If you school Aug/Sept through May/June

[Quiver0f10]

What are you planned holidays and days off? I am working on our calendar and I am trying to decide on a few days off here and there or 3 weeks over Christmas?

[Samiam]

No planned days off round here, except Wed-Sun of Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Years timeframe.

 

Other than that, I do not plan days off until they come up. Field trips, family outings etc, are usually the only reason we would take a day off. Normally wouldn't take a day off just to have it off, then sit around the house. May do that occasionally just to save my sanity, but if that is the case, it is something I would plan that week, or even that morning,lol!

[Rhonda in TX]

one week at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, one week for Spring Break, any day DH has off. Other than that, I just kind of wing it.

[kokotg]

DH is a hs teacher, so we pretty much follow his schedule. We start beginning of August, take a week off in September, a week for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, and a spring break. He also has a February break, but we'll probably work through that this year since we wound up starting later than he did. When he has random days off (Labor day, etc.) we usually do at least a light day of school unless we have plans to go somewhere all day. I don't like having part of a week off; it's throws off my sense of order :)

[TheReader]

I take birthdays as days off, and any public holiday that means my husband is home rather than at work. Those dates will be different for me than for you since I'm in Brazil, so I won't list them out.

 

I take a fall break (spring break for us) of one week after the 1st nine weeks (so the 10th week is a week off), then a semester break of 4 weeks from Dec 17 to Jan 15. Then a spring break (fall break for us), this year of two weeks because we're likely to have company at that time, again after 9 weeks on (so the 10th/11th week of the 2nd semester is a break). Then nine more weeks and done.

 

We began Aug 8 and our last day of school will be June 1. Aside from the week breaks I've listed there, we have 2 days off in the 1st quarter, 5 days off in the 2nd (holidays/birthday), 2 days off in the 3rd and 2 days off in the 4th.

 

We also do a semi four day week, with the 5th day being a light day so that we have room for catch up/make up to account for those life things that get in the way. For ex, this week we wound up losing Tuesday due to errands I didn't know needed my presence to get done. We did double vocabulary yesterday and will do history reading today (Thurs is our light day) and otherwise are totally caught up, as I'm letting the math day float until they have a free math day next week. If a math quiz falls on a Thurs, they get Friday off from math. This happens often enough that a day missed of math (unscheduled) can be "caught up" by floating the math lesson and then the free Friday becomes the Thursday quiz.

 

Anyway, you can have a day here and there and still have three weeks at Christmas.

[elise1mds]

We start in early August and don't get out till early June; we follow DD's schedule. We take a week off in October, a week for Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas, two weeks for Spring Break, and various other smaller breaks (Labor Day, Easter, MLK Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, etc.) as well. We only have eight weeks for summer, but really that's just long enough for them to really feel like they had a break without getting overly bored. I love the schedule (plus DS' birthday always falls during fall break and DD's birthday always falls during spring break, so they never have to have school on their birthdays, which is a major bonus).

[gingersmom]

I don't plan days off. I'm not that organized. :001_smile:

 

I only plan for 2-3 days off in November and maybe 2-3 days in December.

 

Otherwise we wing it.

[MissKNG]

We also wing it. I take time off around holidays but don't have exact set days.

[Anita in NC]

We start school in August and finish at the end of May. We don't have any planned time off, we just take off when we want.

[Nestof3]

I used to plan these things, but it never worked out. I just go with it and finish anything during the summer. When I did plan, I took birthdays off (more for me to get stuff done than for the child), 2 weeks in December and a couple of days for Thanksgiving. If we took a winter vacation, that was another week. We don't take off for gov't holidays. It seems the schools always have some sort of holiday.

[Ellie]

For us, there was just no reasonable Official School Stuff happening between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we took off that month. Only having one week would have been disastrous. So, yup, that would be the planned time off. Everything else, if we were following your school year, would have been serendipitous.

[Tess in the Burbs]

ours varies depending on fall vacation but this year we are doing wed-sun for turkey day and 3 weeks for Christmas b/c we have a long trip.

 

spring is more like one day here and there and we take 2 weeks in May. hope to finish this year before the may trip but if not then June will finish it up.

[Tree House Academy]

We officially started Aug 1 and will finish on May 18 after 3 days of testing with the Stanford Achievement test. Here are our scheduled breaks...but they are always subject to change. I also will take days off of our scheduled breaks if someone is sick and we have to miss a day.

