year round school?

[GaHadley]

if you do it, could you tell me your how many weeks on and off you do. . . when do you take breaks? when do you move to the next grade level?

 

TIA :)

[lllll]

..

[IsabelC]

I think there has already been a thread or two on this topic; have you tried a search?

[cara]

We are just starting this, the plan is to work for 6 weeks with 1 week off between 6 week periods.

 

The only time it is different is in October when we go for 8 weeks before taking a break because of a vacation I'm planning for around Halloween. Then we will go for 2 or 3 weeks in November before breaking for 6 weeks for Christmas.

[GaHadley]

I think there has already been a thread or two on this topic; have you tried a search?

 

nope - I'll do that now - I forget about that feature! thanks :)

[FriedClams]

We've always done year-round hs. Take breaks when needed. When finished with one book, I used to give them 1-2 weeks off that subject before they began the next book in that subject. They thought it was a real treat not having to do a subject for a whole 1-2 weeks. :D

 

Never worried about grade levels too much. Different kids always seemed to progress through different subjects at different rates. I just let'em go as fast or as slow as they needed to go in each subject to learn the material well. It's worked well for us.

 

You might just want to start experimenting and see what works best with your own kids and schedules. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. We all make'em. :tongue_smilie:

 

That's pretty much how we do it (except if you finish one book - you get the next - lol!!). We relax in the summer - fun camps and classes, math, reading, etc. Fun, but with a purpose. My kids enjoy the routine and I like having no pressure during the school year to take a week here and there off.

[GaHadley]

I think there has already been a thread or two on this topic; have you tried a search?

 

thanks! searched and found what I was hoping to find!

[ChristusG]

I think we'll do a variation of year around school. I just can't see us taking 2 or 3 months off for the summer. I figure we'll take a few weeks off and then start back.....then maybe take another break later on. We take breaks all throughout the school year as well for vacations, etc. But then again, I still do school on days like Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, etc. And we wont take a Spring Break either.

 

So, it's kind of a "fly by the seat of my pants" type of deal LOL.

 

As for grades, I don't figure we will actually "switch" grades. I mean, if I feel like she's ready for first grade work in the middle of the year, I'll just switch books for that subject then. But she may still be doing K work in another subject. I'll officially start calling her "first grade" for outside purposes whenever the public school begins their new school year.

[Ellie]

Even though I've answered this before, I'll answer again. :-)

 

I figured there were 365 days in a year, which begins January 1 and ends December 31. I couldn't figure out a reason to have a different school year.

 

Our Official School Year started around the middle of January. We took off a couple of weeks in the spring, a couple of weeks in late August/early September, and Thanksgiving through January. We also took off any other random time as necessary, such as a trip to Disneyland in the middle of the week in March. :-)

 

We moved on to the next thing whenever we finished one or got tired of it. For the sake of grandparents and Sunday school teachers, we "promoted" in the fall, and on paper I kept the dc the grade levels they'd have been if they'd been in school, but they worked at whatever level they were capable of.

[Pretty in Pink]

We school year round. We take breaks whenever we want, I guess. Our breaks are pretty random and more for things like traveling or if daddy has some time off of work, the weather is exceptional, etc. If I'm feeling burned out I will plan a light week of just the 3 Rs rather than completely taking off. This works for us.

 

ETA: We move to the next level when we finish the one we're currently in. For example, my ds6 is nearly through Saxon Math 1 and will move directly into Saxon Math 2 (well, I'll probably give him a few days' respite, you know...).

[swellmomma]

We are starting this, just this month in fact. I have always wanted to start but then chickened out come summer. However, due to the amount of time we took off last term, and the fact we are moving to a new province with different regulations (much less of them actually), I decided that we are switching to a Jan-Dec schedule. We are schooling from last Monday until April 15 then taking 1 month off, starting again May 15 and going until Dec 1 and taking 1 month off. The year after we will switch to a 9 weeks on 1 week off schedule, but I need that month in april/may for the move and want to get a lot done between now and then, and again betwen may and dec. We will take mini breaks as needed in the "on" days, toss in field trips instead of books somedays etc, hopefully we will accomplish much more than we usually do with our past schedule. I plan to immediately start the next level of a book when we finish with the current one. My older kids are a little behind anyway so this will hopefully help them catch up, but even if they weren't I would just keep going at their pace. The exception will be if we are only a 1 or so away from a break, I may delay starting a new book until after we resume schooling.

