9 weeks on/1 week off

[Hunter's Moon]

I planned to do 9 weeks of school, and then the tenth week, take it off.

 

How many people have done this or variations of this, and has it worked well?

 

The tenth week would be taken off to finish projects, books, chapters that weren't finished in time, tests, makeup days, etc.

[Susan C.]

I am wondering why you can't keep them caught up as you go. Homeschooling allows you to set your pace. My dd wouldn't want to have an old project creep up from a month ago (but we have actually done that when we keep going and the project doesn't). If you like your plan, and you have time to accomplish all you want to in a year, it would work if that is how you want to do it, though. I can sort of see wanting to keep a pace and know there is a space for catch up. Dd likes to write papers when she doesn't have anything else going, in fact, she pushed some of her papers to the end of the year, and just finished them.

 

Another thought is to take every other or every third Friday to do your catch up, then there wouldn't be 9 weeks time inbetween.

[Alyce]

By the time we were getting a little tired we'd take a week of to recharge. Our state suggests we school for 180 days. We start in July (july and Aug are our hot months so this works great) We work 6 on and 1 off till first week of Dec, take 3-4 weeks of for Xmas then back to 6 weeks on and 1 off till end of May and then take 6 weeks off for summer. This has been more than enough time for my highschoolers to keep track of their assignments. If we want to take a day off because of sickness or what ever we can always add the days to the Xmas break or Summer break.

[eumyang]

I remember reading an article many years ago about year-round schools. Students still attended for 180 days, but the days are more spread out. One popular example was the 45-15 plan, where students attend for 45 days and then get 3 weeks off, for each of the four seasons. Christmas break, Easter break, and federal holidays are still in the calendar. Maybe that's something to consider so that you'll have something to do during the summer. Sometimes I wish that all schools are year-round; however, I do realize that there are problems implementing this.

 

 

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[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

We do a 4 day school week. Typically we start right after July 4th and are done by Memorial Day so we only get about a month off in the summer (less if we take extra days during the school year) but I love it because I have a day a week to schedule all the things that interfere with school. It also prevents my students from getting behind as they have an extra day a week to finish anything they didn't get done. It would be better to not end up behind because that is going to affect the flow of your learning.

[Hunter's Moon]

We do a 4 day school week. Typically we start right after July 4th and are done by Memorial Day so we only get about a month off in the summer (less if we take extra days during the school year) but I love it because I have a day a week to schedule all the things that interfere with school. It also prevents my students from getting behind as they have an extra day a week to finish anything they didn't get done. It would be better to not end up behind because that is going to affect the flow of your learning.

 

Yeah, I really like the 4 day a week schedule and originally wanted to do it. Use it for doctor appts, field trips, tests, makeups, etc. But I am still trying to decide how many days I will be schooling since next year I will be 11th. I wanted to do year round but it seems a bit pointless since in Senior year I can't do it year round. Thanks everyone for all the ideas though.

 

If you don't mind me asking Cheryl in SoCal, I don't know if you had/have a Senior in high school, but if you did/do, how did you do the year round schooling?

[Dee in MI]

We shoot for 36 weeks a year. I begin a little before Labor day, but I don't start all subjects at once. I add one "hard" and one "easy" each week to ramp up gradually. We take a week off at Thanksgiving, and a couple weeks at Christmas. I also put the family trips on the calendar, consider when the public school breaks, and then look at what's left. If there are any stretches over seven weeks, I split them up. So we normally go seven weeks or less, and we finish up a little after Memorial day. The year tends to wind down a few subjects at time, too.

 

We don't take the summers completely off. We're doing language flashcards and some fun science, history, art, and possibly programming.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Yeah, I really like the 4 day a week schedule and originally wanted to do it. Use it for doctor appts, field trips, tests, makeups, etc. But I am still trying to decide how many days I will be schooling since next year I will be 11th. I wanted to do year round but it seems a bit pointless since in Senior year I can't do it year round. Thanks everyone for all the ideas though.

 

If you don't mind me asking Cheryl in SoCal, I don't know if you had/have a Senior in high school, but if you did/do, how did you do the year round schooling?

 

I don't mind at all:001_smile: I don't have a senior yet (my oldest will be in 10th next year) but we will be able to do year round when he is a senior. Why can't you do year round as a senior? We are required to have 180 days in our school year but there aren't any regulations as to when they need to be scheduled. Our ISP will require that seniors have their school year completed before their graduation ceremony (2nd Saturday in June) but if we filed our own affidavit we could end our school year whenever we wanted.