 

Fall Break : Oct 24-28

Thanksgiving Break: Nov 23-25

Christmas Break: Dec 22 - Jan 1

Spring Break: March 26-30

[cdrumm4448]

No planned days off round here, except Wed-Sun of Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Years timeframe.

 

Other than that, I do not plan days off until they come up. Field trips, family outings etc, are usually the only reason we would take a day off. Normally wouldn't take a day off just to have it off, then sit around the house. May do that occasionally just to save my sanity, but if that is the case, it is something I would plan that week, or even that morning,lol!

 

:iagree:This is what we do, too. Although I did take 3 days off for a garage sale (which my kids help run) as well as vacation.

[elegantlion]

I've found that taking a day off here or there messes with our momentum. I'm trying a new schedule this year, we meant to do it last year but chaos ensued with a move and turned into too much time off.

 

Anyway we'll do 4-6 weeks then take an entire week off. I've divided the school year into six sessions.

 

1) Aug 15th-Sept 9th (off Labor day, then off 12th-16th)

2)Sept 19th -Oct 28th (off Oct 31-Nov 4)

3) Nov 7- Dec 16 (we will take off three days for thanksgiving)

Christmas break Dec 19-Jan 3

4) Jan 4 - Feb 17 (off Feb 20-24, I've found this Feb break to be vital to all)

5) Feb 27 - Apr 6 (off Apr 9-13)

6) Apr 16-June 1 (taking off Memorial Day)

[Soror]

We're doing fall break, Thanksgiving, 1 week for Christmas, spring break, and Easter. 4 day school weeks.

[Soror]

I do still yet plan on doing lite schedule over the summer though but want to finish our main curriculum by the end of May.

[Jenny in Florida]

Our calendar this year looks like this:

 

August 22 - November 23 (Wednesday before Thanksgiving)

November 28 - December 13 (My daughter's birthday is that week.)

 

 

We start August 22. We'll take off half of Thanksgiving week, then school again until December 13. My daughter's birthday is that week, and I've learned that we don't actually get anything done from just before that until after the holidays.

 

So, we're off from mid-December until January 2. From there, we'll go pretty much straight through until March 23, except that we'll take off a day for my son's birthday.

 

We'll take spring break when our local schools (and, therefore, all the extracurriculars and activities) do, from March 24 through April 1. Then, we'll keep going through June 7.

 

At least, that's the plan. It seems like there's always something that gets in the way.

[Susan in TN]

We started a bit earlier than August - July 18th, but here's our basic year.

 

2 weeks off Aug 28- Sept 10 (family vacation)

 

1 week off Nov. 20 - (Thanksgiving week)

 

2 weeks off Dec 25-Jan 7 (Christmas)

 

1 week off March 4 - spring break

 

Summer break begins May 6

 

We may take another week off somewhere in there, but next summer is going to be very busy for us so I'm trying to end as early in the spring as possible.

[abreakfromlife]

This is my tentative schedule. If we don't get everything done, we'll have to go into June, but I really want to just go Labor Day - Memorial Day. We're doing 4 day weeks, but they're going to be sort of long days to get everything in, so we'll see if it works or not. I have one week off at Thanksgiving, 3 weeks and Christmas, and 1 week for spring break - scheduled whenever the weather is nice. So that leaves 33 weeks. My goal is to fit it all in there, but we'll see. On paper I can do it :D

[momofkhm]

What are you planned holidays and days off? I am working on our calendar and I am trying to decide on a few days off here and there or 3 weeks over Christmas?

 

We usually school 9 weeks on, one week off. Then all of Thanksgiving week off. Two weeks off at Christmas. A week off whenever our co-op/outside classes take spring break. Good Friday and Easter Monday off.

 

And then there's the occasion of dh looking at me and saying "I need a vacation. NOW!" Well, then about 2 weeks later we're off for another week. If that happens, it ends up being our spring break cause he does that in February/March.

[Quiver0f10]

Thank you all! So far I have a week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas and a week off for spring break. I think we will just wing the rest as we need a day off.

[Karen in CO]

Thank you all! So far I have a week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas and a week off for spring break. I think we will just wing the rest as we need a day off.

 

Sounds like a good start. Don't forget to include birthdays off. I also add in a few days in the spring and fall to go to the zoo while public school is in, and days in the winter mid-week to ski while the slopes are more empty and the prices are lower. Of course, I just as likely to count those as field trips for school.

