Year Round Educators - Help Me Out!

[PachiSusan]

We are seriously discerning a change in the way we do school in our family. We have always started the week after Labor Day and continued through the beginning of June. We have a few things that have changed:

• We moved 2 times in 3 months and we got way behind - like 6-7 weeks behind in some cases. We will not finish school until the beginning of July if we are lucky.
  
• Our second move involved moving to LV, which is extremely hot in the summer and we will be indoors more than outdoors.
  
• We have family here who want to get out and do things when the weather is nice and we want to be able to enjoy those times with Gramma and Grampa. They are also planning a cruise to take us on with them in the Spring, so that's another reason to change up things.
  

 

We planned on using Prima Latina (Or Latina Christiana) and Math as a bridge for a few months with lots of free reading until the next school year starts. I'm really thinking that I want to school through the summer and take two longer breaks during the year; one at Christmas time and one in the spring where the weather is amazing here and we can hike, go on outside field trips, etc...

 

How do you school year round? Do you take longer for the same information and just take your breaks at a different time? Do you blow through the years faster and wind up being ahead of grade level? We have to save up money to get started on next year's curriculum (We do Seton Home Study which is all inclusive) so we can't start 5th grade until we can purchase the books and pay the tuition.

 

Tell me about your year round schooling and how it works for your family.

[IrishMum]

We school year round, but I'm quiet relaxed about finishing things. If we don't get something finished one year, we just finish it the next. No big deal to me. And we often start new things mid year, we just keep moving forward. We take a lot of breaks for travel, 2 weeks at christmas and whenever we need one. If the weather is beautiful we do a few hours of school in the morning, and go to the beach in the afternoon. We do a lot more school work in the winter, it's cold and we don't go out as much. It works for us :)

[quark]

The thing about schooling year-round for me...it started to become more and more successful once I hit the mindset shift of not feeling attached to a school year calendar. It was a little challenging at first to mentally accept this but got easier when I realized we were going to be learning all the time any way. Because we use a virtual charter for the paperwork (we are not limited by the charter on what curriculum to use), and have to hand in some sample work, dated for each particular semester, I was initially a little confused and hesitant. Once I got more comfortable with taking our own time to do things, it became a natural extension of our lifestyle. I think it also helped that my own school year, where I am originally from, followed a Jan-Dec school calendar. So although it was initially a leap of faith sort of thing to do with DS, it didn't really take me very long to adjust.

 

Also, it works for us because I don't plan out school weeks very rigidly. We get to it if we get to it. DH travels extensively so we also like to be flexible enough to take days off to spend with him if he's home on weekdays. My kid is "very spread out" in grade levels across subjects so no matter what I do he is going to be ahead in some areas and behind in others. I gradually dropped pegging him by a grade level and accepted that this is how he learns and just went with it.

 

Somehow, it always turns out that we need to slow down a little in December, February/March and sometimes in May as well. So we do. :) It's really nice to be able to be flexible. Do the next thing, go with the flow, breathe, let's try again etc are catch phrases that I use for myself to let myself know it's ok to relax and just be.

 

I hope that helps Susan and wishing you guys a lovely cruise vacation!

[Ellie]

I always "promoted" the dc in the fall, regardless of what we were doing academically.

 

We took off a couple of weeks in the spring around Easter, a couple of weeks in late August/early September, and Thanksgiving through about the middle of January. We also took off random days as needed for grandparent visits, midweek trips to Disneyland when the weather was nice, and mental health days. :-) Otherwise we just kept working on stuff until we finished, and then we moved on to the next thing, regardless of when that was.

[Murphy101]

We school year round. When we finish something, we just pull out the next thing. For the most part, if dh is working, then we are too. So when we need to take a few days or week off, it's no big deal to do it.

 

I am slowly getting more into the local colleges schedule because now my older kids are taking classes, so I make sure to match up their breaks with our breaks. I also change our daily scheduling to reflect the seasons. In winter, we will work more in the morning so they can enjoy the most heat in the afternoon. In summer, we get up extra early to enjoy the cooler temps before it gets unbearablely hot, then we come to finish our work in the afternoons.

[regentrude]

We educate year round, but we don't school year round, if that makes any sense.

