Year 'Round Hschooling

[skate111]

What do you do? I've heard a lot of good things about schooling all year...mostly, 4 weeks on and 1 week off. Have you done this and what did you like/not like about it? :confused:

[scrapbookbuzz]

We'll be going all year this year. We started back to homeschooling in January and I want to be able to make up for time lost while the kids were in the public school. I agree that flexibility is wonderful because you CAN take time off when NEEDED. I plan on giving them the month off in June, since their ps friends will have just ended the school year and will actually be available to do things. Other than that, as the pp said, I don't see the point in a whole two or three months off so they forget half of what we've been talking about. Besided, my daughter being autistic (Asperger's Syndrome) really likes a schedule.

[RahRah]

This will be our second summer HS'ing ... our school year (state) runs July 1 to June 30, with requirement for hours (1000 per year), not days - so if I have any chance of meeting the hours requirement, I need to do some schoolwork during the summer.

 

Last year we did math and reading throughout the summer, and included science, history and other things as appropriate in context to what we were doing (example - hiking on the trail system we have was a good opportunity to include plants in our discussion, so that was science).

 

This summer we'll kick-off second grade, but again lighten the load throughout the summer with a bit more on our *must do* schedule than last year - math and reading daily, this year adding science twice a week, and including, like last year, other subjects as appropriate with what we're doing at a given time....for example, I have map work planned when we'll be traveling in our state for a weekend getaway, we'll use drive time to learn more about our state, and once we get where we're going, that locale has some neat historical sites, so we'll learn about those too.

 

Throughout the year we don't schedule any weeks off - even on vacation, we include learning about something - it just isn't "formal" like textbook stuff or worksheets...but learning never really takes a break, we just don't always call it schoolwork!

[*Lulu*]

We school 6 days a week, year round.

 

Pros:

*kids have no huge gaps of time that allow them to forget lessons

*lots of flexibility in when we take time off

*learning becomes a lifestyle

*stability of structured time (I have a DS that really needs this)

 

Cons:

*occasionally the kids balk at doing school during the summer while all the other kids are out

*it can be hard to plan (I secretly fantasize about spending a month doing nothing but planning out an entire year. I find planning the next quarter while I am still implementing the last planned quarter to be one of the most difficult things I do in the name of homeschooling.)

[southcarolinamom]

We did school 4 days a week and were off on Fridays .... which left plenty of time for a 2 week Christmas break, a week off at Thanksgiving, about 4 to 5 weeks off in the early summer, etc.... it was great to have a LONG weekend every week!!

[Violet Crown]

We school year-round because

 

(a) dh is an academic, and it just makes life easier to school by a "three semester" system, matching the children's studies to the Fall, Spring, and Summer sessions (and taking breaks when the college kids do); and

 

(b) the time to work at a desk is when it's 100+ degrees outside (a/k/a July/August); the nice weather is in spring and fall when the poor schoolkids have to be in school all day. We get almost as much schoolwork done in our Summer Session as we do in the entire rest of the year.

Edited March 30, 2011 by Sharon in Austin
saving Mrs Mungo's kitties

[ChristusG]

We school year around for various reasons.

 

Honestly, I don't see the point in taking months off. My kids get plenty of time to play, etc. It's VERY hot down here during the summer, so schooling through the summer just makes sense since there is really nothing we can do outside without having a heat stroke.

 

This summer, we HAVE to school since I've been down with morning sickness for the past month and we've done zero school.

 

I don't really schedule any breaks. If we have a particularly busy week, we just don't do school. If I plan a vacation, we just take that time off.

[Ellie]

It just never made sense to me that we were supposed to "start" teaching our children in September and "stop" teaching them in May or June. What the heck??? I mean, children learn all the time. And we're homeschooling. And why would my child suddenly be ready to do [enter skill here] because someone, somewhere, said she should be able to do it because IT'S SEPTEMBER AND SHE'S IN FIRST GRADE???:confused:

 

So we just learned things. Some of those things looked like School, some didn't. We didn't do School things from Thanksgiving to about the middle of January, a couple of weeks in the spring, a couple or three weeks in late August/early September, and any other random time when we needed time off. Otherwise we kept our regular routine, and moved on to the next thing when we finished it or got tired of it.

