How do you school year around?

[mom2agang]

I'm interested on schooling year around. Is there a way to make your days shorter? How do you do it? My state has no requirements.

[Holly]

We usually keep our days the same length and just take off vacation days as needed (illness, field trips, family visits, don't-want-to-school days, etc.). We usually take a week or two in Dec./Jan and also in the summer. We sometimes have half days if things come up. We'll just work on what subjects we can fit in and finish the rest the next day (usually we just cover the 3Rs on those days).

 

I have heard of many people who only school 4 days a week, but school year round.

[ChristusG]

I don't really have a set schedule. We just do school work on the days that we don't have other things planned. We school through the summer. We will school when the PS takes their holidays. That way, if a day comes up that we need to take off from doing school, it's no big deal. We take all of our vacations in the fall or spring when it's not as hot down here.

[ChandlerMom]

We do year round (tho ended up taking most of a month off this summer) and 7 days/week. No Monday morning angst here! LOL There aren't any rules on how to hs, let alone for hs-ing year-round. I think doing year-round just gives you more flexibility in your schedule.

 

I also like shorter days, as in most days done by lunch. My kids are still younger. 3 or 4 days per week (out of 7) we usually just do the 2Rs -- 15-20 min of math (short lesson or practice sheet), free reading/phonics, and journaling/handwriting. Most of those do not require much from me and can be completed in 1-2 hours. You might take a day or two off LA/grammar since you'll have more weeks to complete the year. Or you might take every 3rd month/week off of a given subject, so you are always dealing with 1-2 fewer subjects, but it's rotating which ones. It's also easier to mix in unit studies -- so one month we might do history lightly (one/week) and do lots of science experiments, then the next month do mostly reading in science and focus on projects for history.

 

Just a few ideas. It's all about what works for your family! :D

[paceofnature]

We school year round with roughly 3 weeks on, 1 week off with 2 weeks off in December and 2 weeks off end of June beginning of July. During July and August we do math, reading, science activities all together and history lapbooks. Once September rolls around we add everything else. We all really enjoy this schedule and find that we don't burn out as much.

[hsmamainva]

We're not necessarily year-round, but have an odd schedule none the less!

 

We start the new school year in June. We take a week-long vacation in September, take a week off for Thanksgiving, and 2 weeks off for Christmas.

 

I try to finish the school year by the end of February (and that includes standardized testing -- required in my state).

 

This way, I have the months of March-April-May off. I work for a tax accountant during the tax season and those are my busy months. I may work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week during that time. (It's also when I purchase my curriculum for the next school year).

 

There's no set "way" to school, year round or otherwise. I have several friends who school 4 days a week, year round, in order to have that one day a week free for field trips and co-ops. They'll take off time at Thanksgiving and Christmas and family vacation, but otherwise..they're doing school.

Edited August 9, 2011 by hsmamainva
typo

[Carol in Cal.]

I used to do this. I schooled all the time, but took weeks off for summer camps and vacations. Each month I would stop and think how far we had progressed. I was mostly a 'do the next thing' homeschooler, but there were some things that I just had to get through on a schedule, like math at times, and those I really pushed hard, evaluating our progress and adding extra lessons if necessary to meet a deadline. Because we had a basic learning lifestyle all the time, it was easier to take time off at the holidays, or to intensively focus on literature when a play was coming up locally, or for a robotics competition final push, or a science project focus, or for a show (DD was in an opera one year). I was fairly tight about skills continuing, and looser about content areas (through 8th grade). So, for instance, grammar and structural writing and math were big focusses, and literature, history, and science, though studied regularly, were always more of a 'do the next thing' kind of progress. It worked out great, although I didn't do as much with science experiments as I should have, and struggled with foreign language study.

 

DD was almost always in a one day per week outside class (she is an only child, and I thought that this was very important). Early on, that was the only thing she would do that day except reading and being read to, but starting at about 4th or 5th grade she would also do math and/or grammar afterwards, most days. But again, because we schooled year round I didn't mind skipping even this from time to time because I had all that margin for catching up in the summer.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Carol in Cal.

[Tess in the Burbs]

We never intended to school year round but life happens and we roll with it and so we school all year b/c of that.