[ereks mom]

What are you planned holidays and days off? I am working on our calendar and I am trying to decide on a few days off here and there or 3 weeks over Christmas?

 

I can send you a PDF of our school calendar if you want to see it.

 

Our usual schedule is 6 weeks on, 1 week off, with a 6-week break from Thanksgiving to New Year's and another 6-week break from Memorial Day to July 4. Last year, I stepped away from that, and just scheduled a few days here and there for breaks, plus 3 weeks at Christmas. Without our 1-week breaks, it was probably the single most tiring school year we've ever had in 15 years of homeschooling!

 

I'm going back to our usual schedule this year, but with slight modification: over the course of the summer, the dc participated in 4 weeks' worth of activities that I am counting as school time, so we'll wait until later to start, and we'll take only 4 weeks at Christmas instead of our usual 6.

 

Anyway, here's our schedule for this year:

 

School starts August 22, with holidays as follows:

Labor Day off

October 3-7 off

November 21-25 off

December 12-January 6 off

February 20-24 off

April 9-13 off

May 21-25 standardized testing (Last day of school May 25)

 

I can send you a PDF of our calendar if you want to see it.

Edited August 11, 2011 by ereks mom

[KrissiK]

We started Aug. 1 and generally go till about the 3rd week of June. I do a pattern of 9 weeks on, 1 week off. We take 3 days off at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks off at Christmas, President's Day and then whenever I feel like we need a break. Last year we totalled 185 days.

[Princess Peach]

We follow the local school schedule, with the exception of teacher in-service days. Those days the ps students have off, but we still do school. DH is a teacher.

[cani e porci]

We generally begin the first week of August and run through the first week in May. We take a 2- or 3-week travel break in October or November, around two weeks off at Christmas (depending on what needs to be accomplished to hit our halfway point), and then another week off during the second half of February. The children's birthdays are days off, as are DH's holiday days off from work, but those are few and far between.

 

It sounds like a lot of time off, but we're easily able to get everything done. The time off gives us something to aim for. Even with some huge health-related disruptions and additional unexpected travel last year, we were still able to finish up all but history before the end of April.

[SquirrellyMama]

I do one week in November, 2 weeks in December and a day here and there. We are taking 1 for the state fair next Monday, 3 for vacation the week after the fair. I'm sure there will be some in September, October and then again in March and April.

 

Kelly

[silliness7]

Here's our plan. I just fixed it when our start date got shifted due to curriculum not being ready to ship. :glare:

 

Start Aug. 29th.

School for 5 weeks

Oct. 3rd - week of fall break

School for 6 weeks

Nov. 21 - week of Thanksgiving break

School for 3 weeks

Dec. 19 - 2 weeks of Christmas break

 

Start Jan. 2

School for 6 weeks

Feb. 13th week of winter break

School for 6 weeks

April 2 week of spring break

School for 9 weeks

Last Day of School is June 8.

 

For a grand total of 35 weeks.

 

My oldest son's curriculum is 36 weeks long so he will have one more week in the summer to finish up unless he can cram it in somewhere. I'm hoping that band camp starts on June 11th and not June 4th because then we'll all be squeezing in an extra week after summer has officially started. :tongue_smilie:

 

I could shave a week off of Christmas. I can do that on paper but I know when real life hits I *won't* want to do that .at.all and probably wouldn't stick with the plan. So I'm not even going to try.

 

The perfectionist in me also wishes the schooling segments were all 6 weeks instead of a 5, a 3, and a 9 weeker in there. But real life just doesn't line up so pretty all the time. Oh well!

 

ETA: I hate having short weeks so we do not take off any Monday holidays or gov't holidays. Unfortunately we do not take off Good Friday unless it falls during Spring Break. However, we don't have any GF activities planned during the day. Church service is in the evening so that works for us. I do take the kids' b-days off. Thankfully most of them are in the summer. But because I hate those short weeks I will cram a little bit of the b-day work onto the day before the b-day and the day after the b-day so we still get a full week in. This year my Sept. is on the weekend. My Jan. b-day is turning 3 so we'll still school that day. My March and May b-days fall on Wed. which is band day and lite school anyway so they'll be normal days and we'll do something fun on Sat.

