Scheduling ... please help!!! (Year Round?)

[mommy5]

We have been doing a year round schedule. We are not good about planning breaks. In fact, I haven't done a lot of breaks this year. I started our year in February and started by scheduling 4 quarters (9 weeks each). We planned to break after baby was born. I only took 2 weeks off and went right back to schooling. We took a few more weeks off in the Summer. That is about it. We are almost done with our school year. I have been taking off 1 week in between quarters, too.

 

What I'm wondering is - is it better to take more frequent breaks that are short ... or fewer longer breaks?

 

I'm thinking about doing 6 weeks on, 1 week off, another 6 weeks on and then break for one month (4 weeks). Repeating 3 times. So basically taking the whole month of April, August, and December off from school. I've never tried this before.

 

Has anybody done this and was it a good fit for your family? My logic is ... if we did it like this, I can focus more attention/time on the younger ones for that whole month ... do more "family" activities and not stress about getting "work" done. It would be more relaxed for those 3 months. This is place of taking a full Summer break.

 

My other idea is to straight through with breaking every 3 weeks with 1 week off. all the way until Christmas of next year. I was going to do this until I came up with this other idea.

 

 

Thoughts?

[3Blessings]

Not a better option- just saying "Go for it!" It sounds like you keep them moving so enjoy some time off. I have found that we have had very productive review-only weeks. Nothing new- just spending more time on what we've enjoyed or solidifying new Greek vocab, etc.

[GoVanGogh]

We school year-round, taking time off when I feel we need it. I don't like having it set in stone too far in advance, as I hate feeling like, "Okay, just one more week til we can take a break!" If I feel we need a break, we will take it then and not push or rush through.

[Farrar]

I've learned that longer breaks works better for us. It gives us a feeling like the break was really something and then when we start back, there's a feeling of excitement. But it may not be so in your family.

[ChandlerMom]

Honestly, you'll find what works for your family.

 

Here, we're like Farrar -- any sort of "break" just messes us up. We school year round, 7-days a week and just take time as needed. OTOH we do take time to free-wheel a bit in place of breaks -- still "schooling" but in a more relaxed fashion, just doing free reading, journaling, and maybe a unit study/discussion type thing.

 

So, you might do X weeks for your "regular" schedule and then take 2-4 week to do a project or unit study where the kids have more freedom. That could give you extra time for the younger kids?

[Ellie]

Instead of scheduling x number of weeks on and off, go through calendar and figure out breaks/vacations; for example, in my family, we took off Thanksgiving through the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter, and a couple of weeks in late August/early September. We just worked on Official School Stuff the rest of the time, and allowed for random, spur-of-the-moment, mental-health breaks.

 

What breaks would *you* want to take?

[kristinannie]

We homeschool year round, but we don't have a set schedule. We basically homeschool whenever we are home. We often do 4 day weeks, giving us more time to do other fun things like field trips. We schedule several weeks off throughout the year to go on vacation. I don't feel guilty at all taking time off when we are sick or when DH had a kidney stone surgery last month. I also take short days or days off when the weather is gorgeous. It is flexible. When my kids are in high school, I will probably keep to a stricter schedule so they can prepare for college, but I love the flexibility. School is more of a lifestyle for us than a schedule. We do take a long Christmas break and the month of May almost completely off.

[ErinE]

I've tried multiple long breaks in a year and it didn't work for my kids. They had a hard time getting back into school mode. I tried six weeks on and one week off; then, dh would need to take a trip to a random location we wanted to visit as a family which would throw off my planning. Thus far, I've settled on planning a fixed number of school weeks and taking breaks when possible.

 

I think you should try different options to find what works best for you. We take a week off as needed, although I know we'll need a bigger break in a few months when the baby arrives. I usually plan for the entire month of July off as a mental reset, but otherwise I don't plan ahead. Given dh's work, we take off when it's convenient for his schedule so I can't formally set our calendar.

[Chelli]

I very loosely plan our school year using the method I describe in this blog post:

 

How I Plan Our Home School Year

 

It makes it easy, IMO. :001_smile:

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

I do 6 on then 1 off, with Thurs/Fri off at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks off at Christmas and New Year's, then a 4-week break in July. Our school year begins in August. It ends up being a 42-week school year. I figure the extra days are for making up what we miss on slow days or sick days.

