Do u aim for 180 days per yr, so-many-hours per yr? Truancy-related.....

[bridgette]

What do you aim for in your planning? To "match" public school's 180 days/year or what? Do you go August to May and aim for x number or days or do you go year-round or what?

 

I guess I'm getting at: What's parameters guide you in planning adequate/ample educational time at your homeschool?

[ereks mom]

My state requires the equivalent of 180 days of 4.5 hours each.

[Harriet Vane]

The first real question is what does your state require?

 

Having said that, I do not count hours. Some things take longer; others are learned more quickly, and hours spent is an artificial measure that doesn't always reflect reality well. I used to keep track of days, but I don't bother any more. It's not required in my state. At this point, I have homeschooled for so many years I have a good sense of how much time to put in and how much we need to accomplish, so I base our time more on what we have accomplished than on time. That said, we do try to roughly match a normal school schedule even though we homeschool year round. For example, if we take two weeks off mid-fall to vacation, I automatically add that on to summer school in my mind.

 

As long as we spend our days reading, thinking, learning, moving forward on our goals, it's all good.

 

I do also have my kids take standardized tests, but I don't think those tests are an accurate reflection of learning at all. My kids have always done really well on the tests, but I do them more for having the records. Personally, it's far more important to me that my kids are writing well and passing the specific content tests that I give them for the individual subjects they are studying.

[GoVanGogh]

We school from Jan-Dec and I aim for 180ish days of school. We do a lot of field trips and outside classes so I try to plan around 150-160 days of school at home to make sure we get the basics covered.

We school year-round and take breaks where we need them.

[Upward Journey]

I "plan" for 40 weeks. That way if a day gets dropped here or there I don't have to stress about it. I don't count hours. Some of our days take 3-4. Some take much more 6-8, depending on what's being done, a project, science lab....

 

This also allows me to stagger when I start & stop subjects, since most are written w/ a 32-36 week year in mind.

[Soror]

I keep track of hrs because we are supposed to as per the state but my primary concern is that we work consistently and make steady improvement. I aim that we make at least grade level advancement if at all possible (and so far that has been no issue). Most importantly I work to try and keep him challenged at his level in each subject without pushing too hard to be discouraging.

[*Lulu*]

What do you aim for in your planning? To "match" public school's 180 days/year or what? Do you go August to May and aim for x number or days or do you go year-round or what?

 

I guess I'm getting at: What's parameters guide you in planning adequate/ample educational time at your homeschool?

 

When we first started homeschooling I familiarized myself with our state's laws and requirements. While I am in compliance with our state's requirements, I do what works for our family in our schooling and am not trying to match or recreate the public system. Because we adapt school to the needs of our family, what we do now does not look the same as what we did 2, 4, or 6 years ago and I am confident in another few years it will not look the same as it does today.

[boscopup]

My state requires me to list "days absent" (which is kind of funny), but doesn't really give a guideline for how many days I must do. My cover school (which we have to use in order to homeschool in my state) requires 160 days. There are no hours requirements from either the state or my cover school.

 

We school year round, starting at the end of June or beginning of July. We take off a few weeks at Christmas and a few weeks in June, and end the school year at the end of May when local schools end. I take off a week here and there, usually about every 6-9 weeks, depending on vacation plans, things going on in life, or just needing a break. My personal goal is to have at least 180 days, even though that isn't actually required. In reality, I usually have around 200-210 days. Now some of those days may be, "We did math" or "We read history and science", and some may be, "We did a full course load, and I can't believe we finished all that by 1pm!" :D If we have done something resembling official school, I count it as a day. Afterall, even the b&m schools count movie days, field trip days, etc. The last week of school and the last week of Christmas, there is no actual learning going on in most b&m schools around here, at least at the elementary level (high school would have final exams those weeks).

[Homemama2]

We are required to do 180 days. I will count a half day as long as we do what I consider "enough" for the day. For example, the last two days we have all been sick, but we've done a little reading during the day and maybe 1 worksheet. I don't count those days as school. But I think this differs a lot from family to family.

[CookieMonster]

What do you aim for in your planning? To "match" public school's 180 days/year or what? Do you go August to May and aim for x number or days or do you go year-round or what?

 

I guess I'm getting at: What's parameters guide you in planning adequate/ample educational time at your homeschool?

 

I aim for 36 weeks of 'school' in my planning. And I must plan. I cannot fly by the seat of my pants. I do not aim for 36 weeks because that is what the PS do. It just so happens that what works best for my kids, my family, and our current ages and stages is 36 full weeks of planned school. A full week for us is 3 long days, one half day, and one short Friday.

 

We get a tremendous amount done using those parameters.

