Talk to me about a 'true' year-around schedule...

[Coffeetime]

I've always done a longer school year and shorter summer break, so that we can break more often during the school year. But a 'true' year-around schedule is sounding more and more enticing to me.

I'm an extremely "scheduled" person, so it's hard for me to not have a plan for school weeks, holidays, breaks etc. However, this was easy when I had a 3 kids- now with 5 I'm having a really hard time maintaining a strict schedule. Someone is always sick, or there are Doctor's/dentist/orthodontist appointments to go to. Life just gets in the way.

So.... how do you actually DO a year-around school schedule? Do you just keep working at the same pace all year? Or do you work harder during the "school" year and more relaxed during the summer? Or do you just kind of play everything by ear and work at whatever pace is most convenient at the time? Do you just move on to the next thing when you're done with a book?

 

I need details, people! :tongue_smilie:

 

(Apologies if this is completely incoherent. I need more coffee.)

[K&Rs Mom]

So.... how do you actually DO a year-around school schedule? Do you just keep working at the same pace all year? Or do you work harder during the "school" year and more relaxed during the summer? Or do you just kind of play everything by ear and work at whatever pace is most convenient at the time? Do you just move on to the next thing when you're done with a book?

 

Here, it's the same all year - 4-day weeks (often, but not always, Mon-Thu), same subjects, same amount of work. We take a week off every 6-8 weeks, because otherwise I get cranky. Usually I manage to match those up with holidays or travel or events, but sometimes it's just a random week with no school. When someone finishes a workbook, they start the next one within a week or so - I try to keep an eye on how close they are to endings, so I can be sure to actually have the next one in the house. I "promote" grades in June, when the outschools here finish their year, but that has nothing to do with our schoolwork - more a reminder for when someone asks what grade they're in.

[*Lulu*]

We do six weeks on, two weeks off +holidays, all year. I try to save major household projects for the two weeks, and I know if I have to I can cut it to one week to cover lost time.

 

As far as week in, week out goes, I try to schedule all appointments on one particular week day. And we work at more or less the same pace year-round; there are the normal ebbs and flows of life, but I schedule the same in the summer as in the winter.

 

Some things I schedule very closely to complete by year's end (Science and History), other things, (Math and English), we immediately move to the next book when one is completed.

[LittleIzumi]

We take Wednesdays off as that's our super busy day, and I do a different schedule in the summer that fits around our activities. I plan to do more art, music, & outdoor school in the summer, for instance, and maybe drop spelling and phonics entirely until fall. When we finish one book, we celebrate & move on to the next book the next day.

[JessicaLady]

We school year round and it's actually super flexible. I am a control/schedule oriented freak in every other aspect of my life except homeschooling. Only b/c it's what works for my kids.

 

When we finish something, I print out an award and we start the next program the next day. I do not schedule large amounts of time off. I worry about my sons ability to retain info so I really try to not skip more than a week of class. We generally do 4-5 days/wk (sometimes doing class on weekends so DH can mind the younger child).

 

We mostly seem to take time off when we're doing a house project (painting) or someone's sick. They aren't things we prepare for. I don't find that we slack off at any time. We really don't during the summer b/c it's SO hot here that it's worth it to stay inside and do class instead. I've met several others here in TX who do it for this reason.

[Ellie]

Our fixed breaks:

 

Two weeks around Easter

 

Two or three weeks in late August/early September

 

Thanksgiving through the middle of January.

 

Otherwise, we just kept on swimming...er, working. :001_smile:

 

When the weather was nice, there might have been spontaneous field trips to Disneyland in the middle of the week in March; if grandparents had visited from out of town, we would have taken off. We usually took our longer vacations in May, before the public schools let out, but that was not a hard-and-fast rule.

 

I "promoted" dc in the fall, just to keep grandparents, Sunday school teachers, and sports teams happy, but really, we just did stuff all year, and moved on to the next thing when we finished what we were working on or decided we just weren't going to finish it and let it go.

[acurtis75]

We school year round and it's actually super flexible. I am a control/schedule oriented freak in every other aspect of my life except homeschooling. Only b/c it's what works for my kids.

 

When we finish something, I print out an award and we start the next program the next day. I do not schedule large amounts of time off. I worry about my sons ability to retain info so I really try to not skip more than a week of class. We generally do 4-5 days/wk (sometimes doing class on weekends so DH can mind the younger child).