[MerryAtHope]

I like to do 6 weeks off in the summer and then pretty much school year-round. However, we only do half days on Fridays, or take Fridays off. This makes it easy to make Friday afternoon friend-day, catch up on housework in the am, etc...

 

I find it's hard to get back into a schedule whether we've taken a week off or a month off, and we have to ease back into it--so the 3 weeks on, 1 week off option hasn't ever worked well here. We do also take a week at Thanksgiving, 2 at Christmas, and sometimes some time in the spring.

 

See what works for you! Merry :-)

[*Lulu*]

We've done it a couple different ways. We've gone year-round taking off April, October, and December with a few days here and there in between. I have one child with SPD who seriously struggles when we are off schedule more than a few days so I have moved away from the month off approach. Now we school year-round 5 weeks on one week of super light, mostly independent projects and only take all the way off for holidays.

 

If I could still do the 3 months off spaced across the year I would. There is something delightful about wandering through the best months of spring and fall just enjoying being outside.

Edited October 30, 2012 by BLA5

[Maela]

This is only the beginning of our first year, but I imagine things working the best for us like this:

 

We school year-round, taking time off when I feel we need it. I don't like having it set in stone too far in advance, as I hate feeling like, "Okay, just one more week til we can take a break!" If I feel we need a break, we will take it then and not push or rush through.

 

We homeschool year round, but we don't have a set schedule. We basically homeschool whenever we are home. We often do 4 day weeks, giving us more time to do other fun things like field trips. We schedule several weeks off throughout the year to go on vacation. I don't feel guilty at all taking time off when we are sick or when DH had a kidney stone surgery last month. I also take short days or days off when the weather is gorgeous. It is flexible. When my kids are in high school, I will probably keep to a stricter schedule so they can prepare for college, but I love the flexibility. School is more of a lifestyle for us than a schedule. We do take a long Christmas break and the month of May almost completely off.

[Mommyfaithe]

Instead of scheduling x number of weeks on and off, go through calendar and figure out breaks/vacations; for example, in my family, we took off Thanksgiving through the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter, and a couple of weeks in late August/early September. We just worked on Official School Stuff the rest of the time, and allowed for random, spur-of-the-moment, mental-health breaks.

 

What breaks would *you* want to take?

 

We have an odd "schedule" too...

 

We take an extended break from May until mid Sept....and during that time we do other things that are educational, but do not include textbooks, workbooks, grades or other constraints. We do things like sports, concerts, art classes, swim team and lessons, hiking, gardening, landscaping eyc., etc., etc.

 

Once we start book work, we usually just plow through....taking a week at Christmas until New Years and another at the end of February. (we need a break about then....we all get cabin crazy!).

 

I like us to be finished with all book work by mid-May.....which frees us up for some other learning.

 

Faithe

[mommy5]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I have thought about it ... sometimes 1 week is fine ... but other times (like right now) I long to have multiple weeks off so that I can just be mom and not be in teacher mode the whole year. I feel like I have a hard time just relaxing. Even the last week I took off ... I felt like I needed to rest from finishing a long 9 weeks ... and then I never got much accomplished. I need time to do small projects around the house and to get "reorganized" in many ways (we have a pretty busy house with the ages of our kids). I did like what another poster said that it seems with a longer break we could be re-energized. That is exactly how I feel. We did take a long break last year after moving and hadn't unpacked all of our school stuff. We basically took December off. We were baking everyday and watching Christmas movies and just relaxing as a family. There was no guilt (for me) that we weren't doing school every morning. (We usually school for 4ish hours now per day). There was a time (my 1st year mostly) that I had trouble sticking on schedule everyday ... mostly the ages of my kids ... so we did take multiple 1 day breaks instead of longer ones. I don't feel like that any longer. Also I have to agree with this poster below:

 

 

 

We've done it a couple different ways. We've gone year-round taking off April, October, and December with a few days here and there in between. I have one child with SPD who seriously struggles when we are off schedule more than a few days so I have moved away from the month off approach. Now we school year-round 5 weeks on one week of super light, mostly independent projects and only take all the way off for holidays.

