule. Our school year is broken down into three terms. Each term is 4 months long, with the first month of each term being our "off" month. I expect lots of independent and joint reading during the off months, and I do assign math or writing once a week if we're needing extra focus on certain concepts.

 

Our Winter Term is Feb/Mar/Apr/May - with FEB being our month off.

Our Summer Term is Jun/Jul/Aug/Sept - with JUN being our month off. Sept marks the end of our "old" year.

Our Fall Term is Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan - with OCT being our month off. Nov begins our "new" school year.

 

We also take off from Thanksgiving through New Year's, so the Fall term is a bit short and light - it's when we do a lot of our fine arts and science type of activities (things that don't need regular repetition to retain, such as math and language arts). We travel extensively during this period, which means tons of field trips (museums, plays, etc) that we mean to do but don't always get around to during the rest of the year. It's our unschool-ish term, and it balances out nicely with the other two more academic-focused terms.

 

I plan all year long, as well. I have an outline of goals for the year in advance, called my Master Plan. Then I hunker down a more concrete plan on a term-by-term basis in the term prior. So as we end our Summer term, I'm getting the specifics of our Fall term mapped out. I usually do this during our off month, and if necessary I'll tweak next term's plan throughout the current term to keep the general flow (if we fall behind, or move ahead, etc). I have to plan in small doses because my lifestyle doesn't allow me large chunks of time to sit and get 'er done in a single sitting. It helps me to have an ongoing general plan that I can tweak here and there as I go, rather than to do one big planning session for the upcoming year.

 

I keep a small flexi-binder with two Tabs (This Term and Next Term) with several lists: Master Reading List for the x-Time Era; Curricula to Look At for x-Time Era; Curricula to Buy Before Next Term; Books We Have/Need/Buy/Can Find At Library for x-Time Era; Potential Projects/Field Trips/Activities for y-Term; Notes to Myself; plus several different calendar pages, and more. I write in pencil ::grin:: and add notes to it as I hit bookstores, libraries, or just otherwise gleam helpful information from friends or forums. Just like my wallet, it's pretty much always with me.

 

Thanks for this look into how it works at your house. I have a binder similar to yours but not so detailed. I'll have to steal some ideas!!!

[J'etudie]

This is the first year that I've loved year-round homeschooling and that's mainly because my kids didn't complain about only having 5-6 weeks off for their summer break, got back to work and worked REALLY hard...and it paid off in their test scores! lol Oh how little I had to do with that, though. Props to my kids. :D It's just about a way of life now. Whew!

 

Congrats to your kiddos!

 

I think 6 weeks on, 1 week on is perfect for us because I like planning for that amount of time at once anyhow and we're always ready for our week off. It seems that usually we can time things perfectly with birthdays, events and major holidays. (We take 2 weeks off at Christmas and almost the same for Easter.)

 

I definitely need to give this a try. I was tempted by a 4/1 but that almost feels too short. Maybe I should start with 6/1 and if that doesn't relieve some of the pressure head to the 4/1. The kids are young enough that I can play around with it a bit without them getting too set in their ways. :D

[phathui5]

We homeschool year round and do a field trip every Friday. Going year round is nice because then I don't need to fit in a whole day of book work on our Field Trip Fridays. We don't have many scheduled breaks otherwise, but do enjoy the freedom of being able to take days off when people aren't feeling well or I need a break.

[Pretty in Pink]

We school year-round as well. I do some planning in 9-week increments (looking up library books and printing out papers) and the rest I do weekly. I tried this summer to wrap my brain around planning the whole year at once and it just wasn't happening. I can't function that way.

 

We break as needed for travel, birthdays, just because.

[MommyRyan]

We school year-round. One that that has helped the sanity in the family is every other month or so, the kids spend a week or two on a unit-studies project. Anything they want. They just follow their passion and do tons of creative works with it: put on plays, art projects, the works. They have a lot of fun, and I just casually quiz them on their math to make sure they're not forgetting anything.