 

We mostly seem to take time off when we're doing a house project (painting) or someone's sick. They aren't things we prepare for. I don't find that we slack off at any time. We really don't during the summer b/c it's SO hot here that it's worth it to stay inside and do class instead. I've met several others here in TX who do it for this reason.

 

This is pretty close to what our schedule looks like. I'm also in TX and find taking time off in times other than the summer works best for us. I also find that life has forced unplanned time off several times so working year round prevents us falling behind even when we have times where life gets in the way of our plans.

 

I try never to go more than a week with no work but occasionally we will have 2 or 3 weeks where we do a minimalist schedule because of travel. We might only do 2 or 3 lessons a day and then she spends lots of time reading. We never skip math for more than a few days. I've found that even when traveling or on vacation dd's behavior benefits from at least doing something for 10 or 15 minutes in the morning and keeping her routines.

[Beth S]

We do school from 8am to noon every day, with about 20 weekdays off per year, plus a week or so off at Christmas.

 

Our high schoolers work until 2 or 2:30pm or so.

 

We put appointments and other activities in the afternoons. And each child has six "No School Today" coupons that they can use each year.

 

There are an infinite amount of creative arrangements, working around husband's work schedule, grandparents' visits, etc. Enjoy the freedom!

[TheApprentice]

Here is our year round schedule this year. We started the 2nd week in July, went for 3 weeks, break for a 1, and continued like this until the week of Thanksgiving. We have that week off, then will return for the last week of Nov. and the 1st week of Dec.

 

We'll start back the 1st week of Jan., go for 3 weeks and then take 1 week off, and continue like that until the 2nd week of June. Take 4 weeks off, then we are back on track the 2nd week of July.

 

The 3 week/1 week schedule really works out for us, especially me.;)

[chicagomom]

. And each child has six "No School Today" coupons that they can use each year.

 

 

This is a great idea. I will have to try this.

 

This is my first year homeschooling, but we do 6 weeks on 1 week off. We will take a 2 week Christas break.

[Coffeetime]

Lots of great, detailed replies, thank you!! :)

 

Here is our year round schedule this year. We started the 2nd week in July, went for 3 weeks, break for a 1, and continued like this until the week of Thanksgiving. We have that week off, then will return for the last week of Nov. and the 1st week of Dec.

 

We'll start back the 1st week of Jan., go for 3 weeks and then take 1 week off, and continue like that until the 2nd week of June. Take 4 weeks off, then we are back on track the 2nd week of July.

 

The 3 week/1 week schedule really works out for us, especially me.;)

 

^^ This sounds very much like how I did last year, only we took 6 weeks in the Summer.

This year, however, I'm just really feeling this need to... let go? I don't even know how to express it. Does anyone just kind of... move along, without 'planned' weeks off and just break when they need it?

 

What I'm kind of envisioning is working through the "school year", just breaking for a day or two or week here and there when we need/feel like it (I do want to keep their longer breaks at the same time as older DS'), and maybe continue the 3 R's all summer while taking a break from History, Science etc. Does that make sense to anyone? The irony of ME even having this conversation is making me laugh. I started my homeschooling journey with such a rigorous, scheduled approach. I feel like I've swung almost to the other side of the pendulum.

[justamouse]

Our fixed breaks:

 

Two weeks around Easter

 

Two or three weeks in late August/early September

 

Thanksgiving through the middle of January.

 

Otherwise, we just kept on swimming...er, working. :001_smile:

 

When the weather was nice, there might have been spontaneous field trips to Disneyland in the middle of the week in March; if grandparents had visited from out of town, we would have taken off. We usually took our longer vacations in May, before the public schools let out, but that was not a hard-and-fast rule.

 

I "promoted" dc in the fall, just to keep grandparents, Sunday school teachers, and sports teams happy, but really, we just did stuff all year, and moved on to the next thing when we finished what we were working on or decided we just weren't going to finish it and let it go.

Apart from going to Disney, yep. :iagree: Though, this year, because MIL is coming up for two weeks this T day, we will school into the first two weeks of Dec, or until I give up.:D

 

My kids get WAY too bored all summer doing nothing. And we swim all afternoon, so we do work from about 9-12 in the summer, then head to the pool. In the dog days of August, we just live by the pool and read.