Our summer is educational, but different: Aside from math, which is continued throughout the summer, we do not do formal seat work. The kids read a lot and have time for their creative writing. We listen to TC history lectures on our long drives. We travel, hike, climb, visit national parks, museums and many live theatre performances.

 

DD will catch up on some neglected subjects and work ahead in math.

[weederberries]

We are similar to others here. We like year-round schooling because it is so darn hot in the summer, we can't stand to be outside after 10am. We rearrange our summer schedule to school in the afternoons and be out in the mornings. The rest of the year, we get school out of the way first thing and enjoy the rest of our day.

 

We take time off when we need it. In the summer, when all of our friends are out of school and want to plan fun during the week, we accommodate that. We take a week or 2 off for vacation in the fall, when places are less crowded and cheaper. We take about about a month off between Thanksgiving and Christmas, though we usually do some kind of study related to those holidays.

 

We used to school only 4 days a week, leaving Fridays for relaxing, but taking 3 days off made Mondays difficult for us to refocus, so now we school 5 days a week. Sometimes we finish a curriculum well before the year is over and we just start the new one right away. Sometimes we just take a break from that subject, insert some other fun study and pick it up again in another month or two. Other times, we are finishing up the last few weeks of of a curriculum as our new school year starts.

 

Just go with the flow and feel free to take mental health days, vacations and play out side one beautiful days when they come up.

[mumto2]

We have always schooled year around so that we could take days off just because it is nice out. If I don't have my new curriculum purchased ideally I hit the library fairly hard. I leave the kids home with dh and spend about three hours browsing the shelves for ideas that we haven't done or a particully fun/interesting book. I pull a few that appeal and try to build a bit from there.

 

Since you are new to LV maybe a desert theme. Science could be a study of desert plants and animals. For history gold rush. Should be able to find some math puzzle books to go along with basic worksheets found online to keep skills. The library always has interesting art books, both artist study and projects. Your choices in books will determine how long your studies will take.

 

We use the library to bridge a couple week gap frequently sometimes longer. When we first came to the UK history and science all from the library for the first year. I like to stagger the start of new subjects. With textbooks the first weeks are always the easiest and least time consuming. I prefer different courses at different stages. Since we go all year it is fine. Not sure what your obligations with Seton are. Obviously if they grade the work you need to stick to their schedule.

 

My kids love library school. This year we spent most of our time in the US with library books by choice. I had planned to start our new curriclum as soon as it arrived but they liked their library selections so I let them continue. Dd did french, german, and latin with a variety of books and expanded her vocab greatly. Both found a Lials math book they liked (dd came back with her own copy). History we continued our Modern History studies with books from that library. We did some chemistry and economics too. Ds read a big stack of computer programming books. So it can work short term with older kids too. They just help pick the books. :)

 

I hope this helps

[mumto2]

Double post!

[bobbeym]

We school year round with a 5/1 cycle, plus 2 weeks off at Christmas and in July for camp. That still gives us a 40 week school year so there's plenty of time to lighten things up, take extra breaks, or catch up.

[Rubix]

We school year round, and are trying a new schedule this year. We have decided to do school in Oct/Nov, Jan/Feb, Apr/May, July/Aug. We take off December, March, June, and September. December we're off for Christmas, September is our family vacation time, and June will be for enjoying spring. March, well just because it fit into the rhythm of the other months off!

[happypamama]

We start our school year as close to July 1 as is reasonable (because that's when my state allows me to start counting days); this year, it falls on a Monday, so it or the next day should be our first day. Then we plan for breaks throughout the year; this year, we're planning for three weeks after our baby arrives (with more if we need it), the full week of Thanksgiving, two weeks before Christmas and one week after Christmas (three full weeks off), and the weeks before and after Easter. Plus, our anniversary and all birthdays and DH's few holidays are days off, and we'll have some Fridays that are co-op days/park days/field trips, so they'll count as school days but don't count in my lesson plans. We aim to finish for the year by Memorial Day and will have off between then and July 1, about five weeks. We will probably log over 180 days, but we don't necessarily get ahead of grade level by doing that; we just like the flexibility. Although I have planned to do math every day, for instance, there will be days when it just doesn't get done, and that's okay; we'll still have plenty of time to finish the amount I want to finish. Some of our subjects will probably not take us the entire year to complete, and that's also okay by me. Around March and April, when the weather starts to get nice outside, we'll appreciate having some subjects drop off our list because they're done. (Right now, my kids are finishing math and history, plus some reading, and then they're going outside for large parts of the day.) I tend to plan loosely -- that is, I have daily lesson plans (some of them are just "do the next thing in the book"), but I know that I will have to move some lessons around from time to time.