[lulubelle]

We just finished our first year homeschooling and doing it through the year. My son has a tough time transitioning, which makes me stressed out. I gradually added 1st grade in over the summer and into the new "school" year. It was a smooth transition and worked just as I had hoped. I am constantly tracking what will come next and I try to be 1 or 2 steps ahead. There is not too much day to day planning or month to month for that matter. I have a set routine/curriculum and I stick with it for the most part. I am following TWTM very closely and once it's set up - it's pretty smooth sailing. It's my oldest child that is constant work to get him to focus! That would be a whole 'nother thread. We take vacations days as they come.

[sunshine]

We school year round because we never seem to school regularly. Some days we get to the basics and then some days we have great days but more than likely, like 2 days a week we get nothing done. And they still expect not to do school on Sat and Sun! I have alot of migraines, about 8 a month on average so that really impedes progress too. Usually around July we conk out and take the rest of the month off after July 4th and start piddling around mid August. By October we are full force and then take December off. We get spring fever in April and by June are cramming but then July comes and we scrap what we haven't finished and start over in August. I graduated 3 seniors this past year and it seemed to work as 2 out of 3 are in college and 1 is planning on starting in the Spring. And my son had very high SAT's. I think it is the quality of the education, not so much the quantity. If quantity was enough then the Public Schools would be thriving.

[Melissa in Australia]

I year round school. And I don't plan our breaks ahead. We take breaks as needed. Things come up. Or we just need a break sometimes. I don't worry about it. It has worked out very well doing it this way.

:iagree:

this is what we do. we don't take time off every few weeks. Just when something comes up we take some time off. In summer we do lots of half days, and go to the beach in the afternoon for swimming/ sailing.

[J'etudie]

I'm in relaxed planning mode all the time.

 

I love the phrase "relaxed planning mode." I am pretty much in that mode all the time, too. Now if I could just admit it and relax about it a bit!

[J'etudie]

But if you need a rest day or week, take it :)

 

:seeya:

 

You're right. And the history books I requested from the library for Monday aren't here yet so I think next week is simply screaming to be an off week. Thanks. :)

[J'etudie]

.

[J'etudie]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. We're taking next week off! :)

[Haiku]

 

If you love the year-round approach, would you tell me how it has helped you?

 

 

 

We do four weeks on, one week off, year round, with two weeks at the New Year and two weeks in June.

 

In the spring I spend a bunch of time getting the main frame of my schedule put together, and then I plan the specifics two weeks at a time throughout the year. It takes me about 1 1/2 hours on a Sunday to plan for the next two weeks.

 

I love our schedule. I enjoy doing school with the kids, so I don't want huge breaks, but I also can't go weeks on end with no break. The kids look forward to their breaks, but when their week is up they are ready for school again.

 

Tara

[IsabelC]

We home school 365 days a year. But that's at the prep stage (I think you call it 5yo kinder?) so it's no more than an hour or two of formal stuff at the most, sometimes less. I'm not sure how we'll go next year with more hours, but I have found so far that it's great to get into the desired habits. Also, because ds has never been to school, he doesn't expect to get holidays and doesn't miss them.

[melissel]

I haven't read the whole thread, but in case anyone hasn't mentioned it, we school year-round so I can lighten up my weeks. I schedule 5-day weeks knowing that often, they'll end up being 4-day weeks, and that's fine. I use a spreadsheet so I can bump lessons over when we miss one in a week. Very helpful!

[Desert Rat]

We have a school schedule that reflects our environment. We live in the desert so summers are pretty much a bust for us. We school throughout the summer taking 2 weeks off in August to get the next school year ready. We take off a week in Feb. and May for the boys birthdays. The bulk of our time is taken off between Thanksgiving and New Years. It works out to be about 7 weeks. We can enjoy the holidays, hang out at the park, go hiking and all the fun stuff most people do in the summer elsewhere. I also have a 42 week school year because my boys get bored and like the routine of school. 6 weeks of that is light and I can also take a few weeks off that schedule if I'm burned out.

