Anyone else schooling Jan-Dec?

[mittmaman]

I was wondering whether anyone else was doing an unorthodox school-year of Jan.-Dec.?

What are your reasons for this?

[Closeacademy]

Our school year "officially" begins mid-May but some of our curriculum is done from Jan to Dec. We do math and Latin this way.

[Crissy]

Before we began schooling year-round, we went January-December. I chose to take a long break in the winter rather than the summer months because I am busiest with my work at that time.

[LisaCA]

We are currently on a traditional schedule. There were a couple years when we had a Greenhouse business that we schooled July-Apr.

[Ellie]

it just made more sense to me than September through June. What is that, anyway??? The year begins January 1 and ends December 31. Why does there need to be a "school year" that starts and stops on some random month like September and June??

[GoVanGogh]

We run our school year Jan-Dec.

 

We planned on homeschooling year-round from the start, but at first I ran our 'year' from August to July. We are not using grade levels, instead just working at DS's level of ability and interest. DS has a late December birthday, so I decided it made more sense to run our years from Jan to Dec and just note his age in our records, instead of trying to remember what grade he would be.

The downside - the majority of people in this area strictly follow grades and follow the traditional school schedule, plus they LIVE for summer breaks. It has been stressful (to me) at times when everyone else is rambling on about finishing their year and we are just 'starting' ours. It can be hard enough going against mainstream by homeschooling but throwing in an unconventional school year is downright crazy. (Today was our 54th day of school this year, where most people who record school days would be around 180 or so.)

But I do like running our years this way, so far at least.

DS is young still, but he has always gone through a major developmental 'leap' around his birthday so it just made sense, for me, to up his work around that same time. I also like starting 'new' in the new year. :D

We school year-round with a week break every 5-6 weeks. Depending on the weather, we may take 2-3 weeks off in the late fall and early spring for gardening or outdoor field trips.

[Mamagistra]

it just made more sense to me than September through June. What is that, anyway??? The year begins January 1 and ends December 31. Why does there need to be a "school year" that starts and stops on some random month like September and June??

 

:iagree: High-fivin' my pal, Ellie, here. ;)

 

We just study off and on as we desire. Mostly we ramp things up during the summer when (A) it's sweltering out, and (B) there are children and crowds everywhere. :rolleyes: We typically take a break around Christmas, in early spring, and when regular schools reconvene. :hurray: This just works best for us. :001_smile:

[mittmaman]

We did start January this year and I "kind of like it"...but we are soooo "far behind" (added some resources just recently...after having stumbled on this board...;)) that I am seriously considering "going back" and starting all over in September...

I'll have to think about that...

[dalynnrmc]

We do here, as well.

 

It's too hot (south Texas) in the summer to do anything else, anyway.

 

And we're really busy during the holiday season. Plus, it's dh's busy season for his business (he's a baker) and we like to have the freedom to just stop and spend time with him whenever he happens to have a night off.

 

We take it easy through November and December, and buy new curriculum with income tax return in February.

[swellmomma]

We sort of started this year. I had a baby in mid-september, and between adjusting to her and then the holidays we jsut never really got around to properly starting until January, so we will keep going until the end of November and then take all of December off before starting again. It does make things somewhat challenging with registering, because our facilitator comes for the first visit in October to do our program plan for the year, as we are wrapping up a year, and does the "year end" meeting in mid-May when we are around mid-point.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

We moved last school year, got off track with SOTW 2, so we finished in in the fall (3rd gr), before Thanksgiving and took this past Dec. to do a Christmas symbols lapbook, plus math and grammar -- School "lite." as I call it.

 

So in January we started our (previously planned) 3rd Grade curriculum -- Sonlight Core 3. We'll work with it through the summer (along with math and some Latin review) and plan on finishing it sometime around Thanksgiving, then do something for school lite in December (includes math -- we'll do math practically year round). In January, we'll do a couple mini-units on US history after 1850 until we restart our classical rotation for 5th grade.

 

I've got about 4 weeks planned off in the summer, for swim lessons and vacation, etc. It should work out OK, but I don't know if I'll plan on doing this again. It is too early to see how it will work in the summer. We certainly need some structure during the summer months, or else we all (read: I) go nuts.

