year round schooling?

[nknapp5]

Wondering how everyone does their hs year? Do you go year round and take off a couple weeks here and there? Do you go the normal school year? Trying to decide what I want to do and what would be best for my kid.

[Snickerdoodle]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

[Mom2J112903]

Yep, just like the pp. We started just two weeks ago and already had to take almost a week off due to illness/hospital stay. If we tried to follow the school system's calendar, it just would not work for us. So, we will school year around, including weekends, if needed.

[melissel]

Wondering how everyone does their hs year? Do you go year round and take off a couple weeks here and there? Do you go the normal school year? Trying to decide what I want to do and what would be best for my kid.

 

I make my plans for a normal school year and then just take time off as we need to. I use an Excel spreadsheet for planning, so I just bump everything over as needed.

 

There have actually been a few great threads on this recently, with tons of good advice. If I can find them, I'll link them for you.

 

ETA: Here's a good one:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178310

 

And here's another good discussion on the K-8 board--lots of veteran wisdom there:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176634

 

Good luck!

Edited June 25, 2010 by melissel

[homeschoolally]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

 

We do this as well, with a long Christmas break. I offer a "Spring Break" incentive for finishing each grade--which has been a great motivator for everyone--I need the push myself. Although I love the occassional summer day off, we've found that sitting around all summer doesn't work for us. We'd rather take the time off when the weather isn't so hot.

[Susan in TX]

Right now, we school 4 days a week, year round. I don't really "plan" for any time off. We take days off when we are sick, or when various crisis occur. We took off a week in June for VBS, and we don't do school when dh has off work, which is most major holidays. We usually take off a week at Thanksgiving and a few weeks at Christmas.

 

Susan in TX

[Lara in Colo]

We are starting on Monday and easing into school, yet keeping summer.

 

1hr/day first week (math)

2hr/day second week (math & latin &spelling)

3hr/day third week (add LA)]

do this until labor day every day (during the hot part of the day when I won't let them play

 

After LD 3wkon/1wk off full time (5-6 hrs a day)

 

I'm hoping this lets me get a handle on each subject before moving on to the next thus (hopefully) eliminating the "biting off more than I can chew" factor.

 

Lara

[2cents]

I have a spreadsheet with 'floating weeks' the we use for for summer travel, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, Testing and misc. If our time off falls at a different time, we just swap in one of the floating weeks.

[sparrow]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

 

Ah, yes. This is us and it is WONDERFUL. I can't imagine doing school any other way :001_smile:.

[Starr]

We also take time off when needed. It all gets done by the next school year somehow. :) If we are home all day in the summer we do school part of it. It still leaves plenty of free time.

[gingersmom]

This is our first summer attempting year round school.

 

The verdict is still out.

 

Since June 1st we have done only 10 days of school. One week of vacation and one week of camp so far.

 

We will have 2 more weeks of school before another week of camp.

 

I'm hoping to do about 30+ days of school this summer.

[nknapp5]

Has anyone went school year schedule and found their kids forgot alot and decided year round was the better way to go?

[MorganClassicalPrep]

We do year round. My plan for this year is:

 

June 7-August 29 "in school". What I've found so far is we typically do at least one school activity a day, 7 days a week, with a couple days being longer. This is all at the discretion of DD, if she starts to feel overwhelmed or starts showing signs of overload we'll pull back. (And sometimes that one activity is just an art activity or PE thing!)

 

August 30-September 12 - take off. I will start back to classes during this time and I'll also use this time to plan our next "semester".

 

September 13-December 13 - in school, doing 3-4 day weeks and taking the week of Thanksgiving off.

 

December 14-January 2 - off for my finals, Christmas, and planning.

 

January 3-30, in school.

 

January 31-Feb 13 - off for my first two weeks of the new semester and planning

 

Feb 14-May 8 - in school. This will be the end of our year.

