Trying to re-arrange our schedule but....

[naturally]

If you do 4 days of normal work and 1 "easy" day (says electives like art, music, etc and maybe practice math facts), would you count the 5th day?

 

If you do school 4 days a week, how do you plan your yearly schedule? So many weeks off, so many on?

 

We've been schooling basically year-round for a couple years with some breaks (like holidays - knowing they're coming and just taking time off but not really planning it ahead) but no real schedule/term/etc and it's starting to wear on me.

 

If there is a thread somewhere I missed, I'm sorry and feel free to link me to it.

 

Thanks.

[Ellie]

If you do 4 days of normal work and 1 "easy" day (says electives like art, music, etc and maybe practice math facts), would you count the 5th day?

 

Of course.

 

If you do school 4 days a week, how do you plan your yearly schedule? So many weeks off, so many on?

 

We didn't do it that way (x weeks off, x weeks on, etc.). Our Official School Year started in January--because that's when the year IRL begins--and ended December 31--because that's when the year IRL ends. We took off a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter, a couple of weeks in late September/early August (when the public and private schools were starting), and Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. We also took off random days during the year as needed for Mental Health. :D Otherwise, we just kept working on stuff, moving on when we finished something regardless of when that was. I officially Promoted the dc in September, just to keep Sunday school teachers and grandparents happy. Those "grade levels" were irrelevant to anything we were actually doing, of course.

 

With 365 days in a year, I never found it difficult to finish whatever we were working on (nor did I feel compelled to keep working on something we hated).

[naturally]

Thank you.

We have 3 boys - 1yo, K, 3rd.

DH and I talked last night about some of his concerns and I realized how burnout I feel with not having a plan for breaks. We've just always done what felt right but sometimes end up taking more time off than planned. I think if I have something set up, I will look forward to the break rather than feeling like it will never end.

[Ellie]

You can have planned breaks; you just take out your calendar and figure out when you'd like to take them. :-)

[claluck]

We do four day school week here. We live in a small rural area and the local schools do a 4 day school week. My husband works in the public schools (speech pathologist) and his mom and sister (who live a block away) also work in the public schools. So we felt it was just best to stick to that schedule. Plus I dont know how others do it but we tend to get lazy when DH is home. We all just want to play so its really quite important we have most of our school work done in the alloted 4 days. I don't let my kids get off other school holidays though the concept of a 3 day week is ridiculous and I cannot see how it would work for me (presidents day, etc). We do take off christmas and spring break.

 

If your concerned about planning breaks you can do it a number of ways. Go with the local school schedule. Make "terms" up where you do 6, 8 12? whatever amount of weeks then plan a week off.

 

As for the day to day planning we do it a couple different ways. At the beginning of the year I make a big document with all the assignments for the whole year. I tend to steer away from strictly 5 day a week curriculum but have a few items. For 5 day a week curriculum I see where I can squeeze the work into 4 days if possible. Other than that I plan each subject by lesson number not by week. Then every week I have a chart of sorts made up for the kids with everything I would like them to get done that week. It is saved on the computer so I just need to imput different chapter #s or pages or whatever into it. The top of the page has daily items (piano, spanish, math, LA, etc)and the bottom of the page has things that just need to be done by the end of the week. (Ie we do 2 days science, 2 days history, 4 read alouds and 4 individual readings) I dont care what day they do it so long as it is done by the end of the week. Mine are a bit older than yours (4th and 5th grade) but they love the combination of structure and felexibility. If something doesnt get done for whatever reason it gets put on the next weeks sheet. It takes me maybe 30 minutes on Saturday to make the next weeks list up. Usually less. As they go through I mark my master list off to see how the year in general is progressing. I have wide goals, that they are to a certain point by each quarter. So far it has worked out well this year.

 

Not sur eif that was at all helpful but that is what we do.

Christina