[keptwoman]

We school Jan-December because that is our traditional school year. Summer hols are Dec-Feb. Having said that we don't take traditional school holidays, because why bother when we can do it to suit ourselves! But we do take our main break of about 4 weeks over Christmas when we go camping.

[sweetTN]

it just made more sense to me than September through June. What is that, anyway??? The year begins January 1 and ends December 31. Why does there need to be a "school year" that starts and stops on some random month like September and June??

 

I could be wrong, but, I believe the typical September through June school year was because of our agricultural needs...kids needed to be home to help on the farm during the summer.

 

We began our homeschool in August and now just keep going. When we finish a subject or level we just move on.

[Andie]

:iagree: High-fivin' my pal, Ellie, here. ;)

 

We just study off and on as we desire. Mostly we ramp things up during the summer when (A) it's sweltering out, and (B) there are children and crowds everywhere. :rolleyes: We typically take a break around Christmas, in early spring, and when regular schools reconvene. :hurray: This just works best for us. :001_smile:

 

 

So if we end up in Texas in the end, we can meet at the park and have it all to ourselves! :thumbup:

 

This is pretty much how our schedule runs, too, though we go lighter in the summer during baseball and softball, now, so our spring breaks have been shorter.

 

I plan to run the "official" school year from Jan-December with the Little Kids. Leo turns 5 in October, so we'll start K in Jan.

[Jen500]

I plan on year round schooling with flexible time off for trips holidays, etc. I do think of our year from Jan-Dec because we started hs in Jan. so that's when we have to send our annual report to the school district. So Dec is a good time for me to reflect on the past year. My kids are all over the place with grade-level, so we don't really refer to what 'grade' they're in.

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

We are at the moment. My son's birthday is January 1st. He was ready for 1st grade work when he turned 6. I'm a sequential type person. After years of being out of school I no longer think in terms of Sept-June. Starting a year in January and ending it in December makes a lot of sense to me. Especially since we are doing some version of year-round schooling.

[Mamagistra]

So if we end up in Texas in the end, we can meet at the park and have it all to ourselves! :thumbup:

 

Yep! Come on! :auto::D

 

Oh, and I should mention that Valentine's Day is the best day to go to the zoo here: pleasant weather + school valentine parties = one very quiet zoo. ;)

[WagsWife]

We do year round, but our year starts in March. We buy Curriculum with our tax return. It can get a bit confusing trying to decide what grade they are in for Sunday School...but other than that, it works great for us.

[LG Gone Wild]

We got behind with a move, adjusting to house, adjusting to neighborhood, toddler stuff. So anyway, I wanted to have ample off-time for the end of the year due to all the holidays and birthdays.

[Ellie]

:iagree: High-fivin' my pal, Ellie, here. ;)

 

We just study off and on as we desire. Mostly we ramp things up during the summer when (A) it's sweltering out, and (B) there are children and crowds everywhere. :rolleyes: We typically take a break around Christmas, in early spring, and when regular schools reconvene. :hurray: This just works best for us. :001_smile:

 

GMTA :-)

 

There's a group in the San Francisco Bay area that has a "not-back-to-school" picnic in September each year :D

[Andie]

GMTA :-)

 

There's a group in the San Francisco Bay area that has a "not-back-to-school" picnic in September each year :D

 

 

We have a whole circuit that we do the first day that public schools are in. Breakfast out, a nicely deserted store, two parks and the ice cream place that closes the following week... All to ourselves.

 

I'm not as anti-social as I sound. Just anti-crowd. And anti-noise. :D

[Hannah]

We school Jan-December because that is our traditional school year. Summer hols are Dec-Feb.

 

We have the same Southern Hemisphere schedule here.

 

As most of dd's activities follow it, our schedule roughly coincides with the school holidays. We end our school year at the end of November and the new school years starts during the second week of Jan. The winter break is about 3 weeks in June/July. We take other times off to take advantage of "off-season" rates (during school terms) for discount flights to visit my parents and our annual week in July (usually just after the school holidays) in the Kruger Park.