Anyone do year round every day schooling?

[Earth Yarn]

Most curricula we have seen or bought seem to be set up for a max of 5 days per week. So I guess my question is if there is anyone else here that does a more year round every day type schedule how do you adapt the curriculum to fit that? Do you lessen the time each day and stretch it out? We definitely want the kids to have "play time" but we believe in everyday sort of school and instilling a love of education rather then having them despise it the way our DSDs despise school because of their public school roots. Thanks again! Can you tell I am knowledge gathering? LOL

[Vida Winter]

We school year round but absolutely need to have breaks - weekends and every six weeks or so we do something out of the ordinary - participate in a play, travel somewhere, just something different. When we get back to the regular routine it all works better. The one thing that I can recommend is to keep the read-alouds going every day (or at bedtime) no matter what else is going on. That in itself will help you get through a curriculum like Sonlight and kids will enjoy the consistency.

[SilverMoon]

We school year round. It gives us more freedom to take breaks whenever we want to, and still get all our books finished before the next grade. (Disclaimer: I don't have to track days for our state.)

 

We don't do weekends unless there's work that didn't get done during the week, and dawdling/carelessness was the cause. Really busy weeks where we all get less done are understandable and we'll just catch up on Monday.

[lulubelle]

I like the idea of "schooling" everyday, but my ds7 does not! I've been trying to do some different math stuff on friday or weekends. I have to force it to happen. It would have to be a real focused child to be willing to do some school work 7 days week. If you did do 7 days a week, I would take every 4th or 5th week off.

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

Depending on what is going on Saturdays they can end up pretty much the same as the other days of the week for us since if DH isn't around then following our regular schedule is the best way to make use of the time (since I don't currently drive). Things like reading and writing are easy to practice without a curriculum and even with math I usually have supplemental stuff around even if it's a workbook from the dollar store. We like to have DH involved to some degree as well so if he is around, Saturdays are his chance to do that in some way (we're specifically planning "Science Saturdays with Dad" using From Mudpies to Magnets) and our chance to go on some kind of field trip. I'm also one to carry flash cards in my purse (for spontaneous phonics lessons, for example) or a Brain Quest deck.

[Trixie]

Most curricula we have seen or bought seem to be set up for a max of 5 days per week. So I guess my question is if there is anyone else here that does a more year round every day type schedule how do you adapt the curriculum to fit that? Do you lessen the time each day and stretch it out? We definitely want the kids to have "play time" but we believe in everyday sort of school and instilling a love of education rather then having them despise it the way our DSDs despise school because of their public school roots. Thanks again! Can you tell I am knowledge gathering? LOL

 

We do year-round learning. Unless you have to keep strict records that require you to log specific hours and keep an academic-year calendar, you could do what we do: we don't do "grade levels," so we just move on to the next thing when we finish something.

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

We do year-round learning. Unless you have to keep strict records that require you to log specific hours and keep an academic-year calendar, you could do what we do: we don't do "grade levels," so we just move on to the next thing when we finish something.

 

That's a good point. That's what we basically intend to do. It makes things so super flexible.

[Seeker]

Like Trixie, we just begin the next level or project when we have finished the last one. All our subjects are staggered with different start and ending times--not the we planned it that way, but that is just how it works out. I like it better because my approach is teacher intense at this time and I need preparation time for many of the subjects. I really would not want to try to do prep work for them all at the same time.

[ValkyrieMom]

We're new to HS, but we are doing it year round. I've taken the advice to keep Fridays/Saturdays easy going and to do a "Field Trip" on either of those days because I forget that not all the learning has to come from a book. We get in the car and drive out to the countryside to watch the animals or farmers.

DH talks to the kids about what we see and where we go. He's more of an outdoors person and this is our way of involving him. On rainy days we drive to the next town and stop and get a treat somewhere and watch the storm and talk about it, etc. Or go up the canyon for a nature study.

Sundays after church are good for this too, we play soft music and just go for a drive. We talk about religion or have discussions about things on our minds that we were too busy to get into during the week.

Every day is educational without being "slaves" to the curriculum. (that's a joke, BTW!) :001_smile:

There is something spectacular about time when we are just learning to communicate and interact (and not necessarily discussing nature, etc.) as part of our education too. Like singing silly camp songs and telling our kids about moments from our childhoods or our parents and grandparents. They are learning about Family History and how the world changes, but it has nothing to do with what we read that week, KWIM?

Something I'm learning, just to share--I'm learning to shut my mouth more and let the kids talk. It's great feedback for what they are picking up, but it's very bonding and they feel they have some contribution to it all even if they are not in the logic or rhetoric stage.

