Year Round Homeschooling?

[tsuche]

We are praying about doing Year Round Homeschooling and I'd like to know how your schedules look. Weeks on and days off. I think this is the way instead off taking 2 1/2 months off in the summer.

Thanks and God Bless,

Terry

[Pamela H in Texas]

Well, I'm not much help....

 

Until last year, we just did what we did. It worked for us. No set schedule.

 

Last year, we took certain specific breaks, but generally still laid back.

 

This year, we are doing a traditional school year as ds is in a virtual academy.

 

Honestly, they all worked well for us.

 

Now, I have known people do 8 on, 3 off or 5 on, 1 off type schedules.

 

Pretty much, whatever floats your boat :)

[Stacey in MA]

I thought originally we might, and planned to continue the course of what we were doing the rest of the year. But so many opportunities came up that I didn't want to pass by. There is a 5 week camp that the 2 olders enjoy. It's really cheap, and a great opportunity for lots of reasons. There's also a week of VBS in June, along with some outings/overnights/weekends at Grandma's. My sister works in th PS system, and so has more time in the summer w/ the kids. She has no kids, so loves taking them here and there!

 

Long story short - we end in June (usually w/ the PS calendar), have VBS, July camp, August Cub Scout camp (DS9), a few weeks free in Aug. for Grandma/Auntie, then start up again in Sept.

 

I was stressed about NOT doing it at first, but I am at peace w/ it now. The change helps balance the year's academics w/ other interests, activities, etc.

 

GL - Stacey in MA

[hanki]

Just this past summer we attempted to start school in July because we were going to start implementing 3 weeks on and 1 week off. Well, real life came in to play and we didn't end up starting school till August. We went ahead and gave the 3 week 1 week a try anyway. It has been somewhat good for us to get a little break here and there. A time to plan for me, field trips, needed appointments without disrupting school. However, we have still managed to get ourselves behind so we will not be getting our 1 week off in April or May. We planned to take an extra week off in June and I think maybe in July (can't remember, do not have schedule right in front of me!!) We may or may not continue this specific schedule. I am all for schooling during the summer, they forget so much if they have too long of a break. We might go ahead and try a 6 week 1 week or 9 week 3 week schedule. I am still unsure at this point. I do know we will be doing some school throughout the summer.

[Karen sn]

We year round school.

Summer is a great time to study science because it's all around in full force.

 

We take breaks when they happen - our month of living in boxes which was supossed to only be a week so all of my school stuff was packed deep in the moving trailer, this week when dd's great grandmother invited her over because her sister/roommate was gone and she had no plans all week long.

 

It really takes the stress off and lets us be quite flexible with life.

[Rebecca in GA]

Our year starts the Monday after July 4. We go four weeks on and one week off, take two days off at Thanksgiving and two weeks off at Christmas/New Year's, and throw in "mental health days" as needed. We usually are done by mid to late May with our state-required 180 days and take most of June off.

 

Next year we likely will be doing our state's virtual academy so our schedule will not be our own. We are on track to finish the first week of May this year and won't start up again until early August if we do GVA, but we plan to devote a couple of mornings or afternoons per week to finishing our math books and keeping up our Ambleside/Sonlight reading.

 

For us, a very long summer break would not be prudent. YMMV.

[TwinMominTX]

We have no real set schedule, but instead do school when we aren't traveling and we don't have anything special planned (dance camp, horse camp, etc).

 

We have a very spontaneous life and can't ever plan anything very far in advance. Sometimes I wish it was different, but that is just our famiy life at this time.

[Punkinelly]

I have to say that it just looks different in the summer. We keep up with math, but do more nature/science study, go on field trips, etc. We do more schooling outside, too, on picnic tables. :o)

 

We just decided which subjects need to continue through the summer and make sure to get those in during the hottest part of the day when we want to be inside, anyway.

 

We take off of school when relatives visit or there is a cool festival, etc., but it is still considered a school day if we do meaningful things.

