garddwr Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Trying to think this through here. We're schooling year-round, which I like because I feel that it is easier to have a consistent routine. So far, we have taken breaks as life required; I have never planned time off of schooling. As our schooling (and life in general) gets more complex, however, I am thinking that I need some time off from school to regroup, manage household logistics, and plan. For those of you who school year-round, what have you found to be the best way to take breaks? I'm playing with several ideas--maybe four weeks of school, then one week without school or (more probably) with a very light school schedule. Or maybe not taking a whole week off, but taking one day out of each week for planning and non-school things. Right now we are schooling Monday-Saturday, with Tuesday and Friday being dedicated almost exclusively to school, and the other days being more minimal school days with other activities. I really feel like having some work done consistently every day is desirable. And it seems that the longer we go without that consistency (even one week off) the harder it is to get back into the swing of things--but I can also tell that we are all headed for burnout if we don't plan in some kind of regular down time (and planning/organizing time). I'm open to anyone's thoughts and experiences. Please let me know what has worked and what has not worked for your family. --Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heart_Mom Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Trying to think this through here. We're schooling year-round, which I like because I feel that it is easier to have a consistent routine. So far, we have taken breaks as life required; I have never planned time off of schooling. As our schooling (and life in general) gets more complex, however, I am thinking that I need some time off from school to regroup, manage household logistics, and plan. For those of you who school year-round, what have you found to be the best way to take breaks? I'm playing with several ideas--maybe four weeks of school, then one week without school or (more probably) with a very light school schedule. Or maybe not taking a whole week off, but taking one day out of each week for planning and non-school things. Right now we are schooling Monday-Saturday, with Tuesday and Friday being dedicated almost exclusively to school, and the other days being more minimal school days with other activities. I really feel like having some work done consistently every day is desirable. And it seems that the longer we go without that consistency (even one week off) the harder it is to get back into the swing of things--but I can also tell that we are all headed for burnout if we don't plan in some kind of regular down time (and planning/organizing time). I'm open to anyone's thoughts and experiences. Please let me know what has worked and what has not worked for your family. --Sarah We do lessons year round and I've tried lots of different ways of taking time off. I usually end up doing way more days than are required. I found that my children don't do well with lack of routine for even a week, so I like doing lessons four days per week. We do take a week off a couple of times per year for vacation and Christmas. HTH! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 We school year-round, but our schedule is much lighter in the summer. We begin with full days of school the end of August. We take two days off for Thanksgiving and two weeks off for Christmas. We start back up the beginning of January and go every day until Mother's Day. We then take another two week break and then go into "summer mode" - which for my dd11 consists of math and reading (usually 2 hours each morning, usually 3 hours for my boys). My boys (16 and 14) have been getting most of their history readings done for the upcoming year during the summer months so that they have more time to focus on their interests during the full-time school year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 We do lessons year round and I've tried lots of different ways of taking time off. I usually end up doing way more days than are required. I found that my children don't do well with lack of routine for even a week, so I like doing lessons four days per week. We do take a week off a couple of times per year for vacation and Christmas. HTH! :) What I bolded is my main concern regarding scheduling a whole week off. I'm playing with the idea of taking Wednesday off from school because we have music lessons that day (which isn't really a day off but makes it hard to fit school work in as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 :bigear: This is our first year, so I don't have any experience or advice to give. My plan is to go year round, but take a couple of days off at a time for holidays and as much time as we want in the summer. Dh is a teacher and off during the summer, so we do a lot of fun things during the week. I plan on doing schoolwork on every day that we aren't doing something fun/traveling. I'm not going to freak out if that means we only do school 1-2 times a week in the summer. And I'm not freaking out if we only do school 3-4 times a week during the 'school year.' Because we'll just be chugging along all year round without any long breaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedClams Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 This is my 7th year homeschooling. We've always schooled year round. During the 'school year' we are pretty consistent - all subjects most every day. We'll take 3-4 weeks vacation throughout the traditional school year. Sometimes more. This year we'll take 6 weeks or so. After spring testing we go lighter - math, bible, read stuff, and finish whatever is left over. We'll take 4 or so weeks off randomly during the summer. For us - 'school' is part of the rhythm of our family so it's weird when we take too much time off. Hope that helps!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyndiLJ Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 We do school year round, and do way more hours than most do. We find we like having time off during the fall and spring more than summer. Weather during summer here can be quite hot, so we all decided we might as well be inside in the cooler air anyway :001_smile: However, we usually only take a week or two off. Any more, and we find that it is too challenging to get back into the groove. However, I won't hesitate a moment to take any day off whenever we want. Scheduling our time off to fit with my husband's work schedule is one of the best parts of homeschooling for us! Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs_JWM Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 We just started doing something that seemed weird at first, but we like it! We do school Sun., Tues., and Thurs., which comes out to 15 days of official school a month and meets the minimum required if we do it every month. It leaves us time to do music lessons and composer studies on Mon., gymnastics with friends and errands on Wed., and artsy projects on Friday. I do housework and laundy on our "off" days, too, and that makes our school days much more focused on...school! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pageta Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 We have 36 weeks in each school year which breaks down to 3 weeks per month. At the beginning of each month, I look at what is going on and what days I have available and plan accordingly. For instance, in December, my husband's company shuts down completely between Christmas and New Year's so we will be finishing our 3 weeks of school before Christmas. During the month I keep track of where we are and how many days I have left that I can opt to take off. My kids do better with routine, so we do four-day weeks usually, taking one day off for errands, library, etc. But when we've needed to, we've done school 5 days a week as well. Every month my goal is to get everything done so I'm either ahead a day or two and I'm definitely not carrying over days into the next month to be done. Every month is different, but one month at a time, we get it all done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 OK, finally starting to find my way around the new board. Since I posted this question not long before the boards went down I want to bump it back up in hopes of some more discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted November 22, 2012 Author Share Posted November 22, 2012 We just started doing something that seemed weird at first, but we like it! We do school Sun., Tues., and Thurs., which comes out to 15 days of official school a month and meets the minimum required if we do it every month. It leaves us time to do music lessons and composer studies on Mon., gymnastics with friends and errands on Wed., and artsy projects on Friday. I do housework and laundy on our "off" days, too, and that makes our school days much more focused on...school! Hm, I like this idea except there are things (math, music practice, foreign language) that I feel need to be done almost every day to really make good progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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