 

For the sake of grandparents and group activities and Sunday school, I "promoted" dc in the fall, but that didn't have any relevance to our real lives. :D

[happypamama]

We homeschool year-round, and we take breaks as needed, anywhere from a day or so if company is visiting, to a week or so if needed. Learning doesn't really stop anyway, even if it takes different forms; spending time with grandparents, traveling, watching good-quality movies, or even just pursuing their own creative play/art/etc. all have value, IMO, as does "book learning." Since our state requires 180 days, using all twelve months to accomplish the formal work makes everything much more flexible for us. The real world doesn't generally run on a summer-off schedule, and neither does my DH's schedule, so neither does our school schedule. (Now, otoh, my own dad was a public school teacher, and his summer schedule was different, so I think my mom did have a distinct summer schedule for my younger hs'ed siblings, like maybe just a bit of math and reading, and that made sense for them.)

 

My kids have plenty of time to play outside and to visit with their public-schooled friends. But at least one of DD's favorite playmates, who lives across the street, is in daycare anyway during the summer, so she's only available in the evenings/weekends anyway. Plus, it makes more sense to do heavier formal work in the summer and winter, when playing outside isn't happening as much, and then we can spend more time out in the spring and fall.

[LibraryLover]

We do our thing. We've never gone by the calendar, only by our needs. If we are cooked, we're cooked; time of year doesn't matter. Not to mention, do we ever stop learning? Some of our best discussions and 'learning' have come from travel etc.

[momto3innc]

We start around August 1st or so. I usually take off a couple days at Thanksgiving and a week at Christmas. I also take off for vacations or if grandma comes to visit. Then we go on until about mid-June and take off 5-6 weeks. While I don't want to take off forever, I really need those few weeks to recharge. Then we make a huge deal in August about a new year. It works well for us. It makes it very easy then to do a day at the park or field trip or day with family since we always have plenty of days under our belt.

[skate111]

Well, I'm convinced! Giving it a try this year. I told my kids, and surprisingly enough, they're all excited! Who would've known?! Thanks for your help!

[HS Mom in NC]

I hsed year round for most of the elementary and early Jr. High years. My husband's job means not being able to plan vacations-we get a day or two notice. The summers here in the PHX area are looong and brutal. We usually travel off season too. For those reasons we school unless there is a really good reason not to.

 

Once the older two (now 15 and 13) are involved in activities with kids schooled in institutions (private and public) most activities revolve around school schedules. It's harder to school year round now.

[Cricket]

We school through the summer. It is better for our kids to have more of a schedule to their day. They tend to get in trouble when they are left to their own devices. If they were productive during their off time, they would probably get more. They did just have two weeks off. March is an extremely busy time for us and my dh was getting very frustrated that our dc weren't focusing and getting school work done. I told him that we should just take two weeks off since they do school through the summer anyway. We manage an RV park and during spring training season it is insane with people everywhere and many of our guests are quite needy! I simply don't have the time to sit down with the kids and do school. I'm interrupted at least 6-8 times an hour. Finally it dawned on me that we don't have to do school during March if we don't want to! :) And as Christus said, it is extremely hot during the summer here too! We school in the morning and swim in the afternoon.

[annettemarie]

We're year rounders, but do it a little differently. From September through April (give or take) we do school 5 days a week, with one day a week being a co-op day. Each month, we tend to do an intensive 3-week main lesson block followed by one week of something "soft". We pick themes for the summer- we've done Hogwarts Summer School, Camp Half-Blood, and this summer we're having a family detective agency-- and usually have a literature focus. Our vacations tend to be somewhat educational, so we count those as school as well. They have lots of time to socialize, play outside, etc.