 

HTH,

 

Mary

[WTMindy]

We school year-round also, but like others, our schedule looks different in the summer. We always keep up with math and Spanish and piano, but we take a break from grammar and a couple other subjects. We don't do full days in the summer, but a couple hours, which leaves us time to swim and do fun summer things. I also use the summer as a chance to fill in a more in-depth study. For example, last summer I did a history intensive summer. We did Brimwood's History program (which my kids loved, by the way), finished up SOTW 4 and also finished reading History of US books. Lots of reading out loud. It was very fun. This summer I plan on doing a science centered summer because we did Zoo 1 this year for life science and missed out on plants and the human body. So, we are going to do that this summer.

 

Is this more info than you wanted?!:001_huh:

 

We don't have a real schedule, but we pretty much do school every day unless we are traveling. I'm not a big break taker because it just puts everyone out of kilter. We do take a couple weeks off at Christmas (but even then, we do some math/spanish to keep in a bit of a routine).

[Julie]

I stick to the same schedule year round, I don't do Christmas or Spring Break either. Typically we just take a few days off around Christmas, and Spring Break comes whenever we travel with my husband for business, but even then we do school light and lots of sight seeing where ever we are.

 

I honestly think that the kids see the benefit of this. When it comes to math, grammar etc they never have to do review work, we are always moving forward. Take a look at about any math text and it looks like the last half of the one you did last year. When subjects are taught year round you don't have to was the fall reteaching things from the prior year.

 

My Two Cents,

 

Julie

[Jennifer in NH]

Starting May 1st we will be 3 weeks on 1 week off. This is + or -a week here or there and approximately 4 day weeks, especially in the summer! In the summer as well, I plan to have all school work done by lunch time, except on rainy days. If the work isn't done by lunch time, then so be it, we will do it the next day.

When the kids are older and there are more opportunities for them in the summer, this will all change!

When I say all school work will be done by lunch time that isn't exactly right. In the summer we are in the car a lot, and plenty of learning happens there! That is when we listen to SOTW, and PL also comes with a cd, plus other audio tapes..so we squeeze in "learning" everywhere!

[Dayle in Guatemala]

for a while now. I love the flexibility it gives me. When we need time off, we take it. I don't have the pressure of having to "finish" by May 31st, we can really delve into the curriculum and go off on different topics of interest as we want to. It's freed us up considerably to just enjoy the journey and not worry so much about getting it done (which is what I struggled with before!).

[Sandy in Indy]

We school year round so that we have the flexibility to take time off as we want to. I spend less time playing catch up, and I think the kids need the routine.

[Ellie]

We took off from Thanksgiving to about the middle of January--earlier if we were antsy :-)

 

We took off a couple of weeks in the spring because I get spring fever :-)

 

We took off a couple of weeks or so in late August, early September because it was stinkin' hot and we didn't have AC.

 

Otherwise, we just kept our regular routine and did stuff. We did take vacation time whenever we felt like it (often in the spring when the weather was the best), Disneyland in the middle of the week in March while schools were still in session, stuff like that.

[Beth in Central TX]

I've developed a year round system that works very well for our homeschool. We school 36 weeks a year, so that leaves us with 16 weeks to take off. I take off the week of Thanksgiving and 4-weeks around Christmas and New Year's. I also take off the 5-weeks in the summer (usually the whole month of July & either the week before or after). This leaves me with 6 weeks to still take off, so I spread these out over the year: September (Labor Day week), October, Februray, March, April, & May. HTH!

[angela in ohio]

Our school year starts after a two-week break in late July/ early August. Then we take a week at Thanksgiving (company in town,) two weeks at Christmas, a week for spring break (company again,) and then we're back to our two weeks again for the end of the year. We are only off when dh is off. We end up with 45-46 weeks each year.

[Tutor]

We school year round, and our summers look like the rest of the year... chaotic. :D

 

My dh is in grad school, so generally, we are in school when he is in school. We take off from Thanksgiving through New Year and a few weeks off in May. We don't do school on Sundays. Everything else is a school day, but we'll take random days off here and there when the opportunity arises.