 

May 9th-June 5th -off for my finals and planning

 

June 6th- starting the new year

 

I have no idea how many days this works out to be, since we don't have to report this year. But while I'm in school we will only be doing school 3-4 days a week, and take liberal time off for not feeling well, playing outside weather, visiting grandparents when we can, etc.etc.

[dsmith]

While the ps is in session, we do full school days (usually 4 hrs or so), but take days off as needed to go on business trips with dh, or extra time at the holidays. Over the summer we do about 2 hrs a day except for a few business trips, 2 planned vacations, and various day trips.

[zookeeperof3]

We school all year with the following breaks.

Illness:tongue_smilie: as needed!

A week in March or April for family vacation.

The two weeks before Easter for seasonal crafts and Church things.We do only Math & LA.

The month of June to finish testing and so Mom can plan.

A week in Sept for family vacation.

Thanksgiving week for family celebrations and crafts.

The month of December , so we can spend a lot of time on our Advent crafts/Church celebrations/family gatherings. We do Math & LA this month but that's it.

 

All together we take off about 12 weeks per year. We don't do ANY school work ONLY during family vacations and the month of June.

Kim

[kalanamak]

I map out what I need to cover each month, and the rest is sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul. We "work ahead" as able, to allow for vacation and sick time.

[nd293]

I aim for 40 weeks of school. We work 4 weeks on, 1 week off, which gives us 2 extra weeks to take off in summer (added to the normal 1-week-off at the end of that cycle gives us 3 weeks of holiday).

[gpsings]

We take a week off here and there, and I take PMS days. It works. ;)

[mom4him]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

:iagree:Yup. this is what we do also. I do a lighter schedule in the summer.

[KarenNC]

This is our first summer attempting year round school.

 

The verdict is still out.

 

Since June 1st we have done only 10 days of school. One week of vacation and one week of camp so far.

 

We will have 2 more weeks of school before another week of camp.

 

I'm hoping to do about 30+ days of school this summer.

 

Well, much depends on how you define "school." I count camp as part of school (now I don't have to turn in a specific number of days or hours to the state, but this is in my recordkeeping). This summer, my daughter has been to a 3.5 day cyber camp with the Girl Scouts and will be doing a 3.5 day cooking camp and a week long more traditional GS camp with an emphasis on learning about Canada. She does as much educational work there as we usually do at home. Now the cooking camp is only 3 hours per day, so we will likely do some additional work those days. The other camps are full day. We also count days on weekends or vacations where we are doing educationally-related activities (something that would be considered a "field trip" like going to a cultural festival, visiting historic sites or museums, etc). I consider the time we do our required state testing to definitely be part of "school." Her time in aikido classes and the twice a year seminars are part of her PE, as is swim team in May and June.

 

Overall, we just keep going. We take breaks when my husband is off work, when we want/need to, most of our vacation time with my inlaws and frequently on park days with our homeschool group in the spring and fall. For this summer, since my daughter has a new neighborhood friend who is in ps, we will likely do somewhat lighter schedules on the weeks she is here (she is one week here, one with her mom) or work the schedule around to allow for a bit more playtime those weeks.

Edited June 25, 2010 by KarenNC

[Jyniffrec]

I have decided in the last few weeks that we are going to be year rounders. I am doing the subjects during summer that we couldn't fit in during the traditional school year and am finishing up what we didn't quite get to (in history mostly). I think it is going to work really well for us.

[CandaceC]

Year round = school when we want to with no worries! :D

 

Generally we schol 3-4 days per week...and take off a week here and there due to vacation, sickness, etc.

 

I love schooling this way!!

[4besitos]

We are not a full schedule year round....but I do not like to have the summer totally free. We start our year in the middle of August, this allows us to take off the entire month of December with no schedule adjustments. June, we don't end up getting much school done. That is CAT test time, the Curriculum sale I organize, HS conferences and used book sales....plus I teach 1 week of VBS. I have the school age proper children continue reading & math plus this summer we are squeezing in some science. We have lots of outdoor time (get some extra CM outdoor time in if the rain ever stops) and camping trips.

