if you school year round...

[mrs.m]

Will you please share your weeks on/off schedule? :bigear:

 

I'm thinking about taking this approach and was surprised that my kiddos are ok with doing school in the summer. :001_huh: But I need some time off and it feels like it happens about every 6-8 weeks. So I'm thinking I might work better with a year round schedule?

 

If you tried it and didn't like it, please let me know why. :bigear:

[Samiam]

We do year-round, but don't really have a weeks off/weeks on schedule. We always take the time around Christmas through New Years off. But usually only stop the day before Christmas Eve...not that whole week.

 

We take about two weeks off at the end of June/begin of July...that's the end of our year, break before next "year" begins. Other than that...we just take time off when we want to. Birthdays are always off if they fall on a weekday. I don't like have a set schedule but enjoy just taking the day off when we or I need to with no guilt because I know we have plenty of time to finish.

 

If we need a week off for bible camp, so be it. If we need a day off to go to the beach, so be it. If we have worked steady for two-three weeks in a row, then I am not hestitant to take a day off here or there whenever we need to.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

When we schooled year round, I followed a general six week on, one week off schedule. I'd start mid July. We'd take a week off at the beginning of Sept, and another late in October. We'd take off two full weeks in December. Then, a week off in the beginning of Feb, again in mid late March. After our last week off in late April, we'd work until mid-June, then take a whole month off from mid-June to mid-July, then we'd start up again.

 

We'd also take off if anyone had a birthday, or if we wanted to take a long weekend, or if we wanted to go to the zoo, or holidays that Dad had off work. It all worked out to about 172 days a year.

Edited April 14, 2010 by Suzanne in ABQ

[tampamommy]

Our schedule -

 

Beginning of June - start on a part-time basis. In past years, I chose 2-4 days per week. This year, because of sports involvement, I will move to one week on (5 straight days), one week off, to coincide with our other plans. It won't be absolutely precise, but it doesn't need to be. We continue this schedule until after Labor Day.

 

Post Labor Day - full-time (5 days/week)

 

Generally three weeks off for Christmas holiday time

 

Then full-time until mid-April.

 

Oh, my! That means we are about to finish up! Yes...final exams this week. :D

 

Then off full-time until the beginning of June. We have a little vocabulary to finish up, and the dc will continue Great Books reading, but this is our "big" break.

 

I've used this schedule for three years now. It's worked great for our family. It allows for sudden medical appointments, helping out family/friends unexpectedly, spontaneous occasional days off, and LIFE in general...which doesn't always go as planned. :) Additionally, it lets us enjoy our nicest time of year outside.

 

My dc are finishing 7th grade (ds 13) and 5th grade (dd 11).

 

There are lots of different ways to do year-round schooling. I tried many approaches that just didn't work out right for us, for a variety of reasons. This schedule seems to mesh with our lives very well. I would encourage you to choose a schedule you think will work with your family. If it doesn't, feel free to change it. You will hit upon just the right one for you!

[Tidbits of Learning]

Most public schools that year round do 9 weeks (1 quarter) then have a 2 week intersession plus their days off for holidays. I googled 2010-2011 year round school and found a lot of calendars. I am using one for our schedule for next year.

We have a year round school in the area so I can cheat from their calendar and then the kids also have off the same days as their public school counterparts. We don't get much work done if ps is out. Also my kiddos cousins go to the year round school so it is nice for them to have the same holidays.

I like to have a little break as most year round schools get off 6 weeks for summer and don't actually attend any more days than traditional schools. I like that I didn't have to figure out a calender or figure out start/stop times for quarters. All that I had to do was find one that started about when I want to start our school year and printed it and put the dates in homeschool tracker.

I guess I just cheat off of the public schools year round calendar. :tongue_smilie:

[Forget-Me-Not]

I plan to do the following

 

September through November with a week off in October. Take the entire month of December off. January through March with a week off in Feburary. Take the entire month of April off. May through July with a week off in June. Take the entire month of August off.

[asta]

When we're sick of one another.

 

When dad gets some time off.

 

When the sun is shining (it doesn't shine a lot).

 

 

a

[nd293]

I LOVE our schedule. We work 4 weeks on, 1 week off, with the two remaining weeks of the year used as extra holiday weeks. Our summer holiday is in December, and it is worth saying that it was very difficult to keep to schedule when everyone was off and the weather was great. We ended up taking an extra week off, then working 8 weeks straight, which after a nice long break, actually felt OK.