 

If I could still do the 3 months off spaced across the year I would. There is something delightful about wondering through the best months of spring and fall just enjoying being outside.

 

 

Where we live Summer is horrible. I would much rather not break in the Summer at all and take off most of the Fall. I LOVE Fall ... if I wouldn't feel bad about it, I would take off from right now through Christmas and start back in January. I'm thinking of doing lighter schedule from now until Thanksgiving and taking December off and then starting back with our new work in January.

Edited October 30, 2012 by mommy5

[mythreesonz]

We school year round. 9 weeks on and 2-4 weeks off.

We school July through Sept. Take 2 off, school till December 1 take the whole month off, School Jan through mid March take 2 weeks off, School April and May take June off.

[heritagelearningacademy]

Not necessarily a better option, but one that works for us. LOL Our original plan was 6 weeks on, one week off.

 

We started in July and then I had some personal family issues that took me out of town. So we only got 2 weeks in. Then, we got back to it in August and in September we got sick in our house....took another week off. Took a couple days off in October because we were worn out from our crazy sports schedules for the kids.

 

And, now we are done with soccer season until Spring, so we will actually hit it hard until Christmas when we will take a week off of school and then do a week of field trips for school. Then we hit it hard again in January-end of February. I know we will take some rest days come March, April in the height of our sports season again.

 

It works for us to do year round because I like to push ahead hard when we are up to it and go at a more leisurely pace when we need to. In the end, I will get more days in than required.

 

I think that is the beauty about year round schooling....life happens and you can adjust your schedule. Plus, we never have the 2 month drop off of forgotten facts, etc. since we don't take that long off.

 

I will say, we go a little lighter in May/June. Math, Reading and Writing. By then, we have finished up our core subjects for the year but we continue with these.

[PentecostalMom]

We have always schooled year round with no scheduled breaks. We take time off when we need or want to. It works for us!

[Soror]

So far I've liked about a 6wk on/1wk off schedule the best. I try to schedule those breaks around holidays though, stretching and shortening here and there. I like to have breaks every little bit so we have time to catch up on various things around the house- tackle bigger cleaning, organizing and other type projects. Also, it gives me time to tweak things around with school.

 

Right now we are on our 12th week of schooling here(we had a 1 wk break after the 6th wk) and I originally scheduled a break next week. However, I'm also 37 weeks pregnant. I'm hoping to go ahead and school through at least next week and up until delivery if at all possible, we will see though. I have a very loose schedule planned until the end of the year as who knows when the baby will get here and how it all will go.

 

Our first 2 yrs we worked straight through the summer but last year we took the entire summer completely off, I think I'd prefer to do a bit of skill practice here and there though. Ideally I'd like to have our lightest schedule in spring and fall and hit it harder in the coldest and hottest parts of the year. I hate for any of us to stay inside when the weather is nice.

[Amy Jo]

I think either of those ideas are fine. I'm aiming for 6 weeks (30 days) of schoolwork every 2 months (36 weeks a year). I'm going to play by ear how each mini-term is scheduled. This one (Sept/Oct) we had a slow start & missed 2 weeks because everyone got sick, so now we are doing school every day. In November/December I'm going to try a smaller amount of work daily but 6 days a week. I'm thinking about doing 4 days a week in Jan/Feb, since that's usually when the blues hit & I want to experiment to see if more time outdoors helps me to stay positive. So by the end of the year I might know what I want to do! But I still have the benchmark of 30 schooldays per 2 months, so we don't get behind.

[PeacefulChaos]

Well, I voted the second one because I don't really have a better option and I personally like more frequent, shorter breaks.

I will say, though, that I don't schedule our breaks - I just plan on 6 weeks off from the beginning of June to mid-July. Total, I have 9 weeks that I can take off this school year. So far we have taken about 8 days (we are about 14 weeks in or so I think?) randomly - dh is off some weekdays so we have taken off for those - we have had a couple days when we have had doctors appointments because someone isn't feeling well (regular check ups I try to schedule after school hours, but sick appts I just take what we can get) - some days we just haven't felt like it - a couple days we went to the beach - etc. we will take time off when we have company next week, as well as during dress rehearsal week for our musical, etc.