[pageta]

We school year-round, officially beginning in July and ending in June (I like having goals and deadlines). I set quarterly goals on how far I want to get in each subject, and then we play it by ear. Generally we have four days per week of curriculum-focused school plus our town/library day. My goal is to do 40 days of school each quarter, which is essentially ten weeks out of the thirteen. We take breaks whenever we want. MIL is coming in a couple weeks so we will take a couple days off to spend with her. We'll take a week off for Thanksgiving when we travel to see family. I am sure we'll take some time off at Christmas. Other breaks will happen when we need them.

[LittleIzumi]

I plan on continuing year-round. However, we are very relaxed so it's not stressful on anyone to do it every day. We like learning together :)

[StartingOver]

We homeschool year round and always have. Weekends are lighter though. We play hookie when we wish. Somedays we just need to bake brownies and sit in the yard. I have always just moved on to the next level of what were studying. There is always something else to learn..... the options don't end.

[Earth Yarn]

Luckily for me my DS who will be 3 in feb is obsessed with "school" he begs daily to do his work and is flying through math like crazy :) I like the idea of not going by grades and since we don't have to adhere to hours or days here in WV I don't think we should run into a problem. We plan on doing lots and lots of field trips and other fun learning days :)

[StartingOver]

Even when I had to adhere to grades...... I just used the kids age level, and continued on.

[Colleen in NS]

So I guess my question is if there is anyone else here that does a more year round every day type schedule how do you adapt the curriculum to fit that? Do you lessen the time each day and stretch it out? We definitely want the kids to have "play time" but we believe in everyday sort of school and instilling a love of education rather then having them despise it the way our DSDs despise school because of their public school roots.

 

I school year round with scheduled breaks, and this year, I managed to work things so that instead of 36 weeks "on," there are 44. It means that I spread some things out more, so that our weeks "on" didn't feel so crammed.

 

For example, we use R&S math which has 170 lessons. I just divide that out into 44 weeks (4/week). We use R&S grammar, and the amount varies each year, but this year for books 3 and 6, it's 3/week. And if I want to get through the Critical Thinking Books 1 and 2 this year, it's 10 pages/week. I just basically take each subject, figure out how much I want to get through, and divide it out. Going to 44 weeks also gave us room to have easier Fridays so that we can go to the pool and library. It also gave me time to fit in science experiments and time to go over history maps and talk about/compare reading with my logic-stage son, and helped me to maintain the two hour reading/finish work time after lunch, before doing corrections/leftovers at 3 p.m., so that they could have outdoors time before supper/cleanup time. I don't want my kids working on academics until supper or after supper in later years, unless they want to (they read all the time, they don't consider it academic - and they talk about their reading). So I'm working now to integrate academics with the rest of life.

 

That said, I will also add that while my kids love to read, love to play together, love to do imaginary things, play games, do puzzles, examine bugs/rocks/plants, experiment with physics-type things, talk about misc. things, right now there isn't this "love of education" going on. They would tell you they don't like sitting down with me to go over their math/Latin/grammar/writing assignments (and they seem to forget every week that we usually go out most Fridays, later mornings, after their one or two things are done!!). I just laughingly tell them that someday, they will be glad. And, when one of them says something to us or someone else, that is related to some horribleawful thing they had to learn with me, they don't even think about it - the knowledge just comes bubbling up and out of their mouths. I just have to keep my mouth shut and try not to point out "Hey, you learned that in Latin a few weeks ago!"

 

All that to say, that if your younger kids get to a point where they seem to despise school like the older ones do at their same ages, don't get discouraged. :D

[katilac]

I used to be much more of an 'any day' schooler, but then my kids figured out what weekends were ;).

 

It's a hard thing to fight, especially if one parent works a standard schedule. Weekends are different, because dad is home. He's sleeping late, he has more time to play and whatnot, and no one is happy doing a math lesson.

 

And that's fine, really. We still do plenty of learning on the weekends, but it's much more laid back and serenditious. Lots of reading, games, maybe pull out a science kit or the drawing books, help dad with projects. There's plenty of worthwhile things to fill the time. Also, I do not want neccesarily want to be the teacher on the weekend.

 

Of course, some people do school on Saturdays with no problem. I find it easier not to. I am perfectly willing to model 'non-schooltime' formal study for my kids - - after all, evenings and weekends are usually when I have the time - - but I don't require it of them.

 

Now, year-round schooling is much easier to pull off. You'll want to build in enough breaks and variety to avoid burnout, but there's no reason to align with a public school schedule. We took a pretty long summer break for the first time this year (several camps and then a month completely off), and I'm not planning to do it again. I do find that one or two longer breaks (not just a week) are definitely needed - - long enough to refresh, not so long that the brain gets out of shape.

[katilac]

Oh, and I agree with Colleen: spreading the work out over a longer school year really makes your days more relaxed. I also think it gives the kids time enough to absorb the information.

 

Also like she said, I will also add that while my kids love to read, love to play together, love to do imaginary things, play games, do puzzles, examine bugs/rocks/plants, experiment with physics-type things, talk about misc. things, right now there isn't this "love of education" going on.

