TheAutumnOak Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Does anyone else have a hard time doing school 5 days each week?...We have only done school for 4 days a week...I am looking at next year and we need to get in at least a 180 day school year... Would you recommend working hard to change our habit and start working for 5 days a week, thus having a 36 week school year, or sticking with our 4 day a week schedule, but have a 45 week school year? As a side note, I don't want to make our days extremely long, so I don't want to try and do 180 days worth of work in 144 days :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 I also cannot handle 5 days. We do all the work in 4 still. My high schooler always has nearly a full 5th day, but he's mostly independent. He chooses to split it into three days - so about 2 - 3 hours of works each day of our "weekend." There are times when the middle schooler will have work to do on the weekends. And, my dh does the science experiments with my 10 yo on the weekend. Other than that, we're free on the weekends!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieJ Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 I used to do very heavy 4 day weeks with Friday am for something that was missed and probably some Math. After that we did a "Life skills" class for the rest of the day. Cleaning and then errands such as groceries or library. I was then ready for Saturday to be more relaxed and not have to hit all the cleaning and errand running. I always had done laundry on Mondays before I homeschooled, so I continued on with that schedule for a few years. Eventually I wised up and we did not tackle laundry until at least Tuesday and then usually some again on Thursday or Friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 I used to do very heavy 4 day weeks with Friday am for something that was missed and probably some Math. After that we did a "Life skills" class for the rest of the day. Cleaning and then errands such as groceries or library. I was then ready for Saturday to be more relaxed and not have to hit all the cleaning and errand running.I always had done laundry on Mondays before I homeschooled, so I continued on with that schedule for a few years. Eventually I wised up and we did not tackle laundry until at least Tuesday and then usually some again on Thursday or Friday. Do you still do 4 days a week now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieJ Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Do you still do 4 days a week now? I would but mine are all graduated and married! My daughter is carrying on with homeschooling our grandkids. I kept that schedule until the end when my youngest two went to a public highschool as a 9th grader and an 11th grader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 I've been trying to decide this as well. Sometimes we hit the 5 day week, and sometimes we don't. It's making the school year drag out sooooo long. We won't get in our 180 days until the last week of June, or possibly the first week of July. And that's if we do our 5 days a week without a single day off until we're done. If I were to do officially move to a 4 day week, I think we'd take off on Monday. That way, we could clean the house, get the groceries for the coming week, and take a nap to recover from the weekend. My house tends to fall apart on Sunday, so Monday would be a good time to get it back together before focusing on school. I have a hard time doing school in a house that's in shambles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 (edited) We have light school on Fridays. Nature study, art, music, park day, library, on Fridays. I don't have to have 180 days, but I count that light day as a school day. Basically we have a 36 week official year but my kids continue to do math year round. Works for us. Edited April 18, 2011 by Daisy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 I try to plan 5 days, but often get only 4 done(we often skip Wed.), with Friday being a catch up day. So yes we school year round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Why do you have to get in 180 days??? :confused: Do school every day that you can. When you're finished with the material you've planned to teach, stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 I would but mine are all graduated and married! My daughter is carrying on with homeschooling our grandkids.I kept that schedule until the end when my youngest two went to a public highschool as a 9th grader and an 11th grader. :lol: I just read your signature line...Missed that before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 If I were to do officially move to a 4 day week, I think we'd take off on Monday. That way, we could clean the house, get the groceries for the coming week, and take a nap to recover from the weekend. My house tends to fall apart on Sunday, so Monday would be a good time to get it back together before focusing on school. I have a hard time doing school in a house that's in shambles. This is what I do now...We don't school on Mondays, and I love having the day to clean up, rest from the weekend, catch up with the Hive ;), and make sure everything is ready for the week... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 Why do you have to get in 180 days??? :confused: Do school every day that you can. When you're finished with the material you've planned to teach, stop. When I look at the plans for the year, I think I will need at about 180 days...I guess what I am trying to decide between is having more vacation time verses a longer school year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Well, from what I've heard, MANY of those 180 school days in the public schools are really 1/2 days or field trip days, etc. But our state does require that we are teaching 180 days (even though no one has of yet tried to verify what we do). We do 4 days a week plus a 1/2 day on Fridays with a homeschool co-op in the afternoon. This week kids in our neighborhood are off of school, but I still try to get in at least a couple of hours (or maybe a 1/2 day) of school in the a.m. and then let them have the full afternoon off for play. I find it difficult, though, to get my dc to do school work when they know their friends are off of school (but I often try to get them to do something in the summer, too... just one or two subjects a day on as many days as I can comfortably add). How's that for a round-about answer? Okay... I'll admit it... I've never actually COUNTED that I did, in fact, have exactly 180 days completed. There... I've admitted it. But since I do have BJU DVD's, I kind of know by how close I am to finishing a given subject with them by what number they've completed by the end of the year. Blessings, Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 We have to do 180 days too, and it's just easiest to get that in while planning for schooling all year round. Then I don't fret about taking days off as needed. I'm planning for next year, and I'm planning on four-day weeks. There will be Mondays when we get little done, or whole weeks off when the baby comes, or co-op days when we don't get the usual academics done (but those count as part of our 180, since co-op is educational), or whatever. But there will also be slow weeks when we do schoolwork all five days, so it will all even out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 We do 42-45 weeks, depending on how much vacation we have that year. We technically school 6 days a week, but we have this schedule so that we can blow off days or partial weeks when we want to. :D I say do 4 days for 45 weeks. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcjlkplus3 Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Every week, I schedule a 5 day week. I have started giving my oldest (9-1/2) a list of all her work for the week, and encouraging her to get it done early so that she can have an extra day off. It has only happened a few times. When it does happen, I still count it as 5 days of school, rather than 4, because that is what I planned on it taking to get that work done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mynyel Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Does anyone else have a hard time doing school 5 days each week?...We have only done school for 4 days a week...I am looking at next year and we need to get in at least a 180 day school year... Would you recommend working hard to change our habit and start working for 5 days a week, thus having a 36 week school year, or sticking with our 4 day a week schedule, but have a 45 week school year? As a side note, I don't want to make our days extremely long, so I don't want to try and do 180 days worth of work in 144 days :tongue_smilie: I do 5, loosely. We also go about 45 weeks. We take 3 weeks off in December/January. Then we take time off as needed. I create my own schedule so I just print out three weeks at a time. If I need to shift it is a matter of CTRL-C and CTRL-V :D. I will say I have added Math and LA to an extra day to catch up, we are "behind" a bit in those subjects but we will catch up :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted April 19, 2011 Author Share Posted April 19, 2011 I do 5, loosely. We also go about 45 weeks. We take 3 weeks off in December/January. Then we take time off as needed. I create my own schedule so I just print out three weeks at a time. If I need to shift it is a matter of CTRL-C and CTRL-V :D. I will say I have added Math and LA to an extra day to catch up, we are "behind" a bit in those subjects but we will catch up :) We will probably end up doing something like this...I will just resolve to having a longer school year...There may be great benefits to that anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaT Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 We have light school on Fridays. Nature study, art, music, park day, library, on Fridays. I don't have to have 180 days, but I count that light day as a school day. Basically we have a 36 week official year but my kids continue to do math year round. Works for us. This is how I do it. My high schooler usually has some other work to do on Fridays, but it is a light day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooketopia Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 We do four days of "regular" school and then on Fridays we do all the "fun" stuff like Art, Girl Scouts and Nature Study hikes. We also do another session of Literature and History on Fridays and I try to throw in the History project for the week on that day as well. My kids are so happy about "Fun Friday" that it almost doesn't even feel like school. If they haven't finished what was scheduled for the week (and I do have a period in the late afternoon for "homework"), then we attend to it also on Friday or Saturday. I find that most curriculums don't expect you to do school five days a week, so we're able to fit everything just fine into four day weeks. I plan everything out at the beginning of the year to fit into those 36 weeks and then we make sure we stick to that schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 I think the 180 day rule is ridiculous. In fact, when I was a teacher, we only had 163 days as we were in an overcrowded school and on tracks....2/3 of the school was in session while 1/3 was off. We just worked an extra hour per day to make up the time. I am told I need to keep "attendance" here in NC....stupidest thing I have ever heard. I fill it out sometime about 6 months into the following year, if that. It is a huge joke in our family as I fill it out and ask each child if he was in attendance for that day! :lol: What the state really wants to know is "Are you educating your children?" If the answer is "yes" then you are done. Believe me, even in those 163 days we had teaching, there were about 60 of those wasted on assemblies, emergency drills, pep rallies, days you just got little done and the list goes on...... I have no use for attendance or days of instruction, what I want to know is, are my kids performing where I feel they need to be for the year. Period! If so, then all the little boxes will be checked! And, for what it is worth, my kids learn something EVERY SINGLE DAY whether we open a book or not! My .02 and more! Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 We have to do 180 days too, and it's just easiest to get that in while planning for schooling all year round. Then I don't fret about taking days off as needed. :iagree: Same here. Even though I have a schedule I try for 5 days but mostly get 4 days in. To me learning is a year around thing so trying to fit everything into a 180 day schedule would just plain drive me insane. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 I haven't read through the thread, but my question would be - what are you doing on the fifth day? If that day is for field trips, or co-op or other activities, then I would count that as a school day and you'll end up with 180 very easily without having to do book work for five a week. Of course this changes as they get older. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 We do 5 days a week. On Fridays we have a spelling quiz, some kind of science activity and review if needed. Otherwise we watch doc's, play computer games, whatever they can do independently. I count this, but I'm in a state that has no real definition on what can be counted. Only that we do 4 hrs/180 days. We go to Co-Op on mondays for 4 hours, then we do some reading and math, thats a full day. As long as my kids are learning and advancing I really pay very little attention to "total" hours/days. This may be to relaxed for you, it used to be to relaxed for me:D, but I'm slowly moving toward a more unschooled style. I will never be able to let go completely, but the kids are loving it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Why do you have to get in 180 days??? :confused: Do school every day that you can. When you're finished with the material you've planned to teach, stop. The state requires 180 days. Oklahoma recently changed the law to 1080 hours: 6 hours a day for 180 days. They do hours so they can make up snow days by adding 15 minutes to the day in the spring. It is ridiculous, you can't add in misses leasins in 2 minutes a day per subject! Most hsers still count 180 days. I will do 180, or until the end of our curriculum. Which ever comes first. If we finish a year of math in 160 days, we may do some drill, but I won't start a new program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 We used to do 4 days when the kids were younger, but I find that once they hit highschool we really need all 5 days. Shoot some weeks we do school 6 days :glare: :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 We do 42 weeks. Fridays are light days, basically just spelling and latin tests and finishing up anything left over. We also do a little extra reading. We started a 42 week year because I really liked SOTW and didn't want to skip chapters. It just kind of fell together that way. We do wrap up a few things early-grammar, spelling, latin. I use those 6 extra weeks to do extra science experiments or history projects and intensive work on any difficult subjects. Our long break is from Thanksgiving through New Years. We take a week off in February and May (for the kids' birthdays) and 2 weeks in August for me to get everything ready for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakven Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 haven't read all the replies but do you have to do "full" days? like could you do whatever doesn't get done on friday and also extra reading? Can you count "life skills" toward school and have life skills friday??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 We school 4 days a week, but we also do year-round. I don't keep a schedule really, and we take off whenever we need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 I haven't read through the thread' date=' but my question would be - what are you doing on the fifth day? If that day is for field trips, or co-op or other activities, then I would count that as a school day and you'll end up with 180 very easily without having to do book work for five a week. Of course this changes as they get older. :tongue_smilie:[/quote'] For us, I use to take care of household things like shopping, cleaning, and laundry catch up on that 5th day, which was almost always Monday...I also did last minute planning on Monday as well...We don't have a required 180 day rule in our state, it will just take about that much time to get through the curricula we are using this year...We don't belong to a co-op and don't take field trips every week, or even every month... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I know you said you don't want to make your days extremely long (and I haven't read the other posts so you may have heard this already) but have you considered doing 5 days of work in 4 days? We do it because there is no way we can do school on Thursdays between co-op and school. We double-up on one or two subjects each day and usually don't have too much trouble completing the work within 4 days. It makes Monday & Tuesday a lot longer as those are the days I try to cram the most work into, but Wednesdays and Friday are normal or sometimes even short days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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