 

I used to wing my days off several years ago but I found that I took MORE days off than I should have to fit everything in. This left me with too much work for the summer. Sometimes more work than could possibly get done in the summer. Planning our breaks keeps me accountable to actually hold school on the days planned. School days are HARD 8-5. It's grueling. But we keep our eye on the prize week coming. I also use some of that week to get the next session organized. I take a full day (teacher in-service) to get it all together and then have 4 days to loaf. I schedule doctor/dentist appointments during those weeks off. We're a generally healthy bunch but if illness happens we play it by ear as to how we'll get back on track. Did it affect one kid for one day? Saturday make-up. Did it affect half the kids for most of a week? Well then there's our week off and we'll have to school during the planned break. Last winter we had a long illness, maybe it was mild flu, it lasted about 10 days for each person but they didn't all get it on day one. It probably took a month for the thing to work it's way down the ranks. Half of us got it, including me. For that, we hobbled along with non-negotiables like math and for other things I ended up just scratching some assignments.

 

 

I also label our sessions Red Calendar, Orange Calendar, etc. ending with Purple Calendar. I use those colored folders to hold that sessions assignments. My dc use corresponding colors for their notebooks. I use the appropriate colored paper for different things that I print out for my dc, not worksheets, typically those are on cheap white and use the appropriate colored marker for grading papers. The only trouble is orange 3-prong folders and notebooks are not to be found in my area. So I use black (blah) And have to sub a brown marker for the yellow. It sounds kind of dumb but it is a psychological trick we play with ourselves. It's a color count-down. We are getting weary toward the end. It's exciting to see that switch to purple and have that visual that YES we are in the home stretch. Don't quit now. :D

Edited August 11, 2011 by silliness7

[Parrothead]

I take off birthdays if they fall on school days. I also take a week at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, and Holy Week off. I also have a week off in October for "potato week." It is some kind of local deal that I've just started this year taking off because dd's friends are off too.

[swellmomma]

I am planning a week off in September to go camping, 2 weeks at christmas, random days off where needed, and possibly a week in the Spring we will see.

[Quiver0f10]

I take off birthdays if they fall on school days. I also take a week at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, and Holy Week off. I also have a week off in October for "potato week." It is some kind of local deal that I've just started this year taking off because dd's friends are off too.

 

When we lived in Fort Fairfield my older kids worked for our neighbor during harvest so we would either start school early in Aug and take a break for harvest or start school around the 1st week of October and finish late.

[Quiver0f10]

I thought @ the 6 weeks on and 1 week off but I don't think that would work well for our family right now.

[Firefly]

We take the Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving, almost all of December until Jan 2 (just to be able to enjoy all the festivities of the season... they also work on handmade gifts), and a week off in late winter/early spring. I give them the option of foregoing that one in order to let out earlier in the summer. We also take Oct 31st, May 1st, September 21 and March 21st off it they fall on regular school days (we're pagan).

[MaMa2005]

DH is a teacher so we follow his schedule. I do start about 10 days early (takes in his pre-planning) and it gets us finished before all the end of school happenings start.

 

Our days off:

Sept 5 - Labor Day

Sept 19-23 - Fall Break

Nov 21-25 - Thanksgiving Break

Dec 19-30 - Christmas Break

Feb 20-24 - Winter Break

April 2-6 - Spring Break

 

I LOVE this schedule. We are usually finished about 2 weeks after Spring Break. Gives us our required days and we actually get almost a full 2.5 months off from school for the summer.

[Emmy]

We take a week in late September, a week at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week end of February, and a week in April. It works out to taking a week off about every 6 weeks.

[Jackie in AR]

Thank you all! So far I have a week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas and a week off for spring break. I think we will just wing the rest as we need a day off.

 

That is exactly what we're doing.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Thanksgiving week off, last two weeks of December off, a week in March off, and a few random days here and there. I've also planned a few weeks as theme weeks- game week, history week, craft week, etc. We'll do different things than our normal school week, but I'll still count it as school.

[DianeW88]

We take most of our time off from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. Then we take off another two weeks in the spring and then about three weeks in the summer. I don't formally write down our vacation time...we kind of wing it. But to me, that's one of the best perks of homeschooling. :D

[Tap]

We take off 3 weeks at Christmas, 2 weeks for spring break. We work through most other holidays and take off random days throughout the year as we want. I used to skip one day a month when I was planning ahead to allow for one random day off a month.