 

It's disappointing to find out that a love for learning can't be guaranteed by your attitude and the evironment you provide,:001_huh:. Both my kids are very academic, but I have one who just can't get enough, and one who would happily skip anything that smacks of schoolwork just as often as I would let her.

[Mandy in TN]

We school sort of year round and more than 5 days a week.

 

We do Kumon math and reading. The oldest ds did this year round 7 days a week until he finished the reading program. He did math 7 days a week for a year. This year the big guy has two dual enrollment classes, one tutorial class, and one class under the headmaster of his umbrella. So, he just works whenever he can until it is done.:)

 

On Saturdays the middle guy does math, reading, and any catch-up work.

 

The little guy is currently doing Kumon math and reading 6 days a week.

 

Other than math and reading all other subjects are scheduled 4 days a week with one weekday being really light for field trips or whatever.

 

June and the first two weeks of July we homeschool light- mostly just math and reading. Math and reading we just keep going. All other subjects I tend to finish in May and pick back up in July. My older two are from a previous marriage and so while they were younger they spent a large portion of the summer with their dad. Because of this we pretty much had to be "finished" (or at least at a stopping point) in May.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Katiebug_1976]

We are constantly learning new things every day, but not necessarily from our "books." We started a "year round" school schedule this year, but we only do "book work" 4 days a week (unless there is a big project or unfinished work that needs to be done). We take 1 week off every month, and are planning to take the month of July off for our summer break. Then we will begin the next year in August. We are not required to keep records for the # of days or anything else in our state, so that makes flexibility really easy, but we are still getting in way more "school days" than most states require. We have only been doing this schedule for 3 months, but it is really working out great for us! On our "off" weeks, the kids get to focus on learning something that they are really interested in that migh not be in our curriculum. It is bringing out their individual creativity, and I think that is just as important as book learning.

[Aurelia]

We do every day year round and just take breaks when we like and take the month of July off because it's so stinking hot. I like to keep up doing reading and math on the weekends because it's a skill that needs daily practice at this age, IMO. Plus, getting schoolwork done on Mondays is a breeze. ;)

[tdeveson]

Unless you have to keep strict records that require you to log specific hours and keep an academic-year calendar, you could do what we do: we don't do "grade levels," so we just move on to the next thing when we finish something.

 

That's what we do. In Florida, you only have to demonstrate that the child has progressed commensurate with his ability. I don't count days. We school year round with plenty of breaks. If we spend the summer in Canada, we only do language and math. It's too much fun at the lake to do too much book learnin'.

 

I schedule six weeks off between Thanksgiving and New Year. We still read and do math, but that's it. We also take weeks off any time we want to. In the end, we do formal schooling about 40 weeks, but they're spaced out year round except for the six weeks I take off for the holidays.

 

When we're done with our math book, or spelling book, or whatever, we don't call it a year. I just pull out the next level and keep going. Hard to say what grade my ds is really in that way. ;)

[kalanamak]

Most curricula we have seen or bought seem to be set up for a max of 5 days per week. So I guess my question is if there is anyone else here that does a more year round every day type schedule how do you adapt the curriculum to fit that? Do you lessen the time each day and stretch it out?

 

I do this. Since I work, I school when I can. Weekends I do every subject both days, but about one Saturday a month, kiddo ends up doing something else (like the Kinder Concert Series, and Papa takes him and stays up in the city all day at the waterfront, or on a ferry ride.)

Weeknights I try to do the 3 R's and one other thing. I rarely make all 7 days. Someone is sick, kiddo has someplace to go, I'm too tired, some emergency comes up.

 

I like numbers, so I did this mathematically. WTM has advised times for subjects for 180 schooling days. Well, someone with some experience just handed me a ball-park, I thought, and I multiplied all that time for a full year's worth of each subject. I divided that by 12. Now, every month, rain or shine, I make it. I have found it really has worked for us, although I tend to put extra time in art, music, and science. Recently I trimmed back on those a bit to spend more time on the 3 Rs, simply because kiddo's attention span for them is expanding before my eyes. And as I've gotten to know him, I'm putting more framework on how much of math to cover each quarter or so, e.g.

 

I once read that SWB put in those times under publisher's pressure. I later read SWB wasn't unhappy with it anymore because so many people felt helped. Then again, I may have dreamed both of those, because, honestly, while I did all the investigating and researching you are probably doing, once you get going, that drops away like the first two stages in a space rocket (:)). Whatever, I have found those times give me a goal, sometimes to push me, sometimes to let me say "enough".

 

I am a saver-up of time off, a work-aheader by nature. This keeps me from flogging us into the ground, but I do like doing a bit every day.