HTH

[Ellie]

Instead of having an official schedule of X weeks on and X weeks off, just take off when you need to. No biggie. We always put the books away from Thanksgiving to around the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring; a couple of weeks in late August/early September, just because. Otherwise, we just kept doing school stuff, and taking random "mental-health" days, as well as trips to Disneyland in March in the middle of the week.:)

[J'etudie]

We have a school schedule that reflects our environment. We live in the desert so summers are pretty much a bust for us. We school throughout the summer taking 2 weeks off in August to get the next school year ready. We take off a week in Feb. and May for the boys birthdays. The bulk of our time is taken off between Thanksgiving and New Years. It works out to be about 7 weeks. We can enjoy the holidays, hang out at the park, go hiking and all the fun stuff most people do in the summer elsewhere. I also have a 42 week school year because my boys get bored and like the routine of school. 6 weeks of that is light and I can also take a few weeks off that schedule if I'm burned out.

HTH

 

It does. Thanks!

[J'etudie]

Instead of having an official schedule of X weeks on and X weeks off, just take off when you need to. No biggie. We always put the books away from Thanksgiving to around the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring; a couple of weeks in late August/early September, just because. Otherwise, we just kept doing school stuff, and taking random "mental-health" days, as well as trips to Disneyland in March in the middle of the week.:)

 

I absolutely believe this is a great plan, but my personality gets in the way...too rigid. I'm working on it, though. :D

[s.z.ichigo]

We do a 36-week year, with 4-day weeks. In general, we do 9 weeks on, one week off. Extra week-long breaks are thrown in to accommodate birthday/Christmas/whatever. We end up taking 5 or 6 weeks worth of break throughout the year. This year we spent a couple months in California and ended up staying longer than we anticipated. I brought along 4 weeks worth of work for a 6 week trip, and ended up staying at least 10 weeks, so this year is lasting a little longer than usual.

[Meeshi]

We are year round learners. Summertime leads us to a more relaxed schedule, but we maintain a regular pattern of Language and Math. I decided to take this route early on in our HS journey. I would see my step-daughter spend a week with her Mom without much learning and she would struggle to get back into the swing of things. I think a whole summer off would lead to a hard transition when it was time to get back to the books.

 

Generally, we take days off as needed and our longest days of sit-down learning would be about 4 hours.

[coralloyd]

If you want some help on planning year around schooling you can use this book & cd: http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/planning-your-charlotte-mason-education/

 

Even if you are not doing a CM method this shows you step by step how to plan out 3 terms it is flexible, so you can decide when you want to take breaks. We school year around, but this "year" this really helped me with the planning part.

 

Mine looks like this:

1st term-Jan.,Feb., March, April (13-14 weeks on 2-3 weeks off, when ever we want them)

2nd term- May, June, July, Aug. (12 weeks on 4 weeks off, when we want them)

3rd term- Sep., Oct., Nov., Dec. (11- 12 weeks on 4-5 weeks off, depending on what we did the first term. We take these off usually in Dec. and Nov. for the holidays.)

 

Adds up to 37 weeks of school and gives me an extra flex week :D.

[FairProspects]

How much do regional weather patterns affect your year-round schedule? Seeing as it rains nearly 10 months a year here in the Pac NW, we pretty much spend every single day of July and August outside. I'm not really sure I could ask the kids (& myself) to give that up considering how much we are stuck inside during the rainy months. For those of you that school year-round, does the weather factor in at all? I love the pros of year round schooling, being able to take time off when necessary, but I just can't see how to do it without losing our summer outdoor time (which in our area can't be made up once the rains start).

[PollyOR]

How much do regional weather patterns affect your year-round schedule? Seeing as it rains nearly 10 months a year here in the Pac NW, we pretty much spend every single day of July and August outside. I'm not really sure I could ask the kids (& myself) to give that up considering how much we are stuck inside during the rainy months. For those of you that school year-round, does the weather factor in at all? I love the pros of year round schooling, being able to take time off when necessary, but I just can't see how to do it without losing our summer outdoor time (which in our area can't be made up once the rains start).

 

We are in the PNW too, and I'm finding that we have the same problem. I've said that we homeschool year round but in all honestly, the summers are a bust. Between family and friends not much gets done.

 

My two youngest are dying to be outside all day. We live adjacent to the city park and they can hear their friends playing. Friends who live farther away are constantly trying to set up play dates. DH's side of the family has a reunion each year that takes up a week. Then there is church camp for the 14yo and 11yo which takes up another week.

 

Math is about the only thing that takes place.