Edited November 18, 2011 by justamouse

[Wheres Toto]

Or do you just kind of play everything by ear and work at whatever pace is most convenient at the time? Do you just move on to the next thing when you're done with a book?

 

I need details, people! :tongue_smilie:

 

(Apologies if this is completely incoherent. I need more coffee.)

 

This is basically what we do. Play it by ear since I never seem able to predict disruptions to any degree. We move up a grade in our books whenever we finish the one before.

[mom4him]

We start our school year the second full week of Aug. and go pretty steady until Thanksgiving. I schedule in a week of in between but we have only used 2 of those days. We take Thanksgiving week off, go for 2-2 1/2 weeks and take 2-2 1/2 weeks off for Christmas. We start the first Tue. after New Years as our school week is 4 day, Tue. through Friday. I schedule a week off between New Years and Easter, a week at Easter, and a week after Easter. The first week of June we cut back to Math, English/writing, spelling and reading something.:) I like to be finished with what ever I have scheduled by the end of June. We then take July and first part of Aug. totally off. I have had them do the basics through the middle of July if needed but don't think we will need to do that this year.

 

This works well for us. Most of our Dr. appointments can be made for Mondays so that doesn't take a day off of school. If I need a day just as a catch up I can use one from our 'extra' weeks and catch up. With the 3 day week end that doesn't happen very often though. In fact with the 3 day week end it seems like this year really has felt much more stress free.:D

[Night Elf]

We take breaks when we need them. Some days are just OFF days. However, now that the kids are in high school, I encourage them to make up the work in the same week and not get in the habit of pushing everything back.

 

My children haven't done school work together in years. I have never worked on a full school schedule, meaning something planned from a certain date to another certain date. I write out daily checklists for a few weeks in advance only. We didn't really work on grade level material so it didn't matter if we were halfway through with one subject when we finished with another.

 

Now that the kids are in high school, I do have a firm written plan. I've made a chart that lets me know what class my child will be in when one class is completed. My son does 4 classes at one time. He is just finishing Biology and he will be enrolled in Health next. It doesn't matter where he is in the other classes.

 

Actual breaks are never the same. Last year we took all of December off. That was a bad decision. Not only was it difficult to get the kids back in the swing of school, but their classes were stretched out longer than I felt comfortable with. This year, we're taking off Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. For Christmas we're taking off only the week of Dec. 26th. But we have so many days throughout the year where work gets pushed back that I don't feel we can afford long breaks. It's a trade off I guess.

 

We used to have a 4-day work week. That no longer works for my son since he does only 4 classes at a time in high school.

[TxMama]

I think of our school year in 3 months blocks. We do school work for 9 weeks out of each 13 week block. I preplan a few weeks off each year....a couple weeks at Christmas, a week a Thanksgiving, and our planned family vacation. The rest of our breaks are saved for grandma visits, big brother visits, illnesses or "just need a break".

 

I prefer to not take longer than 2 weeks off at a time or to go longer than 8 weeks without a break.

 

HTH

[georgialee]

I'm pretty new to homeschooling, but we are going to be doing a full year approach. My son is in 1st so he's still pretty young & he tends to forget things if we don't keep trucking along.

 

We're doing HOD right now and I find the schedule to be very easy -- so maybe only 1hr a day of actual sit down book work.

 

I'm planning on only taking a few days for Christmas and then probably only actual holidays after that, no summer break so to speak. However, DS is pretty sensitive/emotional so we have usually a day a week that we take completely off so he doesn't get too frustrated with his work. Also, we usually take 2 vacations a year (a week each) and won't do schooling during those.

 

I'll continue this type of schedule until he realizes he's not getting as many breaks as PS kids and then he and I will have to work something out ;)

[Tigger]

We have a good schedule going this year - we started July 1 and we do a light schedule throughout the summer months since DS also did some science, art and sports camps.

 

Our scheduled breaks in the 2011-12 year are:

 

Oct. 14-25

November 23-27

December 22-January 1

February 17-26

May 19-28

 

We'll take additional days as needed.