 

Our days aren't any shorter. I just sorta know once September rolls around we will be pushing it to get 4 days a week done. So I schedule 5 days for some things, 4 days for others and we roll days into each other as opportunity arises for something fun. it means come Christmas I am never as far as I want to be. Jan/Feb/Mar are usually really good months for us and we make progress and then April/May hit and we barely get things done, and we go like crazy in June/July. Then I declare we are done and a few weeks later I declare we are back on, lol! :lol: Seriously, I want a break but we get so bored with all that time all day long, so we just start back. Usually we ramp up in August to full schedule by September but this year is so hot we are just doing full days and doing things in the afternoon and it's been perfect.

 

I don't schedule year round. This year we are taking all of December and most of May off. in previous years it's been October or April. I just go with it and take off for trips/fun/family as needed and it works out to a year every year.

[Mandy in TN]

I'm interested on schooling year around. Is there a way to make your days shorter? How do you do it? My state has no requirements.

I homeschool my little guy pretty much year round, because we both do better with some structure. My goal isn't to make our school days shorter. It is simply to provide some structure. I don't even count the summer work that we complete time outside of our 180 official school days in the fall and spring. After all I have a dear friend that I grew up with whose children go to a traditional school, but during the summer she still does the same sort of things that I do. Her kids don't get to count that toward their school hour. So, our summer stuff is mostly so the little guy doesn't loose ground and even if he gains ground I don't count it toward our required school days.

 

In the summer our days are shorter, because we do light schooling. This summer I started with a unit study on cars and didn't do much else for a month. Then, we pretty much just did reading, math drill, and violin for a while- although I did sneak in science via library videos and Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. A couple of weeks ago we began ramping up to a heavier load, but we won't have a full load until the week after Labor Day week.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[NittanyJen]

We just school year round; I don't make the days shorter. However, if we have had a long hot spell and we suddenly get a break in the weather, I'll call a day off and we hit the pool or the beach. Same for a new season of berry picking.

 

I hate to push my own blog (no ads or products though) but that topic is in fact what I just wrote about last night.

[TXMary2]

Our school year runs August to July. We always start the new year and do "promotions" in August. We don't necessarily start a new curriculum/text in August, but a lot of times it works out that way.

 

I don't have set days on and off. We generally take the two days off at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas and a week for spring break. Summer schedule is determined by what subjects and texts need to be completed.

 

We take off when we are sick, have appointments, weather is too good to be inside, for field trips or to watch educational movies or something. I am flexible.

[SeekingHim77]

We've always schooled year-round. I live in Florida and it's just way too hot to take summers off. I prefer taking time off in the fall. When both my kids were little, we just did school if we were home and didn't when we had other plans. That worked well until my oldest reached highschool. Now, I'm finding we all burn out on that type of schedule so need to take longer breaks. My new plan is 6 wks. off in the summer and 6 wks. in the fall/winter. I guess that's not technically schooling year-round but we don't follow the typical school schedule either. The only reason I'm taking off during summer is that it seems there are so many activities for my son during that time and visits to and from family since everyone else takes summers off that we end up taking that much time whether I plan it or not. Our big family vacation is also during the summer and accounts for 2 wks. of our break.

 

I would just keep experimenting until you find what works best for your family. That's what we've done and it's changed throughout the years.

[kristinannie]

We are just starting out so keep that in mind! We are schooling year round. We do school 5 days a week, but it doesn't last too long (we are only dong K though). When we take a vacation, we don't school. We take lots of breaks throughout the year (we go for long weekends to my family since they all live out of state). I am planning on taking most of December off for Christmas. Also, on days when we have an appointment, I don't do school. I have found that once we go to the doctor's office, school is disasterous anyway! This way, I don't feel badly if we take a day off because we are all tired or not feeling well. I know we will get enough days in. It is much more relaxing this way, IMHO. Plus, we can travel during the off season which we love! Honestly, homeschooling has become a way of life. We have tons of teachable moments. We will do a little school on Sat afternoon sometimes (usually a phonics game or Miquon or something fun). I think it is best to just start and see how things work for you. The flexibility is awesome!!!!!!