 

But basically, summer is hot here, and our activities are pretty limited, and winter is cold. But spring and fall are heavenly, so we aim to do the bulk of our work in July, August (most years, not this one since our baby is due mid-August), January, and February, so that we can take breaks at other times and enjoy them. There will be impromptu "school's canceled; spend the day outside" days in October and April, I'm sure!

[nomadgirl]

I am looking to start school year round also, once we finish 4th. We are moving from WV to TX (1 month or so) then to Mexico. I am planning on schooling 5 days and take breaks when needed, nothing scheduled. I am assuming it will be easier to break when we feel we need on and not scheduled but, this will be new for us. I am just planning on schooling until 5th is finished and then start 6th. I don't really want to be held to a calendar.

[Chelli]

We school year round also because of heat and because of life things that happened a couple of years ago.

 

I wrote a blog post about how to determine your yearly homeschool schedule. It's in my signature below, How I Plan Our Homeschool Year. It's a pretty simple method that doesn't involve scheduling on and off weeks, but flows more naturally and more flexible as well.

[weederberries]

We school year round, and are trying a new schedule this year. We have decided to do school in Oct/Nov, Jan/Feb, Apr/May, July/Aug. We take off December, March, June, and September. December we're off for Christmas, September is our family vacation time, and June will be for enjoying spring. March, well just because it fit into the rhythm of the other months off!

 

 

This is an interesting thought! It sounds a lot like the way ours naturally works out. Though, we're already in deep, oppressive summer heat by June. We need March and April off to enjoy the spring. We go through very productive spurts and end up very spotty one month at a time before we buckle down again. I'm not sure if planned breaks would work quite as well for us, but I like your idea.

[Rubix]

This is an interesting thought! It sounds a lot like the way ours naturally works out. Though, we're already in deep, oppressive summer heat by June. We need March and April off to enjoy the spring. We go through very productive spurts and end up very spotty one month at a time before we buckle down again. I'm not sure if planned breaks would work quite as well for us, but I like your idea.

 

Generally here May is nicer than June, and March is still freezing. So, we may end up switching and doing school Jan/Feb/Mar, taking off April and May, and then doing June/July/August. It is so nice to have the flexibility! We'll plan it the way I initially posted but if March looks like it won't be a great month off, we can keep chugging along for another month while we await Spring!

[Ecclecticmum]

Its taken me a couple of years, but I've figured out its practically impossible to do formal school in Summer. It just gets too hot here, causing frustration and tempers to be high. Last Summer we naturally went into a mode that I'll now be using as our model for next Summer, so we'll see how we go with that.

 

We don't do the same "school" in Summer.

Practice stuff for normal thing is relegated to online/computer stuff, or Real Life. I.e. Computer phonics, meauring for cooking etc.

We like ready-to-go activities, so I'll be choosing a couple of Activities in a Bag items, and having them ready for Summer.

We liked the look for RS4K, but it's short, so I was thinking it would be perfect for Summer.

In Summer, we also like doing mini-unit studies, mostly hands-on and based round our interests.

If we are nearly finished a certain subject, and hit summer, we'll concentrate on that subject as a unit-study/block till we finish it.

 

Because of the need for daily drill (especially when talking about missing a whole season of school), I'm thinking of making up a weekly checklist for each child. This will contain mostly hands-off stuff (with a couple of "sit with mom" drills), so if they want to complete their checklist in a day, leaving the rest of the week free to do what they want, they can, if they want to do a bit everyday, they can. If it gets to the end of that week, and they haven't completed the (simple, easy) checklist, then the entire next week becomes hands-on mom drill time, no free-time/fun activities, nobody wants that, and all my kids (except DS who is 50/50 on it) love school, so its not a problem, and the *picture* checklist keeps them on target (having a picture checklist also stops them saying they can't read the checklist (when they can, or just want to pretend they can't memorise it).

