For those who do a 4 day schedule...

[HarbourLights]

I was curious as to how you typically divide your year up... Do you schedule breaks in (i.e. every 6-8 weeks take a week off, breaks around the holidays, etc) and also whether or not you take the summer off, lighten the schedule, or just continue as normal?

 

Obviously my guys are only pre-k right now, but currently we are doing four "formal" class days and then friday thru sunday is our normal life/exploring/reading days. Looking ahead I would like to continue with a four day schedule with periodic breaks but pretty much school year round. Was just wondering how it works out for you! Thanks!

[lulubelle]

We had our finished our first year hs last June. We are going year round. Why pay for camps and classes when I can keep them busy at home! We are on a school vacation this week! It is week 9 since last break. We needed it at week 8! My ds7 was burnt out and it was catching onto me! My 3 kids are happily playing and so greatful that they do not have to do work! Since this past May, we have been doing more trips away. We did a trip to D.C. for 6 days and 5 camping trips. It was a perfect summer! A perfect mix of going away and learning at home. We need to plan more trips through the "school year". We need to plan our first winter getaway. I also think that 8 weeks of pure school it too much. TWTM has recommendations for schooling. One is 4 weeks on and then 1 week off. I think that is more ideal. I tend to fear the transition back into school work, but the breaks are necessary. I plan to take off Thanksgiving week and then Christmas week, then try a family getaway in February.

[Closeacademy]

Our school year starts in June. Fridays is our day off and we go to a playgroup on that day. The year is set up like this:

 

June: 4 weeks of 4 days each

 

July: 4th of July week off if it falls on Tues-Thurs, 3-day week if it falls on Monday and 4-day week if it is on Frid-Sun. We do 3-4 weeks of 4 days of school.

 

August: 4-5 weeks of 4 days of school

 

September: We take labor day week off and have 3-4 weeks of 4 days of school. A lot of this depends on how labor day falls on the calendar. Some years we have 4 weeks in Aug and 4 in Sept. Sometimes like this year we have 5 weeks in Aug and 3 in Sept.

 

October: 3-4 weeks of school. If Halloween and my daughter's birthday fall in the same week we take it off. I treat Halloween like 4th of July. They just can't concentrate well that week and a lot of time we just do a fun project or catch-up or review week.

 

November: 3 weeks of school and we take Thanksgiving week off.

 

December: The last few years we have done 2 weeks of school with one of those weeks being partly in November. We generally just do reading, math and a Christmas themed lapbook. All other subjects are given a break for Dec.

 

We have a 2-3 week break for Christmas.

 

January: 4-5 weeks depending on how the days fall. We get a lot of work done Jan-March.

 

February: 3-4 weeks depending on how the days fall.

 

March: 4 weeks. Either this month or next we may take a break for a week or have relaxed school depending on how everyone is doing.

 

April: 4 weeks.

 

May: The is the month we take off of school and have vacation. They need the break, I do a lot of planning and we end up taking a trip or two.

 

That is how it has worked out for the last 4 years for us anyway. Sometimes we have school in May because of weeks we took off earlier in the year due to illness or vacations. One year we missed three weeks in October and made them up at other times. One year we missed most of Feburary due to mono. So I try to be flexible while making note of our total of days.

 

I count Fridays when we have field trips or do special activities with our playgroup. This Friday we hope to make corn husk dolls so it will count as a school day.:001_smile:

[2_girls_mommy]

We do 4 day weeks (Friday is co-op, so it technically counts, but 4 days of my curric..)

 

We start our years the first week of August, and we go until the end of May. We do not take many breaks throughout this time though. We may take a day or two off here or there, but we do not take any week breaks for fall or spring or winter. We usually take a couple days off getting ready for Christmas. Then we start back up a day or two after, depending on which day it falls on. We work on New Year's Day even as dh is at work, so it is a normal day for us. Working during the winter break like that actually helps us get a lot done, because all of our activities are on break at that time. During the rest of the year, we take a day here or there, if something comes up, but not often. Doing school this way, means we get a long summer break.. this past summer we had 8 weeks. This is important to my dd, who likes to have the summer off because her friends from church and the neighborhood do.

 

We actually continue working through the summer just on different stuff. This past summer, each child got to pick a "fun" workbook from the bookstore and that was their work a couple of days a week. For reading over the summer, we do library summer reading programs. We also continued a science unit and Story of the World one day a week over the summer too. But we finish our math workbooks and regular L.A. stuff in the Aug. through end of May/beginning of June, so that my dd feels like she has a school year like everyone else. :)

 

Technically, if you count our school days, we go way beyond the 180 days in our year, but I want to finish our curric too. So this works for dd's and my needs. Since we take field trips and play dates often (and still manage to do schoolwork most of those days) we do not feel "burned out."