[happypamama]

Our year runs from July 1 to June 30. I like to do more schoolwork in the summer and winter, so that we have more time for playing outside and stuff in the spring and fall. We just generally do school most days, unless we have something else specifically scheduled. We'll take a break when we need one, when there's an opportunity to do something unusual, when relatives come to visit, etc., but starting July 1 (the earliest our state lets us start) lets us have plenty of flexibility while still getting our required 180 days. This year, I am planning to stop at Thanksgiving and not pick up again until New Year's, at least with our regular academics; I'd like to leave plenty of time for crafting and Christmas reading and such like that. (It will count as school time, just different stuff.)

[Tarreymere]

We just keep the same schedule all year, which is really the easiest thing for us because there is no adjusting to a change or getting tense over starting up. I do tend to do more review in the summer. We take days off whenever a good reason comes up, like this week my nephews are coming to stay for a couple days so we won't have school. In my state we have to have 180 days, and we still go way over that.

[Ellie]

We took off Thanksgiving through about the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter; a couple of weeks in late August/early September; and random days during the year as needed (a trip to Disneyland in the middle of the week in March :D, grandparents visiting, etc.). Otherwise we just kept doing stuff until we finished or got tired of it, then moved on to the next thing, regardless of what time of year it was.

 

For the sake of grandparents, dance school, Sunday school, etc., I "promoted" dc in the fall, according to the grade levels dc would have been in if they'd been in school. Otherwise, they worked at their academic abilities and at their own speed.

[mothergooseof4]

I am in a state with no requirements. In the past, I have always said I would school year round, but then May came and I got sick of it. At the same time, I always get frustrated because my kids start to act horrible after a few weeks of summer vacation. We only school 4 days per week because somehow we started a tradition of the kids visiting grandparent's on Wednesdays. I have thought of stopping that, but then I realized that relationships are one of the reasons I homeschool. Plus, ds #2 losses a lot of ground if you take even a week off.

 

I focus on skills with content subjects just being an add-on in the younger years. But, with my oldest entering 6th, this has grown in importance the last couple of years. For the younger two, I still let those subjects be done as time allows. During the usual Sept.-May months, we try to accomplish a lot and I try to do school four days per week. It certainly doesn't always happen, but it is our focus. If we need to be off for some reason, that is fine. If we have something to do that day, but can fit in a subject or two, we do math or LA. If I start to feel behind, we MIGHT do a little math/LA on a Saturday, but that is very unusual. I don't schedule breaks. We take days off when things arise. Holidays, we are off. DH is off, we are off. We have tons of other things going on, we are off. We are burned out.....well, I struggle with taking off just for this reason, but I am learning that sometimes they need a break and will learn more in the long run if I chill for a few days.

 

This year is the first time we have actually continued through the summer and it will be the norm from now on. We were extremely burned out in May, so we took off the last two weeks. In June, we started a relaxed summer schedule. We do math and LA if we are home. Some weeks we have been busy and some days mom just doesn't want to, but we have accomplished quite a bit. We are now on a two week break and will start our full schedule on the 22nd.

 

I am fairly relaxed about school. Yes, it is a major focus of our home, but it is not THE focus. Part of why I homeschool is the theory of working school around life, not working life around school.

Edited August 9, 2011 by mothergooseofthree

[boscopup]

We do 6 weeks on, 1 week off, year round. I'll probably take a couple weeks off at Christmas, and there might be some other days off thrown in here and there.

 

We still do 5 days a week. Right now, I'm trying to sort of get things on a yearly schedule instead of being out of whack, because I'm neurotic like that. :lol: We started homeschooling in January, so we just changed WWE to the next level this month, we'll be changing SOTW to the next level in October, etc. Math is changing to the next level next month, but I don't expect that one to be in a neat and tidy year-long box, so it's ok, though I do have it scheduled out to finish that level exactly at the end of our "school year" (end of May), so even it is getting in a neat and tidy box if he doesn't fly through it (and I don't think he will).