 

I also have a checklist on bulletin board that reminds me of everything I want to accomplish for the week (paper inside a page protector, so can be wiped off), showing stuff like "phonics 1 2 3 4 5" obviously saying I want to get 5 seperate phonics lessons done that week, and I tick off as I go. Its not detailed as to lesson numbers, just the subject or book, and the amount of times/lessons I want to accomplish in a week. I'm hoping to transfer over to using the same idea but either on a whiteboard/blackboard or in my filofax, I just haven't figured out exactly where/how yet.

 

With our new setup, my priority is Phonics for Atlas and Speech Therapy for Chaos. Everyday, I spare 10 minutes to do Phonics with Atlas, if I can't spare the 10 minutes, then I look back over the day and figure out why (this hasn't happened as of yet, something is definitely wrong if I can't spare 10 minutes though. Right now, I'm awaiting Atlas to finish her lunch, then we'll do it. Chaos, with Speech Therapy, I haven't read over his new program yet (I just finished printing and binding, I'm hoping to start it tommorrow after reading over the first few bits). If I don't have time to do it with him, as long as I get a few minutes one-on-one time with him each day where I can enunciate clearly, and let him feel my mouth/face as I do so, I'm happy. Yesterday, I did it whilst reading out the instructions for his Developing the Early Learner book, so he learnt about listening and learning to enunciate at the same time, perfect.

 

I'm in the middle of changing over to "do-the-next-thing" type stuff, rather than things that are planned out with week 1-day 1, I find I always get behind in those things. With do the next thing style, I just concentrate on brief lessons (15 minutes is ideal) at a time. Looking in on the really small picture, rather than the big picture that tends to overwhelm me. I can find 15 minutes free today for Chaos' math, perhaps between wiping the sink and folding the laundry. Rather than concentrating on the fact of needing 2+ hours just to get the 3R's done, I more think "I would like to get 3R's of all kids done this morning so we can do konos or unit studies this afternoon, so *1st* I need to find 10 minutes to get Atlas reading done....well I have 10 minutes now! and I get to check that off,....after done. I need to get Chaos Speech done, I can do this when DH is reading to Atlas...so when that happens, I grab DS and do his therapy.

 

Rather than concentrating on "I'm 10 weeks behind" or " I need to still complete 5 lessons today!" maybe just have a running list of the curricula you are using and how much time it would take to do one lesson or one sit down period with that curricula, then, each time you have a few spare minutes between packing or unpacking, you can grab that curricula and the child, sit down and do it, then check it off, and find another spare minute to do the next one.

 

Hope that makes sense, DD is wanting her phonics now, and keeps asking about Ants and Antopia (I think I missed something rofl)

[SFM]

We school year round, and are trying a new schedule this year. We have decided to do school in Oct/Nov, Jan/Feb, Apr/May, July/Aug. We take off December, March, June, and September. December we're off for Christmas, September is our family vacation time, and June will be for enjoying spring. March, well just because it fit into the rhythm of the other months off!

 

 

Very interesting idea, I think I might change it to work with what months work best for us but great idea.

[PachiSusan]

Thank you ladies!!! I'm really enjoying reading how you do things in your family!! Keep 'em coming!!

[Elfknitter.#]

We go year round. I'm more of a stickler about routines Sept-mid Nov., Jan-Mar, Jun-early Aug. We have an April and August birthday, so we take a week off for that. April- May is usually nice weather, so we do more outings. Since summers are hot, we school more then because we're indoors as is. December is plain out because of the winter holidays. Depending on where we are by mid-October, subjects will end by or before Thanksgiving. If we need more time, we go into December.

 

I promote in the fall for grade levels but new curricula for the year are introduced in January.

[nomadgirl]

When you take the month long breaks do you guys find yourselves having to do review to get back on track? I know before when we took a summer break there was always a review period.

[goldberry]

All I can say to contribute is, start while your kids are younger! We are switching to year round with DD14, and she has been very resistant and attached to the idea of "summer vacation" - even though like all kids she gets bored by the end.

 

I wish I had started year-round from the beginning.