[Tam101]

My son takes resources classes twice a week, so I'm forced into a 4-day schedule, we have to use a weekend day.

 

We start the first week of Aug which gives us a month and half head start before his resource classes. We take a 1-2 weeks off at Christmas depending on if we are where I would like us to be in our curriculum, a week in Oct for our family vaca, (plus we are just coming off a week of illness). It's looking like we will be on schedule to finish our semester at the end of year. We'll take a week in the spring and hopefully be done at the end of May or first week of June when his resource classes end. At that point I'll evaluate what needs to be done over the summer. Do we need to finish a certain subject or work on multiplication tables for example.

[mycalling]

We don't live in a state that demands 180 days of schooling so I've opted out of the #-days-of-schooling-is-necessary mind-set. We do 4-day weeks for ~28 weeks for a school "year" but go longer than that just starting into the next step of curriculum or supplementing certain subjects. Whatever floats our boats after the year's worth.

 

I just divide up anything we'd do in a full year into 112 days and come up with a rough X amount per week that needs to be done.

 

We take breaks whenever life gets in the way of formal lessons.

[babysparkler]

We do 4 days of curr. and Friday is co-op/field trips. We do a couple of 3-4 week units and 1 week off (taking the 1 week off when grandparents fly in for a week visit)... with 2 weeks of ITBS testing/field trips just before our Thanksgiving break, 2 weeks of Christmas break, and 2 weeks of Easter break (so that we can fully participate in holy week services and such).

 

We start in early Aug. and end in early May, giving us 30 weeks of curriculum. We do full days (8am-3:30pm) and we cover at least one grade level per school year (or more) in those 30 weeks. May, June & July we do church camps, swimming lessons, tennis lessons, soccer clinics, etc. so classroom learning is put away.

 

Texas doesn't have day requirements, so we do what we feel is best for our children's education.

[Samiam]

We do curriculum work four days a week, with Friday being art/music/and park time officially.

 

We school year around, but also take breaks whenever we want to. We go on field trips often, usually twice a month. We take the week of Thanksgiving and time around Christmas/New Year's off. We take family birthdays off. We take days off when the weather is suddenly beautiful.

 

We do not have a set 'vacation' week, but instead just take time off whenever we want/need to. We rarely take more than a week at at time, and even then, only a week if we are not going to be actually home for that week. Usually, it's more like a 3-4 day weekend.

 

We usually are able to end our current year's curriculum by end of June, take the first week of July off (4th is son's birthday as well as THE 4th), and then start right into the next year's curriculum no later than mid-July.

 

It sounds like we are fancy-free, but actually we work pretty hard-core on the days we work, and often will work 2-3 weeks straight without a day off, other than Fri-Sun. But we do not work anything like 8-3...that is just way to long for us. We usually work from 9a-12p....a little less for DS6, and a little longer for DS11.

 

But because of our year round schedule, we do not need to worry about finishing by a deadline, or being behind, or stressing about an extra day off here or there.

[vkay]

We typically start our school year in late Sept/early Oct. School is M-Th 9:00 - 4:00. We don't schedule official weeks/time off. We just take it as it comes. Maybe life will interfer, maybe we'll be sick, maybe grandma comes for a visit...etc. When those things happen, we'll take off. We take some time off around the usual holidays. If I feel we're at a good spot, then we'll take more time off for Christmas, if not, then a shorter break. That sort of thing.

 

I plan out the lessons to almost finish at the end of May/early June. I like to leave about 10 days worth of school to sprinkle throughout summer. It helps keep them fresh.

[tdeveson]

We have always had a four-day week, except in grade one when we unschooled. On Fridays we do co-op, field trips, etc.

 

For lesson planning purposes, I plan 40 weeks of 4 days each. Since I don't have to count days in Florida, this is just to help me stay organized. We traditionally begin the first week of August or as soon as we return from Canada if we're spending the summer there. We work until the week before Thanksgiving and start again after the New Year. There was a time when I used to plan work for those six weeks, but frankly, nothing ever got done. I've gotten more real in the past few years and I just don't plan work for then.

 

When we return to lesson in January, we work straight through until about June or whenever we finish the curriculum I chose. We take a whole week off from time to time for no apparent reason or just to take a trip or do something different.

 

During months or weeks when we are not formally schooling, we still do lots of reading, writing and math games.