Do you school all year?

[threebears]

Many people ask me "When are you done with school for the year?" each spring. We never really stop just slow down over the summer. I hate to think that many a hot day we aren't reviewing or getting in some quality learning. And my DD is a math struggler so I have just kept up a math curriculum all summer.

 

So who does a full out school year all year and why? I get tempted sometimes to just keep pluggling through with the next years curriculum only much slower.

 

Who believes a break is needed for all?

[Ruby Rose]

We need a break. We are done now and will start back in July. I plan to do 6 weeks on, 1 week off. I plan to take extra time off when the weather is cooler here, April and October (sometimes). We will also take 2 weeks off for Christmas. It is just too hot here in the summer to be out much so we will be doing school in the heat of it all. I figure it's better than watching tv. :)

[Dustybug]

My kids are still young, but we school year round, taking breaks when needed (a day or two here or there, occasionally a week). I just keep moving on to the next thing. My kids are only preK and K though so they don't have super heavy loads to begin with. Once they are older, I will probably only focus on fun unit studies and the three Rs through the summer.

[Spy Car]

We "after-school" so summer and breaks are times we amplify both fun activities and home education. So yes, we go year round.

 

Bill

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[MrsBear]

We technically finished the school year early this year - last week - when we'd hit the hours requirement for the year, were done with the goals for the year and DS completed the CAT test and I got back his scores.

 

We're now on a two week break which ends Monday when we resume some things for our summer session.

 

From next week through mid-August we'll have a modified schedule that's less intense and much less book & seat work heavy, but some things continue on like reading and math, with other things as they come along like science, geography and history. In mid-August we'll ramp back up to our normal daily schedule.

 

In weeks that DS has a camp (science, art, etc.), we still do reading and math each day too, but for less time those days than days he doesn't have a camp scheduled.

 

Throughout the summer his activity schedule increases significantly, so I really don't want or need to do hours of school - just the basics to maintain skills for math and reading.

[threebears]

We need a break. We are done now and will start back in July. I plan to do 6 weeks on, 1 week off. I plan to take extra time off when the weather is cooler here, April and October (sometimes). We will also take 2 weeks off for Christmas. It is just too hot here in the summer to be out much so we will be doing school in the heat of it all. I figure it's better than watching tv. :)

 

I like this idea! We are done now and would like a long break here but then it will got HOT and I think we could start in for next year at least a few days a week. Then I could afford more time off during the year which is sometimes needed with all the running after school! I feel like to be done in May we have to limit our time off during "normal" school year and then I get stressed.

 

We are not that busy during the week since hubby works anyway and there are a few camps and things but we could still do it.

 

Just curious as to what others think. I have a friend who is against it totally saying she needs the break! I agree but I need more frequent breaks rather than one long one! And I think the kids will not get out of school routine.

[Lara in Colo]

When my two oldest were in public school, the school was on a year round schedule---they think school in summer is normal. Who am I to change their minds?:)

 

 

my children are at each others throats if they have too much time on their hands. I prefer to take our time off when we NEED it (2-3 days here and there over the course of a year)

[Ellie]

Pretty much. We take breaks all during the year instead of one long summer break; for example, we are off from Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. It was not uncommon, when we were in San Diego, to take off in the middle of the week in April to drive up to Disneyland for the day. :)

 

I just figured that there are 365 days in a year, and the dc are learning something all the time, whether we have Official School Books or not. Our school year began January 1 and ended December 31. :D

[Julie Smith]

We school year round. But we are also on what many would consider a light schedule year round.

[Night Elf]

I have always schooled year round. I've never had an interest in following a traditional school year. There are many people who work year round so I don't see why the kids should get a long summer off.

 

I've also enjoyed the flexibility that homeschooling year round provides me. I do not feel guilty or that I'm falling behind if we take a day off here and there. Parents with kids in school cannot just announce they are taking a few days off, but as year-round homeschoolers, we can.

 

Schooling all year also lowers the pressure to get a program done within a 36-week time period. We've had some programs that we finish in less than that. We've had others that have taken us longer. I have always preferred to start one program as one ends. But we have never really cared about grade levels either. I don't feel any pressure to keep up with peers in traditional schools.

 

A few times, at various ages, I've talked with my kids about how they want to structure their time. I have given them the option of being on a traditional time table with the understanding that school will be in session each day our local schools are in session. They have always chosen to school year round because they prefer to choose their school days and off days.

[ezrabean2005]

We school year round, but that is because both DH and I are working year round. We take vacations as we are able (we just went to Florida for a week and took the week off of school) and take days off for scouts, etc. We don't know any different since that is what we've always done, but it works well.

[MariannNOVA]

We are schooling year round. We have times of the year when we do a longer day and times when we do shorter days. Just depends.

[hsmamainva]

My youngest homeschools year round. She has special needs and learns best when there aren't any large breaks in her schedule, so I try not to go more than a week or two without teaching.

 

My 12yo son is on his "summer break" now. We finished up 7th grade 3 weeks ago and will start 8th grade sometime this summer. When it's too hot to play outside, he's happy to begin school in the air conditioning! (Usually around mid-July).

[SwallowTail]

Summers here are miserable, so we do more school then than the rest of the year probably. It allows us to enjoy the fall weather and harvest festivals and holidays.