(Tonight, e.g was 30 minutes math work, review of subtraction of three digit numbers without borrowing in anticipation of starting sub with borrowing tomorrow +10 minutes intro to the bar diagrams Singapore uses; 20 minutes of grammar including 2 pages of GWG on irregular past-tense verbs after an intro on the words "regular" and "irregular" which involved running around the house finding some regular and irregular items, then me chanting "I sweep the floor" and kiddo calling back "I swept the floor" while we do the physical actions; him reading a book of my choice and one of his choice to me (tonight he had to read in front of Papa for the first time...he had not wanted to admit to Papa he could read (it was our secret, although of course Papa knew) until he was "good" enough. Tonight I told him he was good enough and it was time.) I read to him some readaloud related to his year in the SOTW and he was so absorbed by an Aliki book, we went over each picture in detail and learned some vocab (Me "a spit is a metal rod put through a dead animal so it can be turned over a fire. Find a spit in this picture." ); and finally, as a reward for being a good and attentive student, we watched an hour of Captain Blood together ("Errol Flynn's greatest movie) with (my) commentary (pointing out the funny man who finds a perfect Bible quote for every situation; showing him what a sidesaddle was; naming the prow/stern etc. terms for the big ships in the movie; pointing out who James II and William and Mary were) before bed and some pirate read alouds.

HTH

[Annabel Lee]

Most curricula we have seen or bought seem to be set up for a max of 5 days per week. So I guess my question is if there is anyone else here that does a more year round every day type schedule how do you adapt the curriculum to fit that? Do you lessen the time each day and stretch it out? We definitely want the kids to have "play time" but we believe in everyday sort of school and instilling a love of education rather then having them despise it the way our DSDs despise school because of their public school roots. Thanks again! Can you tell I am knowledge gathering? LOL

 

Here's how I divide up the typical 36 week/180 lesson curriculum into a whole year:

Out of the 52 weeks in the year, I plan to homeschool 41 of them. We rotate 5-school-day weeks and 4-school-day weeks, switching every week and having Fri. off on 4-day wks. We will end up doing 19 5-day weeks and 22 4-day weeks, for a total of 183 school days. That leaves us 11 weeks free - to take off, catch up, or work ahead - whatever our case may be at that point.

This is my 1st yr. homeschooling year round, and originally I wanted to do 4-day weeks only, but to at least get done w/ typical 36 wk. curricula we would have to do school for 45 weeks. That only leaves 7 weeks off; not enough for us.

HTH!

[IsabelC]

We are planning to do the three Rs pretty much 365 days a year, but there will be days when that is all we do, so I guess we're not 100% year round schooling. As far as pacing, we're just aiming to progress at a speed that is challenging but not stressful. We're not too bothered about whether the kids end up with different subjects at different grade levels. I should add that we aren't doing 7 days a week in order to accelerate the kids, it's more so that they get used to it as part of the daily rhythm. Dress, eat breakfast, wash, brush teeth, do reading, work on math, etc. If it's just part of their regular day, persuading them to do it isn't going to be too much of an issue. At least that's my theory lol.

Edited October 14, 2009 by Hotdrink

[angela in ohio]

We school year-round, six days a week. I want my dc to know that education happens every day as a part of daily life. We are able to both fit in more material AND spread things out so that we can take advantage of outside opportunities. We take a few weeks here and there for vacations and such and usually end up schooling 42-45 wks a year.

[Strawberry Queen]

I kind of do year round schooling. I divided up the quarters and had summer be a lighter quarter, reflecting the fact that we're outside trying to soak up the sun. Now that winter is here we have a lot more in house time to devote to schooling.

 

I divided up sotw and have goals as to how many chapter I want to have completed by the end of a quarter. That way I can remain flexible but still achieve my goals. I also have general weekly expectations but sometimes those change. For instance, DH scheduled a weeks holiday to take advantage of Thanksgiving this week. Because we weren't getting up at 6 we were loosing about 2 hours of our morning. I just stuck to the basics and we had a solid reading and writing week, along with one science experiment and one really good notebooking page for history. (I know, I'm inordinately proud of this week:D)

 

I have a new French curriculum come this week so now I have to schedule that. BTW, I think I'm crazy sometimes, but my girls are flourishing and that's what matters.:001_smile:

 

HTH

[Colleen in NS]

Now that winter is here

 

I just have to jump in here with a :grouphug:. Your poor thing.

[TXMary2]

We follow a 36 week curriculum, but sometimes take 52 weeks to complete it so we can have some breaks or shorter weeks to take care of business and family things. We start new curriculum and thus "new" school years when we finish the last. It's more of a lifestyle for us. As a new homeschooler I tried following the traditional school year and it was way too much stress. I felt pressured to finish by a certain time and then was really disappointed when other homeschoolers told me, "Well the public schools never finish a text so don't worry." I wanted to be better than the ps and I wanted to finish what we started so we switched to year round.