[Hunter's Moon]

Thank you. I began thinking of this after I posted. I've decided I'll start in middle/late July this year after review and then end July 8th. For Senior year, I'll end earlier though starting about the same time. Thank you :)

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Thank you. I began thinking of this after I posted. I've decided I'll start in middle/late July this year after review and then end July 8th. For Senior year, I'll end earlier though starting about the same time. Thank you :)

 

You're welcome:001_smile: How many days do you need to complete/school year? We have 180 and if we start in early July (like July 5th) we are done by the end of May if we don't take long breaks during the school year. I take off the week between Christmas Eve and New Years, take Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving off but those are the only real breaks we take. If we were to take a few longer breaks I'd start more mid-June so we would be done before the following June.

[Hunter's Moon]

You're welcome:001_smile: How many days do you need to complete/school year? We have 180 and if we start in early July (like July 5th) we are done by the end of May if we don't take long breaks during the school year. I take off the week between Christmas Eve and New Years, take Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving off but those are the only real breaks we take. If we were to take a few longer breaks I'd start more mid-June so we would be done before the following June.

 

 

We are required 180 days or 990 hours, whichever comes first.

 

The only reason I am starting mid/late July is because we aren't ordering anything until beginning/middle of June so I want to give everything time to get here.

 

I want atleast 40 weeks. I was aiming for 42 but maybe not. I want time to get ready for Senior year and everything.

 

I was planning on taking a week off every 7th week and then 1 week for Thanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas. I might change it up a bit though.

[Hunter's Moon]

This past year, I used four 9-week quarters with breaks in between. Best decision I ever made. One of the unexpected benefits was with planning the coursework. The quarters were like mini-school years, each with a chunk of the curriculum to complete, and goals to meet. I didn't feel like I had to plan the whole year out and just trudge through it day after day.

 

May I ask what breaks you took? As in how many weeks of schooling did you do and then take your break?

 

Also, unrelated to your post Fifiruth, I have to send a letter of intent to the school board for my Senior year, and along with that LOI, I have to send a progress report from my Junior year. If I schooled until the end of June and sent it then, do you think they would mind? They didn't tell me when to send them the progress report so should I not worry about it and let them do the worrying?

[Susan C.]

I know when my son graduated, there were drop dead deadlines for SATs and sending transcripts in. I would assume that is the same everywhere. The person you report to will know what they are. If you want to take breaks in your senior year, then you may need to start your school year eariler.

[Moira in MA]

I have to send a letter of intent to the school board for my Senior year, and along with that LOI, I have to send a progress report from my Junior year. If I schooled until the end of June and sent it then, do you think they would mind? They didn't tell me when to send them the progress report so should I not worry about it and let them do the worrying?

 

I typically send in my LOI in late July/early August. This allows work to be completed -- it sometimes extends into July despite the goal of July-June as the school year.

 

You may want to check out the AHEM website for the court cases that apply to homeschooling in MA.

 

Some MA homeschooling on yahoo groups -- mwhsers (metro west homeschoolers), masshomelearingassoc (ma state wide homeschoolers), hubhomeschoolers (Boston area)

 

In June a school district is most concerned with getting their own reports together. Besides, in MA after 16 schooling is optional, so what are they going to do?

 

HTH

~Moira in Ma

[Hunter's Moon]

I typically send in my LOI in late July/early August. This allows work to be completed -- it sometimes extends into July despite the goal of July-June as the school year.

 

You may want to check out the AHEM website for the court cases that apply to homeschooling in MA.

 

Some MA homeschooling on yahoo groups -- mwhsers (metro west homeschoolers), masshomelearingassoc (ma state wide homeschoolers), hubhomeschoolers (Boston area)

 

In June a school district is most concerned with getting their own reports together. Besides, in MA after 16 schooling is optional, so what are they going to do?

 

HTH

~Moira in Ma

 

Thank you for the advice.

 

I am just so confused as to how I am going to split up my school year. I think I am going to split it up into 4 10-week terms. I wanted to split it up into smaller chunks, maybe every 4th week, but splitting up the terms for the progress report would be confusing.

[Momofeat]

By the time we were getting a little tired we'd take a week of to recharge. Our state suggests we school for 180 days. We start in July (july and Aug are our hot months so this works great) We work 6 on and 1 off till first week of Dec, take 3-4 weeks of for Xmas then back to 6 weeks on and 1 off till end of May and then take 6 weeks off for summer. This has been more than enough time for my highschoolers to keep track of their assignments. If we want to take a day off because of sickness or what ever we can always add the days to the Xmas break or Summer break.

 

 

Our schedule is very similar to this.

[momofkhm]

I planned to do 9 weeks of school, and then the tenth week, take it off.

 

How many people have done this or variations of this, and has it worked well?