[happypamama]

We just work at whatever pace is most convenient at the time, and we take breaks whenever we need to. When it's hot, and we get a break in the weather, so that it's pleasant to be outside, we might not do any schoolwork for a day or two. We took a couple of weeks off this summer when our baby was born, and then we started up again but with a handful of subjects. Then we added a few more after a couple of weeks, and the rest after a couple more weeks. I actually really liked that ramping-up schedule, because I turned their grades over July 1, so that let us get used to new curricula and new routines and new levels of work, in a gentle way. Both kids have greater quantities of work this year than they did last year, so adding a few subjects at a time let them get used to it and made it not so overwhelming. I think I will do that again next year.

 

We did a fairly light schedule in June this year. DD's ballet recital was mid-June, and the week of rehearsals plus being 30-something weeks pregnant and trying to get the house and everything ready for the baby was enough for me. It was also just enough of a break for the kids, and we'd already finished our required 180 days and had our evaluation. We just did a bit of reading and history in that time.

[reign]

We do school from 8am to noon every day, with about 20 weekdays off per year, plus a week or so off at Christmas.

 

Our high schoolers work until 2 or 2:30pm or so.

 

We put appointments and other activities in the afternoons. And each child has six "No School Today" coupons that they can use each year.

 

There are an infinite amount of creative arrangements, working around husband's work schedule, grandparents' visits, etc. Enjoy the freedom!

 

This sounds like my goal.

[WeeBeaks]

Does anyone just kind of... move along, without 'planned' weeks off and just break when they need it?

 

 

We do this. We school year round. My oldest son really needs the structure of our day to be pretty much the same day in and day out all year long. Or else his behavior is really uncontrollable.

 

I do lighter days in the summer most of the summer. We take swim classes and do more out of the house. School is probably 50% of what it is during the regular school year, which allows more time for playdates for people who are taking summer off too.

 

We plan a week off in the summer for VBS and a week off between Christmas and New Year (my DH has that week off set in stone as his entire company shuts down for the week). Otherwise we do not schedule time off.

 

DH has trouble taking vacation due to workload. If he is able to get off by some miracle, we take off with him.

[mothergooseof4]

We school 4 days per week with Wednesdays off. Most of my kids are gone on Wednesday, but if one is home and we don't have anything else to do, we may do a lesson or two.

 

I am pretty laid back. We start a new grade in mid-August. I don't schedule breaks so we just take off when needed. Last year I was trying to push through to the end of May and realized that we were all burned out and not much learning was going on. We were just getting it all checked off. So, we called it quits mid-May and then picked back up after a couple of weeks. We only did the basics through the summer, then took a break the first two weeks of August and started up again. After 11 years of hsing, I can say this works for us except for one thing. I probably need to schedule a week OFF here and there. Instead, I get burned out and start finding other things to do and waste a day here, a day there. It probably adds up to more than a whole week off and is not near as refreshing.

 

I get up each day and make out each kid's to-do list based on what we have going on. Most days we do everything. If it is going to be a crazy day, we will at least try to get in math and LA. But, life gets in the way at times and we get nothing done. Other times I simply just don't feel like doing school. Over the course of the year everything gets done. We just move on when we finish a book and don't worry about the grade or level on the cover. We never have an extended break because they lose info and they get bored.

Edited November 19, 2011 by mothergooseofthree

[buddhabelly]

I wanted to remind you of something, but it probably doesn't apply to the OP because she has 5 children. Most of the really fun and interesting camps

(for us, it was the Suzuki Institutes which are music related) happen during public school holidays. We did school year-round, but since we took advantage of summer opportunities, it was mostly night school during the summer.

 

But with five children, the cost for music camps would be insane, so I think your plan would work. And in response to the poster that said it is more than you need... kids get sick, mom gets sick, so .... no extra days.

[pageta]

We do three weeks per month. I take days off during the month as I need them...or I use them to make up days if we somehow get behind. Every year October seems to be a train wreck for us (due to external factors) so we didn't finish our October plans until November 14, but we should be able to catch up by the end of December if we keep our nose to the grindstone and don't take ANY breaks. I've also condensed school into 4 day weeks, so three weeks of school times 4 days is only twelve days per month. We do enough field trips and such to make up for the remaining days quite easily.

[KarenNC]

Every year October seems to be a train wreck for us (due to external factors) so we didn't finish our October plans until November 14, but we should be able to catch up by the end of December if we keep our nose to the grindstone and don't take ANY breaks.