 

This year we will allow for the summer holiday feeling with a 4 week break. I anticipate continuing on our schedule through to December, then tacking our 2 extra holiday weeks on after the last block for 3 weeks of holiday. Then we'll take the first week of January (i.e. the new school year for us) off, and work 8 weeks before our first break.

 

That sounds a little incoherent, but the point is you might want to juggle things a little so you get a bit of a longer break in summer, but otherwise the system works fabulously. At least for us!

 

Nikki

[Time4tea]

We would just pick which days during the week we had available. I didn't want to tell dd she couldn't do something with her friends because of schoolwork. It wasn't that we didn't complete the number of days, so we didn't have to worry about doing so many days in the summer. I schooled just math and reading the summer so that the skills would be retained and to play a little catch-up. It was a very relaxed sort of thing, maybe an hour in the morning.

[lionfamily1999]

One week off a month, to be taken as needed. Then, we have four more weeks off to take in case of emergency. We took last week off, because the weather was too beautiful to do school :p

[Closeacademy]

We do 4 day weeks year round. Sometimes Friday counts because playgroup does involve physical activity and socialization and once in a while nature studies since we are at a park where the children can play in the wetlands area.:001_smile:

 

1 week off between January and April:

This year we did do a spring break but most years we do not or it gets used up as a sick week.

 

2-4 weeks off in May:

This is our "summer break." The weather is great and my dh and I have a large trip with his company every year. It takes my dc a while to get back into the swing of things after a week with grand-ma so I take some time to do school paperwork like goals and progress reports and prepping the new year since they move up in grade in June.

 

1 week off in July:

Sometimes we take this and sometimes we don't it all depends on when the 4th falls and how late we stay up.

 

1 week in September:

Labor day week is usually just a catch-up or week off.

 

Slow-down in November:

after Halloween we start to finish up a lot of our work for the year. The kids can't focus, they have forgotten everything and they are too overwhelmed and excited by the holidays--Halloween, a birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

2-3 weeks at Christmas:

We like time off to just relax, enjoy Christmas and besides they've got the focus of gnat by now.

 

Hope this helps.:001_smile:

[Paisley Hedgehog]

..

[Wee Pip]

I simply cannot stick to a set schedule: wish I could! Seems like we're always operating in "emergency mode". For instance, we keep schooling until the house absolutely must get clean, and then we might take a day off to clean. Or when I absolutely must run errands out of the house all day. Or now with a baby when I absolutely must get some sleep (which is happening way more frequently than I'd like). This year with the baby seems like one big long run of "emergency mode". We're having a lot of shortened days of school (math only, or math + 1 other subject). That said, I'm still bumping the kids up a grade level in the fall, whether we finish our books or not. We work thru every summer, but also take beach, park, & playdate days off as they arise.

[iquilt]

We do year-round, but don't really have a weeks off/weeks on schedule. We always take the time around Christmas through New Years off. But usually only stop the day before Christmas Eve...not that whole week.

 

We take about two weeks off at the end of June/begin of July...that's the end of our year, break before next "year" begins. Other than that...we just take time off when we want to. Birthdays are always off if they fall on a weekday. I don't like have a set schedule but enjoy just taking the day off when we or I need to with no guilt because I know we have plenty of time to finish.

 

If we need a week off for bible camp, so be it. If we need a day off to go to the beach, so be it. If we have worked steady for two-three weeks in a row, then I am not hestitant to take a day off here or there whenever we need to.

 

I am trying for this - I hate that I've felt the need to recreate a school calendar in our homeschool and am trying to relax my approach.

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

We are doing 3 weeks on/ 1 week off. I end up with 4 extra weeks to use during summer or at Christmas.

[Mommee & Baba]

We average about 1 week off a month. I take the lessons much lighter in the summer months...as we only really focus on math and reading. However once the regular public school months begin we begin full force our science, history, penmanship and the likes back up. However we'll do a project or two during the summer months but we garden and so that takes alot of our time and we have the kids involved with it! Math and Reading to us so far is what the kids need some more fine-tuning in.

[sparrow]

We don't have a set schedule. We school year round so I don't have to do that :D. We take time off as needed and it has worked well for us since beginning in 2004.

[lllll]

...

