If your homeschool year is based on starting in January

[~Amanda~]

Come talk to me. I have been thinking a lot about this way of teaching, and at this point, it sort of looks like we somehow just slid into it. Through a combination of me working outside the home, not checking on the kids, the kids not really doing their work... they aren't going to finish this years' work until after September. And I had already planned a K4 schedule with my DD after January, so now I'm wondering if this is how we'll be doing it from now on. how do you schedule your year? 6 weeks on, 1-2 weeks off? are you "ahead" or "behind"? How does this work as far as graduating and going to college? anything else you can offer as advice?

[Snow]

I think people often do the 5-6 weeks on, one off that you mentioned.

 

But I'm also curious about the final year/graduating question.

[Ellie]

Come talk to me. I have been thinking a lot about this way of teaching, and at this point, it sort of looks like we somehow just slid into it. Through a combination of me working outside the home, not checking on the kids, the kids not really doing their work... they aren't going to finish this years' work until after September. And I had already planned a K4 schedule with my DD after January, so now I'm wondering if this is how we'll be doing it from now on. how do you schedule your year? 6 weeks on, 1-2 weeks off? are you "ahead" or "behind"? How does this work as far as graduating and going to college? anything else you can offer as advice?

 

 

Our schedule: A couple of weeks off in the spring around Easter; a couple of weeks off in late August/early September, off from Thanksgiving through about the middle of January, which left us plenty of time to take off randomly for things like grandparents visiting or midweek trips to Disneyland. :-) I "promoted" the dds in September for the sake of Sunday school, group activities based on grade, and grandparents. Otherwise, we just did stuff until we finished, then moved on to the next thing.

 

I graduated both dds on their 16th birthdays (both in May). Both had been attending community college since they were 14, and there didn't seem to be any sense in *not* graduating them.

 

Whom would we be "behind" or "ahead" of?

 

Children can be graduated any time of the year. If they're going to college, and it makes sense to go in the fall, they can still graduate at any time and then work part-time until it's time to start college, or otherwise be productive.

[Elfknitter.#]

We are still a ways from graduating anyone, but we pretty much follow Ellie's year- a week or two off in April and the same for August. It helps that we have an April and August birthday here, so breaks naturally coincide with them. :) From August we go to about Halloween and then slowly taper off as subjects are done. Generally we're off from Thanksgiving til the first Monday after New Year's. In terms of grades, they "promote" each fall. So far, it works for us.

[ladydusk]

We're similar to Ellie.

 

I plan to have a "Senior Thesis" project those last extra six months, but that is a long way from now, so plans may change ;-)

[mumto2]

We tend to fall in with Ellie's basic schedule also. We have our huge influx of new curriculum in the winter months but pretty much keep going year around. We take time off as needed for activities and days out. DH and I were just looking at Dds credits and technically she will graduate mid year. At that point she will be doing enough outside work that she probably won't notice much difference! ;)

[sleeplessnights]

We start in January, but we are usually about a half a year ahead of public school kids. All my boys have fall b-days, so they're more than ready. We aim for 10 weeks of schoolwork each of the 1st 3 quarters (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep) and then about 8 for the last quarter. We try to take all of December as our "summer break."

 

We take days off here and there, but usually the rule is that if Daddy is at work, they are too. We are taking about 2.5 weeks for vacation in April, a week for VBS in June, 2 weeks for tennis camp in July. And we take time off if we've got visitors in town, usually a couple of weeks a year.

 

This schedule works really well for us right now, but I can see how it could get tricky in high school. But since my oldest is in 3rd this year, I'm not worrying about it right now.

[weederberries]

We school almost year-round, beginning in January.

