Q for those who school year round...

[honeymommy4]

If you do school all year with breaks, how often do you break and is this actually harder for some kids - to break the routine?

 

We are very routine oriented. this is part of the reason i am choosing to school year-round. Also would be great to have one week every 5 weeks to plan the next 4 weeks, etc. but how do kids fare when u do this?

 

Does it throw them off or do they welcome the break? And how do you keep things fresh in their minds so you dont have to say, spend lots of time reviewing Math, etc.

 

thanks!!

[edeemarie]

We do school year round for the same reason as you- we NEED the structure or things just get too crazy! During our breaks, which are typically about a month in summer, a few weeks in fall, and a few weeks around Christmas, we focus on the basics. We don't do our "formal" science, history, or geography, but we do continue on with math, language arts, and Bible. I tried taking a break from school completely this Christmas, but it was so hard to get back into the rountine, and they had forgotten some of their math I knew they understood before our break. My plan for the our break right now is to just stick with the basics, and then when it is time to add in the other subjects, I will do that one at a time so we don't get overwhelmed. I am also flexible in the summer so that we don't miss fun opportunities! But if we are at home, we do school work every weekday.

[Ecclecticmum]

We do the year round schooling a bit differently. In that we don't know when we'll "end" and don't know when we'll "begin" until the last minute. We do the 36 formal curriculum, and then "summer school" at own leisure for finishing off enrichments, extras and for stuff like SOTW which goes over the 36 weeks. I *slowly* plan for the next year, whilst we are doing the current year. We also tend to take up natural learning and unit studies. We don't have scheduled breaks, as we work round DH's work schedule. If he gets a week off, we take a week off. If he comes home early, we stop school.

 

After we've "ended" the current years work, and enrichments/extras, we do natural learning whilst I slowly start to get everything ready for the new term. The we have 1 month where everything stops and we do major house overhaul (I am in the middle of this now LOL) When I'm planning I have cut-off dates for new curriculum/enrichments, and an end date for planning/scheduling. Once we have completed scheduling, thats when the 1 month break occurs, and they learn "life skills" (i.e. helping me overhaul the house) I stop every now and again to do something fun (yesterday it was volcano play, day before magnets & sticky bugs exploration).

 

Whenever we're not schooling or amidst a unit study the kids constantly harp on at me about school LOL. What I try to do is have stuff on the Ipad/Iphone/Computer or Self-Directed things that review what they have learnt over the past year, that way they get their "review" and keep everything fresh in their mind, but I don't have to be right beside them and can concentrate on getting the new term started.

 

Not sure if that was the sort of thing your after, but hopefully it gave you a few ideas :001_smile: :grouphug:

[boscopup]

We usually do 6 weeks on, 1 week off. Sometimes I'll still have him do one subject during the break to make the after break week go easier.

 

I try to time my breaks so that we have nice weather outside. That makes break much easier!

 

I've never had my child forget things over a 1 week break, so no extra review needed. He continues to fly through math.

[Mommee & Baba]

We do the year round schooling a bit differently. In that we don't know when we'll "end" and don't know when we'll "begin" until the last minute. We do the 36 formal curriculum, and then "summer school" at own leisure for finishing off enrichments, extras and for stuff like SOTW which goes over the 36 weeks. I *slowly* plan for the next year, whilst we are doing the current year. We also tend to take up natural learning and unit studies. We don't have scheduled breaks, as we work round DH's work schedule. If he gets a week off, we take a week off. If he comes home early, we stop school.

 

After we've "ended" the current years work, and enrichments/extras, we do natural learning whilst I slowly start to get everything ready for the new term. The we have 1 month where everything stops and we do major house overhaul (I am in the middle of this now LOL) When I'm planning I have cut-off dates for new curriculum/enrichments, and an end date for planning/scheduling. Once we have completed scheduling, thats when the 1 month break occurs, and they learn "life skills" (i.e. helping me overhaul the house) I stop every now and again to do something fun (yesterday it was volcano play, day before magnets & sticky bugs exploration).

 

Whenever we're not schooling or amidst a unit study the kids constantly harp on at me about school LOL. What I try to do is have stuff on the Ipad/Iphone/Computer or Self-Directed things that review what they have learnt over the past year, that way they get their "review" and keep everything fresh in their mind, but I don't have to be right beside them and can concentrate on getting the new term started.

 

Not sure if that was the sort of thing your after, but hopefully it gave you a few ideas :001_smile: :grouphug:

 

This describes our way of schooling too!

[Bloggermom]

We take 1-2 weeks off periodically when we suffer from burnout. I just had a baby on April 5th and we are taking about a month off until I can finally get a full night of sleep.

[d.g.]