Edited December 17, 2012 by ksva

[Haiku]

We go four weeks on, one week off, year-round.

 

Tara

[jenn-]

We school year round but with no set schedule. We take vacations and random days off as needed. I do switch to school "lite" as DD finishes up one years school work until July 1st which is the officially start of our new school year.

[CalicoKat]

originally we started out 3 on, 1 off. But then we'd get sick just after our week off and have to take the following 2 weeks off to recuperate.

 

So now we school year round and take time off for life/illness as needed.

 

A day here, a week or two there, but we always get back on schedule when the drama is over. January/February/March is always a particulary tough time with illness here so we didn't get much schooling done then. It's hard at the time but I keep reminding myself that we "make it up" in the summer months.

[mrs.m]

Thank you! I appreciate all your responses! You have given me a few different ways to approach it. And it might be best to have school year round and take time off when we need it. The past few weeks have been difficult because everyone has been sick and my grandfather passed away. And we took the public school scheduled Spring Break since DH was off work. And the weather is so nice the kids want to be outside! So we haven't been getting as much done as I would like to.

 

What's difficult with our schedule is all the fun homeschool activities that exist during the "school year". Non-school activities really slows down in the summer! We hit the main subjects (math & language arts) everyday and I'm not feeling behind in those areas for the most part but I sure feel behind in Science and History. I was thinking about working on those over the summer weeks.

 

I knew that if I posted here, I would get a lot of great ideas! Thank you! And keep the responses coming. :)

[mrs.m]

I found this thread too: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168925&page=2

 

Sorry, I didn't check for a discussion before I posted. It must be on homeschooler's minds since we are approaching summer.

[sparrow]

T

 

What's difficult with our schedule is all the fun homeschool activities that exist during the "school year". Non-school activities really slows down in the summer! We hit the main subjects (math & language arts) everyday and I'm not feeling behind in those areas for the most part but I sure feel behind in Science and History. I was thinking about working on those over the summer weeks.

 

 

We get the most work done in the summer/fall months. Part of the reason is that we own a seasonal business and dh is home during the winter months. It seems we never get as much done when he's home for some reason:). Summer and science go together for us!

Edited April 14, 2010 by sparrow

[lionfamily1999]

Thank you! I appreciate all your responses! You have given me a few different ways to approach it. And it might be best to have school year round and take time off when we need it. The past few weeks have been difficult because everyone has been sick and my grandfather passed away. And we took the public school scheduled Spring Break since DH was off work. And the weather is so nice the kids want to be outside! So we haven't been getting as much done as I would like to.

 

What's difficult with our schedule is all the fun homeschool activities that exist during the "school year". Non-school activities really slows down in the summer! We hit the main subjects (math & language arts) everyday and I'm not feeling behind in those areas for the most part but I sure feel behind in Science and History. I was thinking about working on those over the summer weeks.

 

I knew that if I posted here, I would get a lot of great ideas! Thank you! And keep the responses coming. :)

I revamped our schedule for the nice weather. I figure, the hours between noon and three we'll need to be indoors anyway (to avoid too much sun exposure), so I planned a schedule to use those hours...

 

8am - Kids up, devotions, breakfast and bike ride

11am - Grammar, Writing

11:30am - Math

12pm - Latin

12:30pm - Science, History, or Art

1pm - Lunch and bike ride

2pm - Spelling, Reading

2:30pm - Greek

3:00pm - Science, History or Art

 

Ds is out by the time the ps kids get home, but he gets 2 1/2 hours of the morning to play and this way (I hope) our schooling during the summer won't be too hard on his social life ;)

 

We still take one week off a month (with those four extras floating around just in case).

[JoyfulMama]

I broke the calendar into 6 "terms", 2 months each. In each of those terms we aim for 6 weeks of school, depending. How they fall in there is flexible. I anticippate that we will take specific days off (birthdays, vacation, holidays), but also recognize that there are going to be some field trips with other groups, incredible days we need to be outside (in snow and in sun), and some days when we need to put all on hold for illness or family emergencies.

This seems to work well for us. Now mind you that I calculate our days of school at home for planning differently than I do the days we report school to the district. Field trip days and outside days are still counted as school days to the district, as learning was more hands-on those days.

[Lindy]

I consider our schedule year-round, but I don't necessarily follow anything specific. I tried the 6 weeks on/1 off routine for a bit but found we'd get into a great groove and it would be time to stop. So I give myself permission to do 180 days of school in 365 days.