 

We started it because my daughter was ready to begin Kindergarten and I didn't see the sense in waiting 9 months for her to be "old enough." So, in that sense, we are ahead by about a semester for children her age. When she started school, her little brother, only 11 months younger was NOT going to be excluded. He saw to that. And after a few times of getting a different page to color or different phonics or handwriting page, he was NOT going to be left out of that either. So, he stuck with her and has maintained the same level of work as her too. In his case, he's probably about 18 months ahead of his age peers. However, both of them are reluctant writers, so I don't think we'll be ready to begin logic stage writing next year, unless we really just improve by leaps this year. My third child is "ahead" by a 18 months because he started reading before I was ready for him. ;-)

 

Back to your other questions. I'm a stickler for the flexibility of homeschool. ;-) So, I don't schedule our breaks. We take them when life happens or we need them. It works out to every 5 weeks or so, but sometimes we go for long stretches before taking 2 weeks off. The past two years, we've been afforded the opportunity to travel abroad for the month of October (husband's job). I don't consider that time off from school. We do every bit as much, or more, learning while we are there, but it looks a lot different. I bring a math workbook, SOTW text, and some historical fiction or biographies to read. I say, you don't forget who Henry VIII is when you've been in his bedroom and sat at his dining table and Rome isn't so far off when you've made lion roars in the base of the colosseum. When we return, we do what we need to do in order to be done by December 1, but I don't pile on work to make sure we finish this or that. Sometimes a workbook doesn't get completed and we're no worse off for it.

 

We don't school in December. That's our family time to be together, bake, do service projects, and all 3 of my children have birthdays in December. Of course, I slip in some talk of fractions while we measure, but December is a relief when it comes.

 

The best part about homeschooling is making it work for you. I live in a good state for taking our freedoms. We get a lot of work and learning done, whether in the classroom or in ancient architecture.

 

My only concerns with January school:

1. Most kids are out for the summer and we aren't. It's too hot to be outside in Texas anyway, but my kids think it's reason enough to complain. Our breaks never line up with school breaks, so sleepovers and cousin visits aren't easy to arrange.

2. It makes things a little tricky with extra curriculars for age/grade placements. My son should be in the Kindergarten Sunday school class by age, but began 2nd grade this January. He needs more a of a challenge (the teachers agree, but administration doesn't always) so there is always some shuffling at the beginning of a public school year when they "correct" his class placement.

3. My kids are so far ahead at this point, though I expect it to level out eventually, that if we HAD to put them in traditional school for some reason, we'd have a very difficult job placing them.

[weederberries]

I neglected to answer your questions about graduating. Many seniors in our area graduate in December, even from the public schools. I expect that my kids will have taken some classes at the community college by then and will just take a few more that semester. I also plan to arrange internships or mentorships for their senior years, so my plan is that their senior year may actually be three semesters. I'll feel more comfortable about sending my 17 year old daughter to college than I will if she's 16. All of this is speculation, of course. Who knows what changes will come in the next 8 years.

[Melissa in Australia]

We school from January to December. BUT I live in Australia where everyone does that including all the schools.

[Ellie]

My only concerns with January school:

1. Most kids are out for the summer and we aren't. It's too hot to be outside in Texas anyway, but my kids think it's reason enough to complain. Our breaks never line up with school breaks, so sleepovers and cousin visits aren't easy to arrange.

 

Two things: Being busy with school makes it much easier to tell neighborhood children we don't love that gosh, the dc can't come out now because they're doing school. :D And we would have felt comfortable taking time off for sleepovers and cousin visits.

 

 

2. It makes things a little tricky with extra curriculars for age/grade placements. My son should be in the Kindergarten Sunday school class by age, but began 2nd grade this January. He needs more a of a challenge (the teachers agree, but administration doesn't always) so there is always some shuffling at the beginning of a public school year when they "correct" his class placement.

 

I kept my dc *on paper* in the grades they would have been in if they were in school, regardless of what they were doing academically. I think this would work for most people.

 

3. My kids are so far ahead at this point, though I expect it to level out eventually, that if we HAD to put them in traditional school for some reason, we'd have a very difficult job placing them.

 

If you can document their being ahead academically (standardized test scores, for example, which demonstrate their being significantly ahead academically) you're less likely to have problems. Even so, putting a child in class where he's much younger can be a problem...but then, it can be a problem putting him in with his age peers if he's ahead academically, so there you go. Let's hope you never have to deal with that!