We school year 'round with regular planned weeks off, with the longest being 2 weeks at Christmas. We also take "sanity/sick days" as needed. DS thrives on routine, and anything else leaves the entire family (and house) a wreck! Even if it's just the core subjects, we have to do something consistently or it all falls apart. I've also found that it's harder for *me* to get back into things if we take more than a week or two off.

[Ellie]

Our home has a routine whether we're doing Official School Stuff or not, so time off from the Official School Stuff is no big deal.

 

We took off Thanksgiving through about the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring; a couple of weeks in late August/early September, and any other random times necessary for mental health. :D

[Walking-Iris]

I plan on going until the end of June. By then we want a break and outside activities start calling our name. I do keep with math and reading/literature throughout the summer though. And we may do projects (science/history/arts) that we didn't get to before. But we definitely get more relaxed. Though we never really stop.

 

I also plan so that some things will be finished before Christmas so we can start something new in Spring. My ds has been wanting an end date in mind lately just for the feeling of accomplishment with being "done"--so this is really the first year I've told him "school" will be done by such and such date...although he knows he has to continue with math! And i have some projects planned that will be fun and he won't even realize it's "school"---sneaky sneaky.

[sleeplessnights]

Our school days typically coincide with Daddy's work days. If he has a Friday off, so do we. I tell the kids that their "job" is schoolwork, so if he's working so are we. If we need a change of pace, we will have an art & science week or something else that is special, but we need the school routine around here too. This also gives us the flexibility to take the day or week off if someone is visiting.

[Farrar]

We wing it. We break when it seems right and we plow through when we need to. I will say that when we first started in K, I didn't appreciate how important breaks were and I don't think I gave us enough. School was so low-level and mostly fun that it didn't seem necessary. Now I get that we need breaks - they help reinvigorate our creativity and focus and give us down time in which important things are discovered. I mean, I feel like we get a good amount of down time anyway, but when we're not doing school, there's time to be bored and therefore time for the kids to, on their own, invent Rube Goldberg machines and start elaborate art projects.

[MomatHWTK]

I don't schedule breaks, life just makes them happen. :glare: Right now we are missing a week of school because I have a bad cold and can't talk. We'll take a few days off mid-week to go to a theme park once it opens, etc.

 

But in general, my oldest needs a steady routine. If we miss more than two days in a row he starts to have more anxiety and meltdowns. This week has been one of those unfortunate times when I've just not been able to pull everything together. I could do videos but it's not the same as far as his need for routine.

 

Anyhoo, yes some kids need the routine, some can snap back into school after the time off. You'll have to do a trial and error to see which kind you have. ;)

[Woodland Mist Academy]

:lurk5:

 

Thanks for starting this thread.

[Shellers]

We homeschool year round without any scheduled breaks. I try and not let my son have more than three days off in a row or he regresses.

[NASDAQ]

We break for religious holidays and Shabbos. Usually they're okay for one day of break, but after a whole week of breaks on and off, we all get ratty.

[ALB]

We school year round and only break for traveling or visitors (which we do often enough to make up quite a lot of breaks). If we're home, we do school.

[kolamum]

I find the best way to get the MOST planning done in your week off is:

 

1. Plan HOW many days you'll plan in {try and keep it to one or two if you can!}

 

2. Only plan during specific times of the day!

 

3. Have things for the kids to do pre-planned.

 

 

When I did it this way I would:

 

1. Go through the normal morning routine {breakfast, dress, chores}

2. Read to the kids {aloud & sometimes them to themselves}

3. Free play for kids; Mom does her thing

4. We had lunch

5. I had the kids eat lunch & then watch a LONGER choice of movie. ;) Sometimes I'd even let them have a double video game turn so I could pull of an extra long session of planning. :D

 

 

Now that I'm using a preplanned curriculum we can use our weeks off differently. :)

[delaney]

A week off kills me! I just can't pull my brain back into school mod easily. I prefer unscheduled days off where we just get math done and then I let them slack to enjoy the weather, or like today when I feel the distinct twinge of a migraine floating around:glare:. If I catch this in time I will go ahead with school. If not I will be back in bed in about an hour fighting nausea.

[Donna]

We school 4 days a week (sometimes 4.5 days) during the "school year" and 2-3 days a week through most of the summer with a week off here and there. Usually our weeks off are around Christmas and when the kids are at camp or on vacation with an occasional week or days for illnesses, crazy days filled with appointments, or when something else strange comes up.

 

I only homeschool my youngest now and she's a flexible kid so she just goes with the flow. A week or two off doesn't seem to matter as far as retention of material. We usually take about 2-3 weeks off at the end of the summer because we have been going to Ireland and then when we get back I have to get the boys ready to go back to school and fit in appointments. I try to coincide our "next school year" with when we start back in September. It doesn't always work in every subject but usually we can fit it that way at least for history and science rotations.