 

I took summer off last year....but found it was more challenging in August to get back in the swing of things. And there did need to be a little review time to get the brains back in gear.

[*Jessica*]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

Ah, yes. This is us and it is WONDERFUL. I can't imagine doing school any other way :001_smile:.

:iagree:

[Violet Crown]

We don't exactly schedule year-round, but we reverse the year.

 

We take a break from Thanksgiving to New Year's, when dh's academic schedule is crazy (squeeze in those last lectures between Thanksgiving and Christmas! Extend those office hours for the students who haven't paid any attention all semester! Turn in those grades before the break! Fly off to the yearly conference as soon as the gifts are unwrapped! etc.) and I'm basically a single mom doing all the holiday preparation. We work like dogs in the summer when it's 100+ and nobody wants to play outside.

 

We also have a 6-day lesson week, with no work Sundays, feast days, or slacker days.

[FriedClams]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

 

This system has worked so well for us. We've had a slack month - camp, travel, etc. but I know we'll be back on track Monday. For my kids, I find the transitions to school work easier than taking huge blocks off.

[Closeacademy]

We do 4 day weeks. I count 1 Friday a month as school because we have playgroup that day and it counts as gym, recess and lunch. They learn how to socialize and interact with other children and all the skills that involves such as cooperation, negotiation, teamwork, etc.

 

Our year looks like this:

 

January to April is winter/spring semester and we have 1 week off for spring break.

 

We take the month of May off for vacations and summer break. The weather is nice in May not too hot, not too cold.

 

June to August is summer semester and we either do 1 week of VBS or take off a week at the 4th of July.

 

September to December is Fall semester. We take off:

Labor day week

Halloween week--sometimes

Thanksgiving week.

 

We only do 2-3 weeks of school in December and we focus on Christmas during that month. We finish up any math/spelling/phonics work and do a Christmas unit. All other subjects are dropped until after the New Year.

 

We've been doint it this way for 5 years. Hope this helps.:001_smile:

[Jody]

We school year around too! I think it helps to make it part of life. We take off around the holidays and than when we need too. Like this past winter my mother died, so we could take off. If we didn't do year around, it would have been harder to make that up. I was glad we started year around.

[Medieval Mom]

We school for 40 weeks, which allows us one week "off" per month.

 

I actually schedule our year for 36 weeks, which gives us four weeks for catch-up, rabbit trails, field trips, out of the box actvities, etc. We may take off a couple weeks back to back: the last week of December and the first week of January, for example. Or, if we are on a roll, we just keep going, "banking" our free weeks for a longer vaction in the warmer months when relatives come for an extended visit.

[prairiegirl]

I don't schedule our time off, we just take days off when we need to. I have never been so thankful for year round schooling as I have this past year. Last Sept. I had cancer and the next few months were pretty much write-offs academically. The thought that we could make it up during the summer kepts me from going insane.

 

During the summers we usually keep up with the basics about 3 days a week and then do something fun for the content subjects. This year we are doing the Further Up and Further In unit study on the Chronicles of Narnia. It is giving us a much-needed change from the rest of the year.

[Julie in AZ]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

 

This is what we do too. My dh travels for work so we often take days off when he's home.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We school year round. We take time when we need it with about a month off in the summer (usually a little less) and about a month off at the holidays. I love the flexibility we get with this schedule. There isn't the pressure to get it all done in 9 months. We just flow.

[artchristie]

Year round and take days off guilt free when needed.

:iagree:

Has anyone went school year schedule and found their kids forgot alot and decided year round was the better way to go?

We started math and phonics in the summer when AJ was a K'er to keep the skills - so yes

 

Our schedule in the fall is so crazy with co-ops and sports. It just made sense to me to lighten the school day during our crazy times and expand it into the "I'm bored" days of summer. We take days off when we want/need to. Honestly with hubby's illness and my health is so-so this is the only way to school for us.