Anyway, all that to say that I have personally found it easier to just check off the days we have taken off and keep a running tally so we don't take too many.

[sleeplessnights]

I schedule 10 weeks of school work for every three months. We take time off as we need it, and do half days on Monday. Usually one of these weeks off per quarter is a science experiment/art project intensive week, which is a nice break from the books. Scheduling 40 weeks a year allows us to slow down when we get to difficult or interesting topics, or have more flexibility when life gets crazy!

[woolybear]

I think the 6 weeks on, 1 week off, etc. idea sounds great for ME. However, with my dc, I find any break longer than 1 week and it is hard to get them (and probably me:001_smile:) back into the swing of school. So, for us, the idea of regularly doing one month off seems a little scary.

 

It might work great for you though.

[Just Jane]

We school year-round, taking time off when I feel we need it. I don't like having it set in stone too far in advance, as I hate feeling like, "Okay, just one more week til we can take a break!" If I feel we need a break, we will take it then and not push or rush through.

 

:iagree: That's what we do too. I like having the flexibility of calling school off when I realize a week is super busy. For things like appointments I just schedule them in one week and it is known that week will be lighter or no school work.

[NittanyJen]

I "pencil in" a break about every six weeks, but I don't tell the kids that. We take breaks as needed, whether it's for a day or two or longer. The penciled in breaks are a reminder for me in case we get rolling and I forget to give them a break after a while :). I could just do school every day of the year :). Our year has worked out each year so far (two) to about 42 weeks, and that seems to give us plenty of time off during the summer to play with friends, go to the pool, and travel, time off in fall and spring when the weather is pleasant to go hiking and biking and just hang out outdoors to read or explore, and time to travel and kick back a bit during the holidays and during the post-holiday late-winter blah season.

 

Like several others have noted, the kids seem to get frustrated and out of sync if we take too much time off.

 

I do have some days I just schedule as alternative schooling days as a different type of mental break-- like larger field trips, practical life skills, and so forth, that break the routine now and then. I had them help with our bathroom renovation for a day, and counted it as school-- they had to help figure square footage, learn to paint, and all kinds of good skills as we replaced flooring, painted walls, painted and installed baseboards, and so forth. If the boards are 36" long, and we have to leave 6" difference between the joints in the adjoining planks, how long should each board be in this row? What do you think is the purpose of an expansion joint, and why do you think we need one? Why is it okay to fill the expansion space with silicone? What properties of silicone make that okay? Look how you can sort of see the brush strokes in the wet paint, but the dry paint is smooth. Do you think paint is a liquid, a mixture, or a non-Newtonian substance like oobleck? Why? Here is how to set a nail properly, and then how to bang it on in. If we use granite or some other stone for a countertop that will get wet, why would we want to seal it? If tile and grout is so nasty to clean, why is it so popular to use in bathrooms-- what properties of tile make it an attractive material in wet areas? How can we protect our new wood floor?

 

Sometimes opportunities like that provide a mental break just as well as a vacation, but they're still very educational.

[LMD]

I schedule 10 weeks of school work for every three:grouphug: months. We take time off as we need it, and do half days on Monday. Usually one of these weeks off per quarter is a science experiment/art project intensive week, which is a nice break from the books. Scheduling 40 weeks a year allows us to slow down when we get to difficult or interesting topics, or have more flexibility when life gets crazy!

 

I like this a lot! Thanks for posting.

[Medieval Mom]

We schedule 40 weeks. With 52 weeks in the year, and 40 weeks of school, that leaves us 12 weeks of off. We generally schedule this as one week per month: a week at Thanksgiving, a week at Christmas, a week at New Year's (so, two weeks in a row), etc. It's worked well for us for a few years now.

 

Since I divide our work further into quarters, we complete 10 weeks of school in 3 months.

 

Now, life does not always easily fall into neat weeks. So, I have learned to consider "one week off" as "five days off" per month. We may need three days off at Thanksgiving, and two days off the week before, for example.