 

The main changes in our schedule have to do with aligning "classes" to fit around when dh is home (he teaches lit, grammar and Bible) and temperature. In the winter, we have "classes" in the morning and evening so the kids can go out and play in the warmest part of the day. In the summer, we have "classes" from late morning to late afternoon so the kids can play outside in the coolest part of the day.

[LG Gone Wild]

We year round school.

Summer is a great time to study science because it's all around in full force.

 

We take breaks when they happen - our month of living in boxes which was supossed to only be a week so all of my school stuff was packed deep in the moving trailer, this week when dd's great grandmother invited her over because her sister/roommate was gone and she had no plans all week long.

 

It really takes the stress off and lets us be quite flexible with life.

 

I had grand plans and then life happened. After several false starts in the fall, I decided our school year officially started in January. Doctors' appointments, emergency doctor appointments, surprise visitors, surprise errands, laundry, bad moods...we school until we get interrupted. No scheduled breaks planned at all.

[Retired]

Official school year starts after July 4, we do full schedule for summer. We live on a lake, so the boys can go for a swim, fish etc. between studies. It is so hot here during the summer. They chose school during summer to have more time off during the other seasons. You just can't really stand to be outside here from late June to September. We usually take off

Labor Day Week

Week of Oct 17 (a birthday week)

Thanksgiving

Christmas/New Years 4 weeks

Valentine Week

Easter Week (2 week)

Week May 4 (a birthday week)

July 4th (2 weeks)

 

It leaves us room for appointments, etc. and we can always change off time if life happens.

[buttacol]

We year round school, and love it. Life happens, and this way we don't have to worry about finishing everything up on schedule. When the kids or I get sick or when we decide to take a trip somewhere we know that we have a whole year to cover what should only take 9 months.

 

An added bonus is that there is no problem with retention of what was learned last year. Since we keep moving forward on reading, phonics, and math skills all year long, I never have to worry about what was forgotten.

[Kate CA]

We are praying about doing Year Round Homeschooling and I'd like to know how your schedules look. Weeks on and days off. I think this is the way instead off taking 2 1/2 months off in the summer.

Thanks and God Bless,

Terry

 

We do this for the most part. We take the entire month of August off so that I am excited (and the children are excited) to start again in September. We take a few weeks off around Christmas and one for Thanksgiving and days when we need them. I love it.

[iquilt]

I think this year we'll try schooling in the summer, but I'm calling it school "lite". We will continue math, phonics and lots and lots of reading practice all summer but easy enough for me with little planning and not much time devoted. I was also thinking of spending some more in-depth time on science or other interests as they come around.

[E_Edgerton]

As a tutor for a year-round HSing family...I think you have nothing to worry about. I am there supplementing their mom 2-3 days a week. She is there the remainder. They take off the obvious things like holidays and they also take off one month a year for their family vacation...but in general we are schooling 5 days a week and the weekends are off with only the instrument practices. Now, in terms of what we do each day...basics take priority...math, history, Latin, music practice, Language arts/grammar/spelling, science (couple of the days) and reading if we have time (but that is mostly for fun or after hours). I am there only 6 hours a day.We have little trouble with this and the kids stay in the groove of learning. I hope this helps a little. Transition is hard.

[Mommy22alyns]

We year round school, and love it. Life happens, and this way we don't have to worry about finishing everything up on schedule. When the kids or I get sick or when we decide to take a trip somewhere we know that we have a whole year to cover what should only take 9 months.

 

An added bonus is that there is no problem with retention of what was learned last year. Since we keep moving forward on reading, phonics, and math skills all year long, I never have to worry about what was forgotten.

 

 

This is my plan/hope. Year-round makes the most logical sense to me. As it's our first year, I'm planning for the 3 weeks on/1 week off approach, but it's really going to be, "let's see what happens." :)

[6packofun]

We homeschool year-round, but usually only do math, grammar and reading over the summer months. At the beginning of the year we take a look at any obligations we'll have, schedule breaks then and take 2 weeks off at Christmas and 2 weeks at Easter.