 

For us, it looks like this: We break from Thanksgiving to New Years and any day that the weather is between 70-75 degrees (a few weeks in the spring and fall). Summer is so hot here that we might as well get a jumpstart on our new year.

[lotsofpumpkins]

We don't have a set number of weeks on/off; instead, we school for 4 days a week, and then we just take off for holidays/birthdays/vacations/birth of new baby whenever we feel like it. So far this has worked out fine and it has been taking us a full calendar year to complete our subjects each year. I haven't added up how many days we are actually doing schoolwork because we aren't required to in our state. My dh has Fridays off from work, so that is why we like to have a 4-day school week. Some Fridays we go somewhere, but many times we do not. Many of the days that we are "off" from school I could actually count as school if I had to keep an attendance record because I think that all of the gardening and canning we do in the spring/summer is very educational! :)

 

So, in a nutshell, we school year-round, but we don't follow a calendar or schedule. We keep it very flexible and so far it's working out fine. We started our school year in late May of 2009, and we will be finishing all of our current levels up in mid- to late-May of 2010. So, it worked out perfectly.

[Ellie]

Our school year began January 1 and ended December 31...just like the "real" year.:D

 

We took off a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter; a couple of weeks off in late August/early September, and Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. And we took off any other random times as needed (such as, "Man, we haven't been to Disneyland lately! It's the middle of week in March! Let's go today!")

 

Otherwise, we just kept our regular schedule, which included a trip to the library every Wednesday and a field trip every Thursday, all year-round. I "promoted" in the fall to keep Sunday school teachers and grandparents happy; but we moved on to the next thing when we finished what we were doing.

 

I remember so clearly being disoriented after my high school graduation because I was already working and wasn't going to have the whole summer off.:glare: It was one of the reasons I didn't want my dc to think the September-through-May-or-June school year to be ingrained in their psyches.

[lionfamily1999]

Our school year began January 1 and ended December 31...just like the "real" year.:D

 

We took off a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter; a couple of weeks off in late August/early September, and Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. And we took off any other random times as needed (such as, "Man, we haven't been to Disneyland lately! It's the middle of week in March! Let's go today!")

 

Otherwise, we just kept our regular schedule, which included a trip to the library every Wednesday and a field trip every Thursday, all year-round. I "promoted" in the fall to keep Sunday school teachers and grandparents happy; but we moved on to the next thing when we finished what we were doing.

 

I remember so clearly being disoriented after my high school graduation because I was already working and wasn't going to have the whole summer off.:glare: It was one of the reasons I didn't want my dc to think the September-through-May-or-June school year to be ingrained in their psyches.

Yes! Exactly!

[Sara in AZ]

We are doing 3 weeks on/ 1 week off. I end up with 4 extra weeks to use during summer or at Christmas.

 

This is what we have been doing, also. I love it because three weeks of planning at a time is a manageable chunk for me. We can hit the library once a month and get all the books we need for the next three weeks. I can plan on one week a month for scheduling other things we need to do...doctors appointments, etc. We modify it occasionally, two weeks off at Christmas, two weeks off for a vacation last October, two weeks off when relatives came to town combined with spring break last month. Also, we only school 4 days a week and we will still be finishing up all of our work on time. Of course my kids are still young. I don't plan on this schedule working indefinitely.

[Desert Rat]

Our school year begins the third week of August. We school 5 days a week with no days off for holidays like Veteran's Day. Our first break starts the week of Thanksgiving and lasts through New Years. We're in the desert so this works best for outside play because it's too hot in the summer. Then, we take one week in February and one in May for the boys' birthdays. Finally, 2 weeks in August so I can prep for the new school year.

That's a total of 42 weeks. The last 6 are light weeks with review and fun projects.

HTH

[skaterbabs]

we do "school lite" during the summer, but do school year round. They get a week off for Thanksgiving and three for Christmas, but they are the weeks preceding the holiday rather than after. They're back to work the Monday after Christmas.

 

We don't usually have an official "spring break", instead if the weather is really nice, we go out and enjoy it. This year we are having spring break because I went to an out-of-state conference and left the family at home. :lol: I just got in late Tuesday night, so we'll get back to work next week. I suspect if we had out of town guests or whatever on Easter, we'd have a longer break then.

Edited April 15, 2010 by skaterbabs
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