[serendipitous journey]

Thanks for this thread. A "January start" makes sense to me because that's when my re-evaluation of what we're doing happens, and we do major curriculum overhauls. But I was having trouble of the idea of promoting in January, and don't want to shuffle Button's history cycle that much -- I've been tacking it to his grade by age (that is, he turned 7 late this August, so we started him in 2nd grade this year and Middle Ages history) and shifting either forward or backward would cause me problems. It hadn't occurred to me to do a "January start" and let the curriculum cycle through, and promote as usual .... thank you Ellie & everybody!

[GoVanGogh]

Come talk to me. I have been thinking a lot about this way of teaching, and at this point, it sort of looks like we somehow just slid into it. Through a combination of me working outside the home, not checking on the kids, the kids not really doing their work... they aren't going to finish this years' work until after September. And I had already planned a K4 schedule with my DD after January, so now I'm wondering if this is how we'll be doing it from now on. how do you schedule your year? 6 weeks on, 1-2 weeks off? are you "ahead" or "behind"? How does this work as far as graduating and going to college? anything else you can offer as advice?

 

I work at my child's level, per subject, so don't view him as "behind" or "ahead." That said, he starts subjects like science or history six months ahead of when he otherwise would.

Our plan is that he will start at a community college whenever he is ready, then transfer to a 4-year university. I went to college as an older adult, so I don't view not starting college as a freshman in the fall term as being odd.

We school off and on year-round. I don't plan out six weeks on/one week off in advance, but take breaks or a day off whenever we need it. Our school years have a very organic flow to them.

 

My only concerns with January school:

1. Most kids are out for the summer and we aren't. It's too hot to be outside in Texas anyway, but my kids think it's reason enough to complain. Our breaks never line up with school breaks, so sleepovers and cousin visits aren't easy to arrange.

2. It makes things a little tricky with extra curriculars for age/grade placements. My son should be in the Kindergarten Sunday school class by age, but began 2nd grade this January. He needs more a of a challenge (the teachers agree, but administration doesn't always) so there is always some shuffling at the beginning of a public school year when they "correct" his class placement.

3. My kids are so far ahead at this point, though I expect it to level out eventually, that if we HAD to put them in traditional school for some reason, we'd have a very difficult job placing them.

 

1.) I like that our school breaks don't line up with the public school. Places like the zoo and science museum are packed during spring break and over the summer. I like that I can take a break the week before spring break and visit when places are less crowded. We plan our own schedule and will take time off for company or sleepovers whenever we want or need. My inlaws always visit sometime in January, but we never know exactly when until they pull in our driveway. I know - starting off our school year - that I will need to drop or scale back on school while they are here. But we keep a very flexible schedule and things like that don't bother me.

We do the bulk of our schooling in the summer, when it is so blazing hot out. I do talk about the benefits of taking time off in the spring and fall, when the weather is wonderful, so DS doesn't complain about schooling in the summer when many friends have time off. Plus, most private schools keep their own schedule anyway, so you can never tell when friends will be in school or not. And - we can still get in four hours of school in the summer before the community pool opens.Or we will school all day, then head to the pool in the evening, as the sun is going down. (Most people are heading home then, as they have to get up for day care/work in the morning.)

In my opinion, there are so many benefits to not keeping with the school schedule.

 

2.) I put DS in outside activities based off where he would be in public school, not where he is at home. Plus, I have found that many outside activities are based off age, not grade. I think Y sports and Sunday school are about the only things DS has ever participated in that went by grade.

It is hard to find appropriate outside activities for children that are advanced, but I look for classes that DS would be the youngest for the age range. Specific academic classes/camps and on-line classes are great for children working ahead.

 

3.) I think that is always an issue, not exclusive to starting your school year in January. Most schools won't even consider bumping a child up one grade - let alone to the child's ability level - so it is a non-issue for many.

[OhanaBee]

We're similar to Ellie.