 

We just chug along, and I try to keep track of when we take a week off here and there. Then as we near the summer, I decide how long we need to continue in each subject--sometimes I feel we're ready to finish up in history or science, etc.; sometimes I feel like we need to push ahead for a bit into the summer.

 

It's alllll fluid, baby. LOL

[Debbie in OR]

I have tried for the past two summers to keep up with our schedule but it keeps getting down-graded with camping and trips, etc..so this summer we are going to lapbook the information we studied this year. I have the books all together and most of the info. on Word or already printed out so we're on our way. We will do one on grammar, the election process, multiplication/division, spelling rules, etc...My hope is that it will be fun and we will get lots of review in the process.

[fruitful vine]

We must have 180 days logged for the school district. The 180 days must be completed by June 30th.

So, we start logging those days in July/Aug. until sometime in May (depending on # of brakes we take)

That gives me time to get the evaluation, paper work and portfolio together that is required to be handed into the School District.

 

After we have our 180 days completed we continue with math and reading. (The other subjects we do not continue with.)

It helps to keep the kids on a little bit of a schedule. Plus, it helps to keep them fresh for the next school year. But it still gives them a feeling of summer brake.

 

It has worked for us for 3 years and counting. :001_smile:

[Closeacademy]

I schedule out 10 units. May/June, June/July, August, September, October, Novemeber, January, February, March, and April.

 

We start school in May after we have a 2 week summer break so June is split between May and July.

 

In July we generally take off 4th of July week since there are lots of things going on including the Fair.

 

Labor Day week is a week I schedule for fun school since it is short.

 

Halloween Week is schduled for fun school since we have a bunch of stuff going on then.

 

No School Thanksgiving Week.

 

December is for any catchup work and Christmas activities.

 

Valentine's Week is a fun week.

 

St. Patrick's or Easter is a fun week.

 

We do 4 day weeks with Fridays for enrichment club, library and playgroup. We usually have about 190 days. I use the fun weeks as floater too so if we get really ill and need to take a week off we can just not do the fun week and not worry about schoolwork while we are ill.

 

Hope you find a plan that works for you.:001_smile:

[Kelli in TN]

I am pretty unstructured about it. The only planned break is from the Monday before Thanksgiving until the first Monday after New Year's Day. This year I feel like taking off the month of June. We have 3 camps and VBS and it just feels like a good time to take a breather. It won't be really hot yet and the busy recital/concert season will be behind us.

 

Next year I will probably do it some other way as life will be different next year!

[Ellie]

Our school year began January 1 and ended December 31:D

 

We took off Thanksgiving through January-ish. We took off a couple of weeks in the spring (because I get spring fever, lol), and a couple of weeks in late August/early September. Otherwise, we just kept working on stuff, taking off additional days when there was a need (such as going to Disneyland in the middle of the week in March).

 

So as not to weird out Sunday school teachers and grandmas, we "promoted" in September. This consisted of looking each dc in the eyeball and saying, "Presto-change-o...you are now in 4th grade!" We worked on things until we finished or were tired of them, then moved on to the next.

[Mom4Jesus]

We're planning to homeschool over the summer for the first time this year, but are planning to just do a few subjects that we haven't really gotten in this year, like typing and music and perhaps Spanish. I will probably do some minimum continued writing for my 1st grader to help him remember his letters.

We will likely do math this summer as well.

[Tea 4 Three]

I started off doing year round, switched to a traditional year this past year to accommodate a move and we are now picking up again with year round. I have found that year round schooling helps us to be more flexible with things that happen in life such as new babies, unplanned trips, projects and everything else. Year round schooling is so much more flexible, and gives us more freedom for fun things. I don't stress out about a schedule, and have found that I am energized when others are typically experiencing burnout because we are starting our new year (usually March/April.)

[dalynnrmc]

I haven't read the previous posts, but...