 

Next year, we'll be on track and probably have more days than curriculum, so I might just drop a subject here and there or do something light in that subject for a bit. We'll see. Or we might just move on. Just depends on the subject and what we feel like doing. :)

[Rosy]

We aim for 36 weeks but spread them through the year, to that works out to schooling 3 weeks/month. We finished the 2010-11 school year in early June, then we took 3 weeks off before we started the 2011-12 school year. We've only been going year-round for about a year, but I really like it because of the flexibility. Also, we're much busier during the school year with activities and such, so I appreciate being able to spread our academic workload out across the year.

[AnnaM]

We are attempting a 6 weeks on 1 week off, and we will take all of December, but honestly we take off when we need to as well. I set yearly goals and we meet those goals inside of that year. Year around school allows us more time to reinforce and go off on tangents. It also means we dont have a 10 week gap where everything they learn falls out of the heads.

[Roxy Roller]

I have heard of many people who only school 4 days a week, but school year round.

 

This is what we do. In the summer we basically do skill subjects like math, spelling, phonics, grammar, handwriting, and reading, because these are subjects that would normally need a 5 day week. We do them so that we are 'ahead', and are able to do a 4 day week during the school year. We generally do content subjects during the regular school year, although my DD11 has already started Apologia General Science, so that science will be a little lighter during the regular year.

 

We still take breaks during the year. We finished up last year during the first week in June, took three weeks totally off, then started again in July and did two weeks, after which we took two weeks for holidays. We are are in the middle of doing a four week run in August, then we will take a week off, have three weeks of school in September, followed by one final week of holidays, before we get going on the rest of the school year. I will also plan for three weeks off at Christmas and probably two more weeks scattered through the spring.

[Snickerdoodle]

I don't really have a set schedule. We just do school work on the days that we don't have other things planned. We school through the summer. We will school when the PS takes their holidays. That way, if a day comes up that we need to take off from doing school, it's no big deal.

 

This is how we do it. We are very busy with activities out of the house so we work when we are home, sat and sun included.

[ezrabean2005]

We've always HS'd year round. Our routine is the same everyday because DH and I work everyday at the same times. We school 6 days a week every evening, taking off one day per week. Our day is about 2 hours for the youngest and about 3 hours for the older ones (teaching time + independent work).

 

We use curriculum that doesn't have games / coloring / extra projects / fluff (we only do science labs around here). We just learn the material, use it, learn more. Then we go on with our life. We are just a family that happens to homeschool (it's not a hobby - it is a means to an education for our children).

[PeacefulChaos]

We are going year round - I'm not sure if my days are shorter than they would be otherwise or not, but I doubt it. Right now we probably get done in 3-4 hours on average. Mine are still young, and we just started the year, so I'm sure it will get longer, both over the course of the year and as they get older. (Our typical day starts around 8 and, based on about how long I think it will end up taking, with breaks for running around, snack, and lunch, ends around 1-2)

Today we went to the park all morning and did our stuff after lunch and had it done in an hour and a half. Tuesdays and Thursdays are a little shorter, on average.

Anyway, I have a basic yearly schedule - we are going to school now for 9 weeks, putting us at our first break on Sept 19 (we started July 18). We'll break for a couple of weeks and then start back Oct 3, and then we're breaking again for a trip Oct 20-25. Once we go back, we'll be going up until Thanksgiving (I don't have anything scheduled for Thanksgiving week, so we can take those days to catch up, if needed) and we're breaking the week after Thanksgiving for dress rehearsals for our Christmas Musical (3-4 hour rehearsals every night + kids in school = not pleasant!) Then we'll go back and have school right up until Christmas. (Dec 23 I think). We'll take 2 weeks off then, and start back January 9. At that point it's another longer stint, like 9-10 weeks, up til mid March. We're taking 2 weeks off the middle/end of March - dress rehearsals for our Easter musical will be the second week of that (Easter musical is the weekend before Easter). We will then go back starting the Monday before Easter, and take off again later in April for another trip. (1 week). Then we'll come back and finish up June 1. Summer break is 6 weeks long.

This is obviously just a very basic schedule - it can change with our needs. But I just find it easier to have something actually written out as our defined breaks and school times, and can then adjust as necessary. I'm a really scheduled person, so its like a requirement for me! lol