 

I plan to have a "Senior Thesis" project those last extra six months, but that is a long way from now, so plans may change ;-)

 

 

I really like the idea for a Senior Thesis! My older two couldn't wait to get to CC and graduated early, but my younger one has no desire to attend college before she "has to" - and she's on track to graduate 6 months before her peers.

 

A special project for those last 6 months [if she doesn't change her mind between now and then] is a great way to keep her learning and give her even more autonomy before college.

[mama25angels]

I have a question and i'm not sure how to word it. How did you do it if you'd already started your year in Aug. or Sep.. Did you continue doing shorter days over the summer until Dec. and then took your break? I know we'd have to take a few weeks for camps, but i'd really like to switch our year around to a Jan.-Dec. year.

[GoVanGogh]

I have a question and i'm not sure how to word it. How did you do it if you'd already started your year in Aug. or Sep.. Did you continue doing shorter days over the summer until Dec. and then took your break? I know we'd have to take a few weeks for camps, but i'd really like to switch our year around to a Jan.-Dec. year.

Are you in a regulated state and have to get in a certain number of days a year?

If not, you just switch.

Don't overthink it.

We schooled using a traditional school year for the first 1.5 years, then just switched. So that "school year" only had 70 or so days in it, then the next was a full January-December.

Switching in the middle of a school year didn't affect our studies or breaks at all.

[mama25angels]

Are you in a regulated state and have to get in a certain number of days a year?

If not, you just switch.

Don't overthink it.

We schooled using a traditional school year for the first 1.5 years, then just switched. So that "school year" only had 70 or so days in it, then the next was a full January-December.

Switching in the middle of a school year didn't affect our studies or breaks at all.

 

 

We do have to get in a certain number of days, but we don't turn anything in or report to anyone. I'm sort of wanting to know if I would stop my year now and then just start again in Jan.? Or if I would just keep going with several breaks until Dec. and take our longer break then and restart a new school year in Jan?

[GoVanGogh]

We do have to get in a certain number of days, but we don't turn anything in or report to anyone. I'm sort of wanting to know if I would stop my year now and then just start again in Jan.? Or if I would just keep going with several breaks until Dec. and take our longer break then and restart a new school year in Jan?

 

Do you have a state homeschool org you can contact?

I'm not in a regulated state so switching was easy.

My gut feeling says that if you don't have to show your days or report them to anyone.. I would just keep track of days from now until next January (since this is only Feb), so you have well over 180 days for that counting period and then start in January 2014. I wouldn't record anything where you are short your number of days. (I did, but I'm in a non-reg state.)

[Chelli]

Come talk to me. I have been thinking a lot about this way of teaching, and at this point, it sort of looks like we somehow just slid into it. Through a combination of me working outside the home, not checking on the kids, the kids not really doing their work... they aren't going to finish this years' work until after September. And I had already planned a K4 schedule with my DD after January, so now I'm wondering if this is how we'll be doing it from now on. how do you schedule your year? 6 weeks on, 1-2 weeks off? are you "ahead" or "behind"? How does this work as far as graduating and going to college? anything else you can offer as advice?

 

 

I made up a simple formula that I blogged about here to plan our year.

 

Like a pp said, locking ourselves into certain break weeks never worked out well, but the system outlined in my post above is simple and easily adaptable to any type of homeschool schedule (a year, 9 months, etc.) You might see if there is something in it that will help.

 

And welcome to the January-December club! :hurray:

[mama25angels]

Do you have a state homeschool org you can contact?

I'm not in a regulated state so switching was easy.

My gut feeling says that if you don't have to show your days or report them to anyone.. I would just keep track of days from now until next January (since this is only Feb), so you have well over 180 days for that counting period and then start in January 2014. I wouldn't record anything where you are short your number of days. (I did, but I'm in a non-reg state.)

 

 

 

Thank you!

[EMS83]

We have to report annually and I'm wondering how to switch over, also. We have 365 days to complete 180 days and I started us in August 2012, and I think we have to keep going; there can't be gaps in the years. I think. I suppose I could report one thing and do another because it is basically an honor system, but my conscience won't let me.

[~Amanda~]

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