 

We do six weeks on then one week off, currently, and that works wonders also.

[Ellie]

In California, private schools (that includes homeschoolers) are not required to have a minimum number of school days, so, no, I didn't make any effort to keep track.

 

I figure out of 365 days in a year, my dc would be learning something on at least 180 of them, so if I'd had to keep track, I wouldn't have had any problems.

 

We just kept working on the things we were working on and went on to the next thing when we finished. :)

[Amy Jo]

I'm legally required to do 180 days* of school, so I aim to do that many days with seat work. Right now I'm aiming for 30-35 school days per 2 months.

 

*Actually I'm "required" to have XXX hours (varies by grade) but I have to keep/prove a certain number of days of attendance.

[TheApprentice]

Maryland law states you should work for 180 days, but then in parentheses says they really can't enforce that. I plan for 36 weeks using a year round schedule.

[momtoamiracle]

required to do 180 days. I try to at least get 2 hours of school per day. I have my year scheduled out per Homeschool Skedtrack. We have done 54 days so far, will school until mid July.

 

 

I certainly don't try to emulate public school. We do a lot of our schooling at night, that is the math and phonics part. The rest is kind of freely done through books and videos.

[GoVanGogh]

And you know, I think in a way homeschooled kids have it tougher in a sense because they can't hide behind the 29 other students in the class when the teachers asks them a question to see if they were paying attention. I always know and my kids never fall through the cracks. And they have to answer all of the questions!

:lol: and :iagree:

My FIL was telling me about a homeschool family he knows and said that they have the children retake their tests until they get 100%. He said this like he thought they were cheating. I pointed out to him that I don't allow my child to move on until they know the material 100%. In a classroom, they may be able to move along at 75% or 85%, but this mom expects mastery. :D

[Chrysalis Academy]

I laid out all the math lessons I wanted to do this year and it came to 180 - so I guess that is how many days of school we will do! Math is the only thing I feel like I'm on a schedule for, because I have specific goals about where we want to be for high school in terms of covering all the math and of being prepared for certain sciences in a certain sequence. Everything else, we just start the next thing/level when we finish what we are currently working on. So we'll be starting the next level/era of history in March, the next topic in science in january, and the next level of MCTLA in February.

 

We start a new year/grade level (for labelling purposes only) when everyone else around here does, in August. We take time off as needed and will wind down most subjects in May, but will keep working on Math till it's done, which may not be till late June. Then we'll start the "new" year next August.

[ErinE]

What do you aim for in your planning? To "match" public school's 180 days/year or what? Do you go August to May and aim for x number or days or do you go year-round or what?

 

I guess I'm getting at: What's parameters guide you in planning adequate/ample educational time at your homeschool?

 

It depends on your state. I schooled in one that required a certain number of hours (but no tracking), another that required a certain number of days (with tracking), and now a state that has no requirements at all.

 

Since I'm a lazy planner, I print out all my papers at the start of the year and sort it out in weeks. The year before I had 36, last year it was 40, and this year it was 42. We work through the weeks until we're done. For family members and friends, "grade up" occurs in August.

[texasmama]

Our state does not have requirements on number of days/hours for homeschoolers.

 

We follow a 36 week curriculum schedule which varies greatly regarding number of hours per day because of my work schedule, among other variables. We take a week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks off at Christmas and a Spring Break. We do light school (mostly read alouds or things that got bumped from our regular year's schedule) over the summer. We go from late August to the end of May, approximately, bending when life needs us to, such as the year when my dad was hospitalized several times and needed a lot of care from me.

[Farrar]

I don't bother keeping track. We do something educational every day. I make sure we're progressing with basic skills at a rate that I am comfortable with. I'm good with that and as long as I don't have to count, I won't bother.

[mythreesonz]

My state requires 9 months of continious learning with reasonable holidays.

We school year round and I have about 8 months of "work" the rest we use as field trips and extras.

[MerryAtHope]

I plan on 180 days, but when I take them and how we work our day really doesn't look like a PS calendar! You mentioned truancy, and I'm not sure how that relates to your questions--in our town, we have a daytime curfew that says kids under a certain age can't be out by themselves before 2pm. That doesn't prevent us from going to the library or running errands, going to the park and so on--it just means I need to be with them. I never worry about taking days off that the PS is in session though, if that's what you mean. We just do our thing! Merry :-)

[ccolopy]

We're supposed to have 900 hours, but I have no idea what I would "count" in those hours (PE, music, art, reading?), so I just don't keep track. I'm sure it's well over 900 hours anyway. We school 35/36 weeks, plus a much lighter schedule over the summer. We only take time completely off for summer camp, vacations, Christmas and Easter.