 

Our September always seems like that, so, after 6 years, I've given up and just set a light schedule for that month, which lets me not feel like we are constantly behind. We do year-round. Our scheduled breaks fall in September (week at beach with in-laws), August (week of Girl Scout camp), another week in summer (usually some sort of summer camp), and whenever my husband is off work (so most federal holidays and some days here and there). Other than those, it's rare that we have a full day of no school-related activities at all. This year, we're getting started at 8am and I try to load work on Monday and Thursdays (when we may work into the afternoon), as we have outside classes on Tuesday, often park day on Wednesday afternoon, and field trips/homeschool skate/etc often happen on Fridays. I also do all instructional work first thing, then give all independent work as homework with a deadline to be met (next day, two days later, end of week, etc). That gives more flexibility, as she can pretty easily take her homework in the car if we have to go somewhere or do it in the evening if there's something else that's happening. It seems to be working for us, but then I only have one child and she's in 6th grade, which makes a big difference. We aren't required to track number of hours or days, so I don't know how many we do----bound to be more than the 180.

[DawnM]

I fight against hard and fast weeks on/weeks off schedules. Something always comes up and I worked in year round schools for 16 years.

 

Our schedule when I worked in the schools was 4 months on, 2 months off. We had 163 school days per year and went an extra hour per day so that we had the same number of hours as the schools with 180 days. We simply could not house the numbers of students we had so we had 2/3 of the students there at any given time and 1/3 on vacation. We had no Spring Break and only one week at Christmas as well.

 

We just took 2 weeks off. Dh's firm sent him to Florida for a week and we tagged along and tacked on an additional week so he could have a vacation as well......it was unplanned.

 

I suppose I would do a 3 on, 1 off, or 6 on 2 off if I were hard and fast with our schedule.

 

As it is, we start our new school year July 1 and finish by June 30, with necessary or desired weeks off in the middle.

 

Dawn

[laundrycrisis]

I try to do school work every morning, M-F, year round, unless there is something else that takes a weekday morning. The summer is no different, except there are more things that come up that take a weekday morning, sometimes a week at a time - baseball camp, forest preserve camp, swimming lessons, vacation, and I like field trips in the summer to be in the morning because it is too hot later. I don't schedule the breaks; I just let them happen and know they will happen more in the summer. But making use of the weekdays with nothing to keep us from doing school makes it easier to deal with the things that come up and interrupt school days the rest of the year.

Edited November 19, 2011 by laundrycrisis

[Coffeetime]

Thank you so much for all the great replies! It seems like many of you successfully do what I'm contemplating. I really appreciate hearing all the different ways everyone makes it work for them! Thank you for the insight- I really do think this is what we need right now. :)

[brehon]

I've always done a longer school year and shorter summer break, so that we can break more often during the school year. But a 'true' year-around schedule is sounding more and more enticing to me.

I'm an extremely "scheduled" person, so it's hard for me to not have a plan for school weeks, holidays, breaks etc. However, this was easy when I had a 3 kids- now with 5 I'm having a really hard time maintaining a strict schedule. Someone is always sick, or there are Doctor's/dentist/orthodontist appointments to go to. Life just gets in the way.

So.... how do you actually DO a year-around school schedule? Do you just keep working at the same pace all year? Or do you work harder during the "school" year and more relaxed during the summer? Or do you just kind of play everything by ear and work at whatever pace is most convenient at the time? Do you just move on to the next thing when you're done with a book?

 

I need details, people! :tongue_smilie:

 

(Apologies if this is completely incoherent. I need more coffee.)

 

Well, not to put too fine a point on it -- we just do it! :tongue_smilie:

 

Yes, we generally work at the same pace all year. And, yes, as the kids finish one thing they move on to the next level/book/etc.

 

We work on a term schedule: 9 weeks on, 1 week off. Of course, various appointments, illnesses, life happen and we just keep plugging away. We also take scheduled days off for feast days as we follow the RC Liturgical calender. December tends to be a wash, especially after 6 Dec, as everyone gets into holiday mode.

 

I have 5 kids, too, and find that schooling year round is just easier on everyone because there is no pressure -- perceived or otherwise. Good luck deciding what works best for your family.