 

It works for us! But, I agree with all PP, to do what works best for you!

[Haiku]

We school year-round: four weeks on, one week off, with two weeks at the end of June and two at the holidays.

 

This gives us 40 weeks of school. We also take one day off a week. It works very well for us. We are never "behind," and we are never burnt out.

 

Btw ... you'll notice that 40 (weeks) x 4 (days) gives is 160 days, not 180. That has NEVER been a problem and we always get a full school year accomplished.

 

Tara

[Mommy_of_4]

I don't know if what we do is better. I don't plan for breaks. We take them as life happens but never for more than a few days. This way, I am not stressed about finishing my plans before our scheduled break.

 

:iagree:This is what we do.

[ksr5377]

We're going year round, schooling for about 3 weeks and then taking a week off. My two main reasons for this:

1) I want learning to be more something that's a part of life, not just during certain "school" times, so I thought it made more sense to have it be happening throughout the year.

2) After a longer break it is so difficult for ME to get back in the pattern of getting school work done.

[Holly]

We are trying something different this year. Basically I'm scheduling 3 weeks of school each month, but we are taking breaks as needed. Some days we do 1/2 day, some days we take off completely. Either way, I need to get through those 15 days of work each month. We are on month 2 and already a week behind, so I'm hoping to catch up a bit this winter when we are stuck at home. It's been so hectic this fall with visiting family, dr. visits, and random people rudely stopping by during school hours. :banghead:

[Haiku]

If I didn't schedule specific times off, it would be far to easy to take a break "because we need one" too frequently.

 

Tara

[JFJ in IL]

This is our first year HS'ing after 2 years in the PS system.

I didn't know how/when to plan breaks so I just decided to follow the school district calendar for now.

I do plan on schooling through June and then taking July off completely before starting again August 1st.

[Medieval Mom]

We begin our year (180 required days)' date=' the Monday after the 4th. We "school" for 9 weeks then take 1 week off. We then "school" 9 more weeks. This brings us up to the Friday before Thanksgiving. Starting Thanksgiving week we begin a 6 week break. The Monday after New Years we begin our second semester. We "school" 9 weeks and take 1 off. We then do our last 9 weeks for the year which ends mid May. We have an 8 week summer break.

 

We are always learning even when we are on a break. When we are in "school" mode, that is just when I'm being a bit more diligent that we are covering the 3 Rs on a regular basis. It's when we keep our logs and samples and such which is required in our state.

 

This schedule works for us and has for a few years now. December is a very busy month for us, so we enjoy having the time off. 3 of my 4 kids have their birthday the week of Christmas so it's a nice gift to them to have off and have the time to focus on Christmas and birthday fun.[/quote']

 

Sounds like a lovely plan!

[Medieval Mom]

If I didn't schedule specific times off, it would be far to easy to take a break "because we need one" too frequently.

 

Tara

 

:iagree:

[phathui5]

We go year round and take days off as needed.

[Kathryn]

We don't schedule our breaks, just take them as needed or as DH has time off from work.

[boscopup]

At the beginning of the school year, I marked planned vacations, weeks off due to holidays, etc. then I scheduled in some other breaks, so we have roughly 6-9 weeks of school at a time. We have a few weeks off at the beginning of summer and a few weeks off at Christmas.

 

I ended up with 42 weeks scheduled. Now, when we need a break or life is in the way, we can take a week off without guilt.

 

My kids don't do well taking too long a break, nor do they get back into school mode easily, so neither of your options would work well here, but they might work for you. :)

[nandmsmom]

It's really about what works for your family. We homeschool in a sort of year round fashion. DH has a business that has slow times in january, may and june. As a result, we work on school when we can and take times off when it works for us as a family. It may be months before we have any real break, but then we have a blast doing family things for however long we feel is good. You don't want to burn you or the kids out, so taking a break can be wonderful. It just doesn't have to look like anyone else's break.

[mommy5]

I don't seem to have a problem getting the kids to focus after breaks. I also feel that I *need* scheduled breaks or I just won't take many ... or feel guilty if I do. I do want to take all or most of December off, too.