How do you handle short weeks?

[skimomma]

We travel a lot, mostly short, four-day-weekend type trips. Most are not the type of travel where schooling on the road is possible. Many of the programs we use are organized in weekly chunks. So, I find myself frequently scrambling to keep us on the schedule. We are not opposed to schooling year-round so there is no real time-constraint. It just *seems* like a bad idea to mess up the weekly chunks of things like Latin and spelling. I feel like it would be hard to (for example) do two days of Latin, break for a four day weekend, then try to pick up the remaining two days of a week-long unit after taking a break from newish vocabulary/concepts.

 

But I might be wrong.

 

What do others in this situation do? Do you find it important/helpful to maintain the weekly schedule or do you throw the weekly concept out and just go with the time available? And how do you feel your method is working for you?

 

The beginning of the year has traditionally been a difficult transition for my dd but also the time with the most short weeks, so I am hesitant to "rock the boat" by messing with the schedule unless I am fairly confident that it is workable. Otherwise I would just try it and not even look for BTDT advice.

 

Thanks!

[warneral]

We stick to a 4 day a week schedule, so we could either make it work on the 2 weeks surrounding the week. The other thing I do is simply pare down the projects and just stick to what is necessary (3 r's) plus a little history reading.

[Mona]

I schedule my school plans in weeks, too. It is a 5 day schedule with a very light Friday. It always bugged me to get interrupted or have to squeeze things in to finish off a week, but stuff happens. Our very first week this year was cut short due to a family emergency and we only got 3 out 5 days done.

 

I'm done trying to double up. Now, I just label my days day 1, day 2, day 3, etc. instead of using dates. We just start where we left off until it is done. I feel so much more at ease now.

[GoVanGogh]

I threw the weekly concept out a while back and have never regretted it. We have homeschooled six years and I finally feel like our school is working great for us. It allows us the flexibility we want while keeping us on track.

 

Most of our weeks would be considered 'short,' as we rarely school five days in a row. We may school Monday, Thursday, Friday if we have field trips or doctor's appointments Tuesday, Wednesday. It doesn't bother us, nor does it feel choppy.

 

We school year-round and get in 180 or so days of school and we get our material covered. Our schedule works perfectly for us, though others may think it odd.

I did have to make my own lesson planner; I labeled everything Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. I could not wrap my brain around using a weekly planner in a generic way, it was just too painful to me.

 

It just *seems* like a bad idea to mess up the weekly chunks of things like Latin and spelling. I feel like it would be hard to (for example) do two days of Latin, break for a four day weekend, then try to pick up the remaining two days of a week-long unit after taking a break from newish vocabulary/concepts.

We have not had this problem. We just keep working away at Latin, Greek, spelling... Retention has been great, so I don't worry about it.

[SorrelZG]

I've been forced to toss the five day week scheduling thing. Too much stress and doesn't meet the needs of our reality. I have to think day by day, mark lesson progress by child, not by day of week, and school year round.

[sleeplessnights]

Because we have different activities during the week, Monday's work should done on Monday and Thursday's on Thursday. We couldn't do Friday's work on Monday because we have too many activities on Monday.

 

We use MP's curriculum, which schedules several "weekly" subjects. If we're not having school on a particular day (like tomorrow!), we just skip that day's weekly subject for that week and start up again the following week. Although we will not finish all subjects at the same time, this method has worked very well for us.

[GoVanGogh]

Because we have different activities during the week, Monday's work should done on Monday and Thursday's on Thursday. We couldn't do Friday's work on Monday because we have too many activities on Monday.

We have the same issue.

 

I already posted about doing a daily schedule instead of a weekly, but I wanted to address the above.

 

I schedule a min of 3.5 hours of school per day, as that is the amount we can get done easily in the morning if we will be out of the house in the afternoon. Three and a half hours is also the min that I think "makes" a school day for my son's age.

 

So I write out daily lesson plans based on 3.5 hours... But if we will be 'in' all day, then I plan for a longer day of school. I keep a second list of subjects/books that I add in on longer days. (Vocabulary, poetry, etc.)