[AngieW in Texas]

We go year-round, but summer is much lighter.

 

We take the same schoolyear vacations that the ps does (all the same one-day and one-week breaks). We take off the first and last weeks of summer break that the ps takes off.

 

Aside from that, we still do math every day just like always. We drop history and science to 2 or 3 days/week each (whichever has more left is done M/W/F, the other is done Tu/Th) until we finish them and then we drop that subject until the new schoolyear starts. My youngest still just spelling every day just like always. Anything else we have gets done either 3x/week or 2x/week until the current level is finished. Reading keeps going every day, but once we finish what I have planned for school, the required reading changes. The summer rules are that you have to read for one hour each day, but comic books and graphic novels don't count. Also, at least 30 minutes of that hour has to be something that you've never read before. You can't just keep re-reading all the same stuff you've already read a million times.

 

My youngest is re-reading for the first time in her life right now, but the rest of us re-read our favorites all the time.

 

My goal in the summer is to be finished by noon every day, preferably earlier.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

We used to go year round, when the kids were younger. We lived in a very hot place, and summers outside were miserable. We couldn't even go out until at least 6pm in the summer, so we just stayed in and did school. Plus, the kids were young, and not involved in many activities that were tied to the school schedule.

 

We started each school year in mid-July. We basically did six weeks on and one week off, except we took off two weeks at Christmas time, and two weeks in the spring or fall when we went on a trip somewhere.

 

We didn't pay much attention to finishing curriculum in a certain time frame. When we finished a book, we'd celebrate, take a day off that subject, then pick up the next level the next day. It worked really well for several years.

 

Then, we moved to a friendlier climate, and we have more summer activities that we enjoy (swimming, opera day camp, summer camp, etc). Plus, the kids are older and more involved in activities during the traditional school year that prevent us from traveling during those months. So, we've fallen into a more traditional school year ourselves.

[sweetTN]

When finished with one book, I used to give them 1-2 weeks off that subject before they began the next book in that subject. They thought it was a real treat not having to do a subject for a whole 1-2 weeks. :D

 

 

 

I love this! We hs year round, finishing up different subjects at different times. What a great way to have a 'break' without stopping school totally.

[Carrie12345]

We do our "official" schooling from Aug/Sept-May/June, covering all of the state requirements, but my kids and I don't like to take a full summer break. We continue with history, science and a lot of reading. It's basically school without seat work, or unschooling. :)

[mom4him]

if you do it, could you tell me your how many weeks on and off you do. . . when do you take breaks? when do you move to the next grade level?

 

TIA :)

We do year around school. We live in a town where there is a HUGE motorcycle ralley EVERY year. I try to have everything finished up that really determines grade level a couple of weeks before that begins(middle of July or so.) Right after the ralley we have had 3-4 weeks off and we start our new school year with mostly new curriculum. Many times it is a bit hit and miss for the first couple of months due to canning so we might only get 1 1/2 wks of school out of two. If we have gotten a good number of days in by Thanksgiving I like taking off from the week of Thanksgiving through the first of the year. Those two times are my two big breaks. Depending on how we are doing we might take the week just before Easter off also. We will take a day here or there for Dr appointments throughout the year but I try to keep them minimal.

There are some subjects that have to be completed before we are 'finished' in July. Math, English, Spelling and Phonics. If we aren't completed with history or science I just start up where I left off. This year I think we will be done with them though. I like to be finished with these two before June first as in June and what ever we need to go in July we do 1/2 day maybe 3-4 days a week. We also do this if we need to do school during that time between Thanksgiving and NewYears. Also if we take a day off for Dr or such I try to plan it so it is afternoon and we can still get in our core subjects.

I love doing our schedule this way as the kids don't ever have such a long break that they have forgotten things and it gives me the freedom to just 'take a day' once in a while if I need it.

[Haiku]

We go four weeks on, one week off year-round. We take two weeks at the end of June and two weeks at Christmas. We have a total of forty weeks. Our new year starts the Monday after July 4th.

 

Tara