Anyone school ALL year?

[mlgbug]

Maybe its easier to do it with littles but, anyone not break? i mean for more than a week??

 

i dont plan on it. no point. Thats what i hate about PS, 2 months off, i remeber forgeting EVERYTHING :):tongue_smilie:

[G5052]

When they were younger, I found it easier to stretch things out over a whole year versus nine months. We could take time off when necessary, and were able to do a lot of field trips and park dates, swimming, etc.

 

Now that they're in middle school, I find that we follow a more traditional school year for most of their academics, and then I use the summer for doing art, more in-depth nature studies, and to work on any weak areas. They continue to do some math, either review or 1/2 lessons of the next level, a different program for their foreign languages, and a grammar review book. My older one pre-reads all of the literature for the academic co-op we're in because he does better keeping up with the pace if he's already read everything through once. It's different every summer, but much lighter.

 

I've had a few local homeschoolers all over me over this because our state only requires 180 days of instruction, but I'm not after the minimums.

[....]

We are schooling all year. Relatives thought we were weird. Oh well. Somebody told me that the first 6 weeks of ps is a review of the previous year. :D

[Sputterduck]

We school year round. But we also take breaks whenever we want.

[usetoschool]

We always have (since 1991 - and I doubt many here remember the Swans, whose philosophy got us started year round). It is just easier to stay in the routine (for me as well). We take some time off at Christmas and usually take a vacation or go visit family in the summer, but otherwise, it is just part of our daily routine. It keeps us moving, gets us ahead, gives us time to focus if we have trouble and lots of other reasons.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We school all year. School is part of our lifestyle. My kids will even get out "school" stuff on the weekends if they are really interested in something. But we do need and take breaks. That's only healthy!

[Goodallmomma]

We school all year round. Some subjects we are ahead from current grade and some we are behind. We just keeping going. Typically it's 4 or 5 weeks on, 1 week off. For major holidays we may take more then a week off.

[sparrow]

We school year round. But we also take breaks whenever we want.

 

 

This is what we do. It has worked well for us.

[Halcyon]

we school all year, but take breaks a lot and also ease up in August, when my boys go to 1/2 day camp.

[LibraryLover]

I think my definition of learning and school may be different...but we never stop learning (I had to say it! :D.) So yes, my kids do all sorts of things all year long.

 

Yes, that means maybe it's Geometry in July or vacationing in March. One of the best 'learning' activities my kids ever did was run by a fantastic Japanese woman --at EPCOT. Make fun and think it impossible, but i kid you not. ;) We've also done science programs in August. Marine biology makes a lot more sense in a warm tide pool.

Edited January 30, 2010 by LibraryLover

[ChristusG]

We will be schooling year around and taking a break whenever needed. I dont feel that a two month long summer break is necessary for us when schooling at home. We do not even take most holidays that the schools get.

[Melora in NC]

The longest we take off at a time is two weeks. My ds has a terrible time getting back to work after any longer than that.

[Guest janainaz]

We do year-round. 3 weeks on, 1 off. I love it and have no intention of changing any time soon.

[athena1277]

I have a friend who homeschools year round. She has a master plan to graduate them at 15 or 16. They just start the next level/year whenever they finish a level/year. Her dd started 3rd grade right after her 7th birthday. For comparison, my dd turned 7 halfway through 1st grade. I'm thinking we will do more than 180 days this year, but we will take at least a month off this summer.

[Corraleno]

We school year round. But we also take breaks whenever we want.

 

:iagree: That's us, too.

 

Jackie

[AngelBee]

We school year round. But we also take breaks whenever we want.

 

This is us.

[WeeBeaks]

We school year round, with a week off here and there for camps in the summer. It is a little harder, of course, because the kids in the neighborhood are knocking on the door early in the morning. We do a lighter schedule to still allow for plenty of summer fun activities.

 

My oldest has ADHD and anxiety disorder. He thrives on a consistent schedule, day in and day out, every day pretty much similar. Transitions are quite hard for him. He is much better when he knows exactly what to expect every single day, so that is how we do it. We school every day except Sunday, all year long. But we do less than we would each given day than if we only schooled 4 or 5 days a week for 9 months of the year.

[sarawatsonim]

I like the idea of schooling year round, it makes sense to me. That way I won't feel rushed to complete things by "summer vacation". I also think it would be beneficial so she doesn't forget everything over the summer. Since this is our first year and she is young, I probably will carry on throughout the summer. Then take off whenever we need to without having to worry we are falling behind.

[Georgiana Daniels]

We haven't reached a summer break yet with the K-er. But when we hs'd our oldest, we didn't take summers off. It's too much time without math (in particular). With the littles it might be even MORE important to keep up the skills without an 8-10 week break. Two weeks, tops, in my book.