[mom2boys030507]

The reality for me is that we school 3 days a week for our main school year. We do our main subjects and curriculum, Mon, Tues and Wed. Thursdays are Co-op which is extras for us. Then on Fridays are the once a week, or supplement stuff. Yes, Fridays are school days but they look very different and have their own schedule.

 

As far as scheduling, I just do the next thing. Come June, I figure out where each kid needs to be in a book before they can put it away for the summer. They always continue with math and Greek. I have learned that taking a break in these subjects means lots of review in the fall. We typically wrap up mid to late June and start up Mid Aug.

[skimomma]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I think I will go ahead and allow weeks to spill into each other. Our schedule is just so unpredictable. We have a terminally ill family member that requires a lot of travel, much of it will be unplanned. It will be fine, right?

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I think I will go ahead and allow weeks to spill into each other. Our schedule is just so unpredictable. We have a terminally ill family member that requires a lot of travel, much of it will be unplanned. It will be fine, right?

 

:grouphug: We have dealt with this in the past. Do whatever you need to do to adjust your schedule. As long as you have some method to make sure you are making reasonable progress it will work out over time.

[Soror]

Fwiw I threw out scheduling certain lessons for certain days last year as my perfectionist side would twitch when it didn't go right. I have a weekly goal IRT lessons and regardless of our days I aim to get it in, if for some reason I cannot then I make it up the next week. Last week was a pretty typical 4 day week. This week we were out of the house Mon and Thurs (just made it in a few minutes ago). We did schooling Tues, Wed and will do Fri and some on Sat (as dh is working anyway). Our schedule is not super full though. I only officially have scheduled for ds 2nd- RSD, WWE2, Latin, HTTS and copywork. Literature is more loosely scheduled and everything else is through lit and life and when we want to do it, which could be anytime of the day or week.

[Aspasia]

We stick to a 4 day a week schedule, so we could either make it work on the 2 weeks surrounding the week. The other thing I do is simply pare down the projects and just stick to what is necessary (3 r's) plus a little history reading.

 

This is how I have planned our year. The fifth day is a spill-over day, if necessary. Otherwise, I'm keeping it open for field trips. I just couldn't figure out how I would squeeze in field trips along with our regular afternoon activities without stressing myself out (being "out" with all these animals is stressful enough for me, in general!). Plus, it seems like there are random Monday holidays all over the place and this will keep those days from throwing us off.

Edited August 30, 2012 by infomom

[Jayne J]

Personally, I handle them with a sigh of relief and a glass of wine. :D

[Hunter]

I stopped all Friday testing. I actually dropped certain curricula until I learned it really was okay to stop testing.

[MerryAtHope]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I think I will go ahead and allow weeks to spill into each other. Our schedule is just so unpredictable. We have a terminally ill family member that requires a lot of travel, much of it will be unplanned. It will be fine, right?

 

:grouphug: Yes. At times like these, if you never do Latin it will still be fine.

 

Merry :-)

[Marie131]

I`ve had to throw the 5 day schedule into the shredder this year as I am having pregnancy complications and am at the hospital a minimum of 2 days a week. We are school doing 2-3 days per week and I am really finding it a lot less stressful allowing the weeks to spill over than to try and cram it all in. We are a lot less burned out. Our year will take longer than usual, but that is okay.

[Mom in High Heels]

We do our regular school M-Th and then have a light day on Fri. If we have a day of during the week (like Labor Day next week), we just do the stuff we didn't get to on Fri. Sometimes we double up lessons if we still want to have a light Fri. We may do 2 lessons of one subject in a day if we have time. You have to do what works best for you.

[morosophe]

Homeschool Skedtrack is the online scheduling program that is really set up for "the next thing." I love it!

 

Have you considered doing the Coop versions of your lessons, if any are available? Then you'd be hitting each topic once a week or so. Your children would still have to get their homework done, though.

 

It's not like I have a lot of experience on that front, though. Until last year, I was doing Sonlight's four days a week, and stuff still ran over most of the time on a five-day schedule! I will say that I'm enjoying Biblioplan's three-day history week this year; it makes alternating with science a lot easier.