 

We don't have a set schedule, but "take off" for a few days here or there whenever something comes up that we'd like to do. From March through October, we generally try to go camping at least once a month. Through the summer, there are various churches' VBS that we like to attend. Someone or other inevitably has a party for this or that, all the way across the state. (We live in Texas. LOL)

 

We ease up through the holiday season, because that is full of holiday preparations, food stuffs, religious concentrations, lots of scouting activities, etc etc etc. We are sure to keep up with math and do a lot of reading, with a lapbook or mini unit study stuck in here and there. From the end of October to mid-January, we do about 4-6 weeks worth of work according to "the rest of the year" standards.

 

As a general statement, we take 3-5 days off approximately every 6 weeks. :) But only because it "randomly" falls that way. LOL

[Lady Katherine]

We always homeschooled year-round. I found that my kids didn't do well with anything longer than a 2-week break, so we never took the whole summer off. I generally planned to take off most of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a week in the spring and one in the fall when the weather was good, days off here and there in the summer for swimming, etc., and an occasional "sanity week" every so often, as needed, throughout the year. It always worked pretty well.

[Trivium Academy]

The year will be split up into 4 quarters, as there are 4 units in each year of TOG. Each quarter will be about 9 weeks with 1 week off. A proposed schedule

 

Sept 15th - Nov 10th = First Quarter

.............Nov 17-28th off, Thanksgiving and First Quarter Break, two weeks

Dec 1-19th, Second Quarter continues.

.............Dec 22-26th off, Christmas

Dec 29- Feb 6th = Second Quarter

.............Feb 9-13 off, Second Quarter Break

Feb 16- April 17th = Third Quarter

.............April 20-24 off, Third Quarter Break

April 27-June 26 = Fourth Quarter

 

We have wiggle room because we don't have anything for July or August, which will change. Either there will be a field trip or summer unit study. I expect by the end of the year our year will end in July sometime and August will be free.

 

We homeschool 4 days a week and finish by lunch time or very soon after lunch. We can't stand to take too much time off from our lessons, we enjoy them and they give us structure to our day. Even I get the, "what are we going to do???" dumbfounded look when we've had too much time off. One week off is perfect, it's a break and then we get right back into our lessons. Two weeks is when *I* struggle to get back into the mode and the kids fight me.

 

 

 

 

 

[LanaTron]

So our terms were roughly like this:

 

School October/November

Break December

School January/February

Break March

School April/May

Break June

School July/August

Break September

 

Our in school time is either 8 or 9 weeks, our out of school time is either 3 or 4 weeks. This has its pros and cons, but it is just how things end up working out for us...we need that summer term when there are very few outside activities (scouts, music co-op) going on...in the summer we just school and go to the pool!

[kpupg]

I'd like to know how your schedules look.

 

We don't do every subject year round. We do math year-round, six days a week. Also, in the summer, I try to focus on art, music, PE, which get neglected during the rest of the year. Morning prayer and scripture readings also continue year-round. This coming summer, we will continue short daily Latin lessons, a new subject for us this school year. Summer lessons tend to be shorter/lighter than lessons the rest of the year.

 

I anticipate doing more formal summer work once my oldest starts working on high school credits. Using summer to knock out some of the shorter courses, etc.

 

Karen

[sticer]

We used to school year round but then the kids wanted the summer off. They and I needed a break. I found it harder to get back into the swing of things though come fall.

[SkateLeft]

I always intend to do light school through the summer, but life intervenes and it never works out that way. Maybe next summer? ;)

[5Youngs]

Our year starts the Monday after July 4. We go four weeks on and one week off, take two days off at Thanksgiving and two weeks off at Christmas/New Year's, and throw in "mental health days" as needed. We usually are done by mid to late May with our state-required 180 days and take most of June off.

 

This is us, exactly.....

Dawanna

[Snickerdoodle]

We hs year round. We just take time off when life happens.

[keptwoman]

We homeschool year around, our school year is the calender year.

We start for the year in Mid January and end mid december. In between I schedule 40 weeks of learning. Then we take breaks when we need them. We are taking time off to watch the Olympics (and do some art) and time off when we move. We took time off a month or so ago when we all got a bit burnt out. So we take a week here and there where/when we need it.