 

I do this:

Mon/Wed - Math/Science

Tue/Thur - Language Arts/History

Mon-Fri - Bible, Latin, Memory work, reading, spelling, handwriting, math facts

 

Once a month we take a week for left-overs (a suggestion of a friend of mine) where I introduce no new information but we review weak areas. It is a relaxing week for us. We review memory work and enjoy a lighter school day.

 

One thing my dd does not like about year round schooling is she was afraid her ps friends would think she failed school and had to go to summer school. So we call it "summer reading program". She actually has a longer, more creative name for it but that's basically what it is.

[AngieW in Texas]

We've always done school year-round, but the way we do it and the reasons have changed over the years.

 

We started off working through the summers pretty much like the regular schoolyear. We did school year-round 4 days/week (always took off Fridays) and took occasional one-week breaks. It actually worked out to not much more than 36 weeks/year. If you do all your schoolweeks at 4 days/week, it will take 45 weeks to work through a 36 week program. That allows for 7 weeks off. Aside from a 2-week break at Christmas, we never took off more than one week at a time.

 

Seven years ago we moved to an actual neighborhood for the first time. Before this, all playdates were arranged because we didn't have any kids where we lived. Once there were actually kids outside playing in the summers, working through the summer just like the schoolyear wasn't an option anymore. I started partially following the ps calendar. When the ps took breaks, we did too. The except was summer. We still did school in the summer, just lightly. Once we finished our history and science, we dropped it for the summer. Most other stuff we did dropped to 2-3x/week. This meant that we could be done with school in about half the time during the summer. We still took a full week off at the beginning and end of the summer and often took a week off somewhere in the middle too.

 

Now I have two kids in high school. For them, summer is a great time to work on electives to lighten up their load during the schoolyear. My 17yo is finishing up her physics and math programs and taking Digital Imaging at the cc. She'll do almost everything at the cc next year. My 14yo is finishing up her biology program. Aside from that she is working through a Python course, continuing with her math program (we never stop doing math), working on Spanish (for exposure before taking it at the cc), doing a PSAT prep program, and starting piano. She needs about 3 hours to work through everything right now (much lighter than her usual 5-7 hours/day), but that will drop down to about 2.5 hours once she finishes biology in two more weeks.

 

My youngest also started piano this summer and is just doing reading (30 minutes), math (30 minutes), and spelling (10 minutes) through the summer along with her music (guitar and piano, about 20 minutes each). She finished science one week before ps let out and history one day before ps let out. Her summer school takes just 2 hours/day and 30 minutes of that is reading anything she wants (because she doesn't read unless she's required to read). She's doing both guitar and piano by choice.

Edited June 26, 2010 by AngieW in Texas

[Disney Dreaming]

This was my first year homeschooling. I have decided to go year round so that dd doesn't forget everything and I also know it would be VERY difficult to get her back into the school routine if we took the whole summer off. I try to take Friday's off in the summer. Doing yr round also helps if we get sick or have appointments because in Georgia we have to do 180 days for 4 1/2 hrs per day.

[mirabillis]

we follow the school year, more or less. labor day - june sometime, give or take a little. i thought i'd do year-round, but i enjoy having the summers off!

[TheModestMom]

Growing up when I was homeschooled we would do year round homeschooling and take days off as needed when my Mom was sick...we always got our hours in we needed!

[sassenach]

My family needs a summer break. However, we don't stop completely. We start school in August, take a week off at thanksgiving, a week for fall vacation, 2-3 weeks at Christmas, a week in the spring and then whatever sick days we need. We are done by June, but continue to do school 2 days a week all summer just to keep the juices flowing. Somewhere in the summer the kids do a camp or 2, and we skip school those weeks.

[Hunter's Moon]

This will be my first year but my mother and I decided we will do year round. I will take 6 weeks at Christmas (from Thanksgiving to New Years), Easter week, my birthday week, and then we can take random days/weeks off if needed.

 

Our 36th week will be in the middle of April if we only take off the planned weeks, but we know that won't happen so we're confident we'll be done by the middle of June and then I'll just continue on with my Senior Year work. :)