 

The tenth week would be taken off to finish projects, books, chapters that weren't finished in time, tests, makeup days, etc.

 

We do this. Except there tends to be no work done during the 10th week. :tongue_smilie:

 

It works fairly well for us. I get left over grading done. And all the copying for the next quarter done as well.

[Deb in NZ]

Why not split the year up into four 10 week term (having 5 days each term to take as needed.) This would still give you 8 weeks of no school (not counting the 5 days each term) & 36 weeks of school. 36 weeks school = 180 days. Also, break down what you plan to accomplish this year into four term-long assignments. This will give you short term goals, letting you know that you are on track. This can be as simple as dividing up the number of chapters / assignments in your math book by four.

 

If you need to send in progress reports, record how you are doing at the end of each term. This will make writing the big progress report at the end of the year a lot easier. Don't forget to record field trips, volunteer hours, sports / music / clubs / etc., work hours, & anything else. These things are quite valuable when it comes time to apply for tertiary education or jobs.

 

I plan for 40 weeks of class, but in NZ highschools have 190 days of school & primary schools have 193 days of class. HSers here aren't required to a certain number of days, but to simply teach "at least as regularly & as well as" the PS. By planning 200 days, I have given myself a few days up my sleeve for when life happens. If we stay on schedule many of our subjects are done for the year 4-5 weeks before the end of our year, giving us a lighter schedule as we head into the holiday season as our summer holidays are over December/January.

 

JMHO

[Alyce]

I don't know why you can't do year round schooling during senior year. I've graduated one and am graduating the other at the end of the month. I posted earlier that we school 6 on 1 off. We start mid July and finish end of May. My kids have plenty of time to do their work. If you are worried about your transcript you shouldn't be. When you apply to college they will ask you to send in a transcript but they know it isn't a final transcript. They use it as a guide to compare to other students who also don't have completed transcripts. Once the student has graduated you send the school the completed transcript. My dd did early application and didn't have any grades yet for the three courses she was taking at CC. It wasn't a problem. There really isn't any reason you can't school year round for the senior year. Many people do it.

[Hunter's Moon]

Thanks everyone for the help :D

[Rhonda in TX]

We did that this year. I really liked it and plan to do it next year as well. My kids aren't HS quite yet, but I can see that it could work. We started the first week of August, then took a break week after 9 weeks. We also took a week off for Thanksgiving. The second 9 weeks put us right up to Christmas break. We took 2 weeks off for Christmas. The next 9 weeks put us very close to Spring Break. We didn't take a whole week off, but it was definitely a light week. We then took Spring Break. We just finished on Friday. PS isn't out until June 4th, so there was still wiggle room in the schedule if we needed to go longer.

[Peela]

We do 40 weeks of school, with a few days of for public holidays here and there. Probably a solid 38 weeks in the end.

Its based on the school system- and it is 10 weeks on 2 weeks off, with a 7 week break at Christmas.

It really works well.

I need the solid 2 week break, myself. And I dont need as long as Americans often take over summer- 6-7 weeks is plenty for us. I could probably handle 4 weeks if I needed more school time. But I need the solid breaks from school to catch up on housework and time with dh. The dcs seems to need it too.

[Colleen in NS]

If I schooled until the end of June and sent it then, do you think they would mind? They didn't tell me when to send them the progress report so should I not worry about it and let them do the worrying?

 

I would find out when it is required. Here in NS, the progress report is due by June 30. I start writing mine up at the end of May/beginning of June, even if we are not done, so that I can get it in the mail. And because it is my responsibility. We are always pretty close to finishing what I have stated (in my yearly registration) we will do for the year. I do know of some people who, this past year, have gotten letters from our local DOE for not sending them in on time.

[jld]

We don't really plan breaks; they just happen. Schooling year round gives us so much flexibility. I couldn't do it any other way.:)

[ereks mom]

By the time we were getting a little tired we'd take a week of to recharge. Our state suggests we school for 180 days. We start in July (july and Aug are our hot months so this works great) We work 6 on and 1 off till first week of Dec, take 3-4 weeks of for Xmas then back to 6 weeks on and 1 off till end of May and then take 6 weeks off for summer. This has been more than enough time for my highschoolers to keep track of their assignments. If we want to take a day off because of sickness or what ever we can always add the days to the Xmas break or Summer break.

 

We follow this schedule pretty much except that my dc go to music camp and every summer and I always counted that as a week of school--they actually put more time in each day in music classes at camp than we spend on our academic work. Besides music camp, they usually also have a couple of additional weeks filled with activities that involve classes (Bible studies, VBS, drama camp, etc.) during June or July, and I count those as school days too. So instead of starting back in July, we usually start back the first week of August.