[mothergooseof4]

No requirements here. I don't bother to schedule or keep track of how many days or hours we have done. Honestly, I have recently even stopped keeping track of what work we have done. We have all of the written work, but the only other record of what's done is a page listing the books they have read.

 

I plan to school four days per week, and most days that happens. But, if we need to take off for some reason, we do. If we are only home a while, we may do a few things instead of a full day. If I REALLY feel "behind" we may double up on something or skip something I see unnecessary. We go year-round, but take breaks when we need them. In the end, the curriculum gets finished, and I am sure we do more actual instruction time than ps. We advance grades in August when our church moves the kids to their new Sunday School classes.

[Tess in the Burbs]

I kept track the first few years and we were getting over 180 days. We use some curriculum that is 36 weeks. I finish it but sometimes we combine weeks. but I know if we finish the math book we more than did enough days, lol. We don't have a specific law mandating attendance records but I do have a check off sheet for my own guidance.

[KrissiK]

I schedule 190-200 days. We have co-op days, which I count as school days, but we don't get our own curriculum done, and I'm a stickler for getting our curriculum done. So, we usually go above 180 counted days of school.

[threedogfarm]

Our state does not have any requirements as far as attendance, hours, or minimum days homeschooling. I do agree with other posters--as long as we are progressing and putting in a year's worth of work, the amount of hours/days this takes is not a consideration for me. We work hard at school but we also spend a lot of time on field trips, etc. doing more fun things that public schoolers do not have the opportunity to do.

Edited November 8, 2012 by threedogfarm
"truancy related" and posted by "visitor" in title but not in question. What does this mean?

[a27mom]

I'm blessed to live in a state w/ no requirements. I have basic ideas of what we need to accomplish at each stage. When we finish that we move onto the next thing. At this point my daughter is ahead of the goals so scheduling is not a big deal.

 

I do however tell everyone else that we plan to have school Tuesday through Friday when ps is in session. That way I don't have others demanding my time. And i make more deliberate decisions about what we do those days. How much actual sitting down with "the books" we do on those days varies.

[Laura Corin]

I used to do as many weeks as the state schools do here: around 39 weeks. I didn't do as many hours each day as the schools do, as home education in the early years is more efficient.

 

Laura

[mamatohaleybug]

We aim for 40 weeks with 5 6-hour days per week per year. That exceeds what we are required to do. Some days we accomplish a whole lot more than other days. It all balances out over the year.

 

We love to travel so some travel days are counted as school days, others aren't. In the end, we're doing more than public schools in our state and that makes me feel good.

 

That said, I don't worry about this as far as state requirements go. We do our own thing and don't give a fig what our state requires. :)

[NASDAQ]

I do schoolwork every day except Sabbath and holidays unless there is some Highly Pressing Reason not to. Like, I am in hospital giving birth.

[Momof3littles]

My state requires 180 days or X hrs. Much easier to count days. It is a joke anyway, IMO, as on weekends we regularly attend educational events (performances, festivals, historical re-enactments, museums). My DS1 reads voraciously. So sometimes I check off days including weekends, but then I figure that probably annoys the district. I don't really care though. I just make it as easy as I possibly can on myself to document. I have to jump through enough silly hoops in my state as it is.

 

My state's law is very annoying, but they state that HS hours/days need not match up with school district's schedule. So for example, two working parents could HS in the evenings and on weekends to get their days in.

 

eta: we school year around. I don't stop at my 180 days; I just know I'm "official" at that point. I count weekends, etc. as I see fit more just to point out how silly it is to ask HSers to count days. I feel like our whole life is educationally rich with discussion, books, games, etc. and it is silly to separate "school" and non school days.

Edited November 9, 2012 by Momof3littles

[Dmmetler]

I'm required to report 180 days a year, and 4.5 hours is considered a day. In practice, we've yet to have a year where we aren't over 220 or so days, because in general, if we're home, we're doing school unless there's some REALLY good reason not to. I don't count anything done on weekends or when we're on vacation or have family visiting from out of town, even if it's more "Educational" than some of our "school" days.

[momto2Cs]

In California, private schools (that includes homeschoolers) are not required to have a minimum number of school days, so, no, I didn't make any effort to keep track.

 

I figure out of 365 days in a year, my dc would be learning something on at least 180 of them, so if I'd had to keep track, I wouldn't have had any problems.

 

We just kept working on the things we were working on and went on to the next thing when we finished. :)

 

:iagree: That's how I approach it.

[MeganW]

We school year-round. Our year is July 1 to June 30. I track days in my calendar. I also have the public school days in my calendar. As long as I have more days than they do, all is good! They are around Day 55, and I am at Day 75. :)