[6packofun]

That's what we do, too. Never more than a week off would be too stifling for us...but it's usually not more than 2 weeks once or twice a year with other breaks of varying length depending on what we need.

[Renthead Mommy]

We started going year round this year. Originally it was because we had just moved back stateside. I had ordered our curriculum and had it sent to my FIL's house. So basically we had our suitcases, and our school books, and that was about it! LOL!

 

The neighborhood kids were still in school, and we didn't know any of them yet so my7yo was bored. Plus the homeschool groups were offering up events that i could count for 'school' time as well (things like first aid and art classes). I figured between things like that, field trips to places the Natural History Museum and others as friends came into town to visit and lack of anything else to do we should start.

 

I've also realized that it will make it so much easier when we move again (and agian and again! LOL!) And unfortunately due to the way my husband's program graduates and rotates, we are stuck moving during PCS season with everyone else, when we are the ones who would be so willing to do it off season and have it not bother us since we don't follow a regular school year schedule!

 

It's been a good decision. We have so many places to go and things to do here, we have plenty of time to do school and every field trip we want. We also ended up steping back a year in math. This year was going to be our fourth math program, and as we started it (Singapore) he was just confused as to how they presented things, as well as having forgotten so much from 1st grade math. So we backed up started with Singapore 1 and are getting ready to start Sinapore 2. We won't need to do all the review at the start of the 2nd grade book and that will hold true for future math books as well.

[WiseOwlKnits]

I don't plan on ever stopping. After we take a break for any length of time, it's harder for all of us to get back on track. After Christmas break, DH and I decided we wouldn't be stopping any longer for breaks. Even when they get older, I don't plan on stopping.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We do. We took a summer break this year because of an unexpected trip back to MN, and we regret the time off. It was too hard to get back into the routine of school. We love to take breaks when we need to and just go all year. Works better for our lifestyle.

[Whereneverever]

We school all year, but the focus shifts. And we do take breaks- I'm planning one whenever this baby shows up. ;)

[radiobrain]

Yes. That is all.

[Dawn in OH]

We school year round. But we do a "lighter" version in the summer so that we can get out and enjoy outdoor activities. It's Cleveland, so much of the year is cold and keeps us indoors. We don't really do cold.

 

We take breaks when I need them. In 2008 we took off from Thanksgiving to New Years. This year we only took 2 weeks off in December, but will be taking a long break in April and May as the baby is due April 15th.

[prairiegirl]

We have always schooled year round. This is what kept my sanity when I became sick in the fall and we missed two months of school. I kept thinking that we will make this up in the summer and I didn't have any guilt about missing so much time.

[Impish]

I planned to last summer...but got derailed. I plan to again this summer...we'll see how it goes :lol:

[jld]

I'm of the "Learning All the Time" school of thought. Like others have said, homeschooling is a way of life for us. I consider the time my kids spend reading Cricket magazine or attending an Indian Republic Day ceremony just as valuable as the time they spend doing math or SOTW.

 

Mostly I encourage them to use their time wisely. Dd14 is no problem, but the times I get upset with ds10 are when I don't think he is using his time wisely, or at least not as wisely as I think he could. For example, he may read a French comic book (Asterix, let's say), but I'd rather see him reading a French novel. Both are good, I guess, but I don't consider Asterix to be the same level of schoolwork as a novel.

 

But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

[ezrabean2005]

We school year round. But we also take breaks whenever we want.

 

This is what we do. It's very much built into our lifestyle / normal day. Not that we love the work all the time (yesterday comes to mind), but we do have fun chatting and doing the work together. It has become a nice time to spend together, working hard and helping each other. We school year round, six days a week. Our day off is Thursdays. We do really enjoy our day off :)

 

We've always done it this way though. Our kids are 12, 10, 9, and 4.

[LittleIzumi]

Yup, all year except when we are physically ON vacation (and we still went to the science museum :lol:). I do have littles though, so it's very flexible. It's hard to keep dd from learning, LOL. This week it's Volcano Week, since she spotted some volcano books at the library. She will bring them up to read over them or look at them on her own and look up pictures and ask to make a volcano, and tell dh about them (narration!) every day, on her own.

[mom4him]

Maybe its easier to do it with littles but, anyone not break? i mean for more than a week??

 

i dont plan on it. no point. Thats what i hate about PS, 2 months off, i remeber forgeting EVERYTHING :):tongue_smilie:

I school year around but we do take a 3 wk break in the summer and at least that around Christmas time. I really need the breaks at that time. The summer one to get everything organized for the next school year and at Christmas just to get everything done that is needed. I also take a week at Thanksgiving and one at Easter.

It took me a couple of years to really figure it out and get into a schedule.

You will find the 'right' for you and your family.

[chaik76]

We school year round but take breaks when we want...which might be as short as two days or as long as three weeks. My oldest doesn't seem to have any retention problems and often makes big leaps when we are on breaks, though.