[justamouse]

We school all year. Because I've learned (by taking it off) that it's just too much time off, and I hate the September Memory Loss. Plus, I like taking long breaks at Advent (where we have tons to prepare for) and Lent (where there's tons to prepare for), so those are family busy times. But summer is just time off. And that gets way boring for us, so what I've learned to do is just stick to the basics for a few hours each day.

 

I also think that we work year round, so why not school year round? I don't know why schools took up that schedule, but I don't need it.

[laundrycrisis]

Regular work on basic 3Rs skills will continue all summer. Too much ground is lost if we stop. We will also continue music lessons through the summer. We will also keep going on history because he has become interested in it and really wants to get up to the explorers. Science for the summer will probably include studies of fluid mechanics involving sprinklers and swimming pools, study of weather by watching clouds float overhead, some birdwatching, and physics with baseballs and frisbees. Summer school days are shorter and less intense, but we do not stop.

[Night Elf]

I also think that we work year round, so why not school year round? I don't know why schools took up that schedule, but I don't need it.

 

I've heard two reasons.

 

1. Kids needed time off to help with harvests. But critics of that reason say it isn't true because rural kids had two sessions because harvests were twice a year. It wasn't all summer off, but a portion of it. I don't recall the exact dates.

 

2. It was determed that too much school for young kids could lead to mental disorders. I don't know the particulars of that either without looking it up.

 

I remember a college course talking about these, maybe educational psychology or something. That particular class always got off on tangents away from the text. I remember a bruhaha about whether or not awarding students with prizes such as stickers or a day off of homework was appropriate to learning. There were some very vocal students for and against it and that discussion took a whole class period. :)

[Soror]

We will be taking a bit of a break and then resuming some light work for the summer so we keep up on our skills and do some fun things as well. I plan to start full force come Aug 1 when it is too hot and miserable to do anything outside and take a big break come T-giving and Christmas when I have a new baby.

[higginszoo]

We live in Texas ... come July/August, the weather is hot and miserable, and we need to be inside much of the day anyway ... so yes, we go pretty much year-round. I usually give them some time (a month or so) where we don't do any formal schooling and keep things as unscheduled as they get (most of their activities -- Boy Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, Tae Kwon Do -- run year round, and dd's riding teacher is away at school during the school year and ONLY available during the summer).

 

This frees us up to go places when the crowds are in school. The Texas Gulf Coast Beaches are beautiful (and empty) the last week of September/first week in October. i also don't mind taking a month off in winter when we're all just ready for a break (though this year, we kept going in some fashion or another and it has worked out so far).

[threebears]

Pretty much. We take breaks all during the year instead of one long summer break; for example, we are off from Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. It was not uncommon, when we were in San Diego, to take off in the middle of the week in April to drive up to Disneyland for the day. :)

 

I just figured that there are 365 days in a year, and the dc are learning something all the time, whether we have Official School Books or not. Our school year began January 1 and ended December 31. :D

 

Great way to look at it! From Jan 1-Dec 31!

[fairfarmhand]

we farm. So we definitely need the summer break from formal academics. BUt then our life is like one giant science project anyway.

[J-rap]

It was a lot easier to school year round when my kids were young. Now that they will be middle and high school, we all definitely need a summer break. Preferably a l-o-n-g one.

 

For us it was the opposite! :) It was much easier to stay on a schedule when the kids were young, and then be done by summer.

 

Once they got to be teens and involved in other things (jobs, music, sports, theater), we decided one of the advantages of homeschooling was to be able to be flexible, and take off from school when we felt it was helpful. This means we often continue with a class or two during the summer (usually math, sometimes others) in order to keep up.

[hsmom2011]

We don't necessarily plan to school year round, but usually have catch up work to do through the summer.

[Runningmom80]

I plan on schooling year round. I'm actually looking forward to setting up a blanket in the yard and doing some math. :)

[purplemama]

"Many people ask me "When are you done with school for the year?" each spring."

I get the same question and I just tell them we school year round and take three week breaks 4 or 5 times per year; usually two weeks in the summer are devoted to various camps.

 

"We never really stop just slow down over the summer."

 

We do this too. We usually don't do language arts over the summer, except for maybe review, but we do math, science and history, and art. We usually are only working on finishing up what is left from the school year.

 

"And my DD is a math struggler so I have just kept up a math curriculum all summer."

 

I continue with math over the summer for the same reason--my DD10 just now is understanding division and I am hoping to get caught up to grade level by the end of next summer after being two years behind for a long time.

 

Not sure how to quote from previous posts. Sorry if it's confusing!

[Hwin]

I plan to have some some light school work during the summer to keep things fresh, and it will probably just be math.

 

I work out of the home full time and my big chunks of time with the kids are the weekend. The rest of the year, I squeeze in schoolwork, but the summer activities are so numerous that something always takes priority.

[Critterfixer]

We school all year. Our schedule is very similar to "C" in TWTM. I divide the year into quarters and we sort of take our breaks by a week or a few days per quarter. But my two started in Kindergarten at home and they don't know that there is something called "summer break.":D

 

Our schedule does change in the summer to allow for a full morning out of doors with school in the afternoon when it is way too hot to be out anyway. During the fall quarter we transition to a morning/afternoon schedule to allow for the same period of outdoor time to be split into morning and after school play time outside to take advantage of better weather. But I've got about the same number of hours of school year around.

[acablue]

My kids are young and we're pretty relaxed about school anyway, but we don't take the whole summer off. We'll continue at the pace we're going now, but take weeks off for camp and family vacations.