[silver]

I schedule four full days of school for each week and one day with easier stuff (review, games, etc). I do stuff on the 5th day so that if we were thrown off earlier in the week (illness, holiday, etc), we can just add it to Friday without my son saying, "But it's Friday, I don't have to do school on Friday!"

 

For the most part our school year is six weeks on, one week off. I stretch things out and leave plenty of time to finish up with 4 day weeks for the year. So we take more than the typical 36 week curriculum (since our weeks are shorter), but wind up having plenty of wiggle room. This year we finished 8 days early, so we're just taking more time off before starting the next grade level.

[Mom-ninja.]

 

How do you school year round?

 

I take the whole month of December off. We take time of in fall to enjoy the weather cooling down. We work through summer but I like to add fun extras if I can. Like a fun unit study or I let the kids read whatever they want for history and science.

 

 

Do you take longer for the same information and just take your breaks at a different time?

 

I take breaks mostly when I need one or when I know we're going to need time off like around the holidays. We go camping often in the fall and winter so we often have short weeks and long camping weekends.

 

 

Do you blow through the years faster and wind up being ahead of grade level?

 

Um, that would depend on the student. It doesn't matter what *I* plan or how quickly *I* want to get through something. It all depends on how the child is learning and retaining the information. My oldest is so not where I wanted him to be. He's dyslexic and it is what it is. I have to accept that and slow down or even start over when he needs to. We just spend a whole year on spelling, and I've decided we need to start the whole level over. It's what he needs.

[Mom-ninja.]

I forgot to explain our weeks. So weekly we do a full 4 days of regular lessons. Then on Fridays we do our extras in the morning and have piano lessons in the afternoon.

[PachiSusan]

Thank you so much ladies, for all your examples and advice. I think we're going to do a modified year round (or modified traditional - whichever way you want to look at it). We will be starting earlier than usual (Mid August instead of September) and we will take a longer winter break around the holidays and a long spring break around Easter. Basically, we'll have 2 half summer breaks but in winter and spring! LOL

[Hunter]

Sorry I didn't read the thread, but just your responses.

 

My boys schooled year around, but they only did half days in December, July and August. They took off all the week long vacations that the local PS did, and look a week off for 4th of July and a week off for Labor day. Of all the changes and methods we tried, we did this start to finish, exactly the same way. It's probably the ONLY thing that was constant. :lol:

 

I promoted the younger son September 1st no matter what curriculum he was using and placed him by age.

 

I promoted the older son every time he completed 1/4 of his ungraded 4 year American School correspondence course. Each promotion made his work applications look better and therefore increased his employment options and earning potential.

[Um_2_4]

My kids have no idea what summer break is LOL! When I explained, they said "Those poor kids, only get to be home for a few weeks each summer" (then I explained that many go to day camps, summer school because parents work and well...that brought on a whole... "mommy we love that you are home with us" scene, my kids really do pity those who have to sit in school all day, even though most of their friends do it.)

 

So we "do lessons" all the time. We will be relaxing a bit when Ramadan (our month of fasting) comes up in August. They will still do math/reading and some fun kits/crafts, but I will rearrange our days (sleep in, stay up late). Then after our holiday, we will get back to full schedule. We usually do 6 weeks on and 1 week light (we never really STOP) the rest of the year.

 

And when 1 book is finished we just move on to the next, unless I feel we need to pause for a review..

[Amominfl]

We school year round - 6 weeks on - 2 weeks off. We do take the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's off, but otherwise follow 6/2. We do have some hiccups that we work around such as Boy Scout camp and a Summer Youth Band that runs 2 hrs in the morning, but ends up taking 3 or more due to transportation time. We just started following a "fixed" schedule in terms of how much needs to be done with my rising 9th grader and we schedule his classes for 36 weeks.

[PachiSusan]

We school year round - 6 weeks on - 2 weeks off. We do take the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's off, but otherwise follow 6/2. We do have some hiccups that we work around such as Boy Scout camp and a Summer Youth Band that runs 2 hrs in the morning, but ends up taking 3 or more due to transportation time. We just started following a "fixed" schedule in terms of how much needs to be done with my rising 9th grader and we schedule his classes for 36 weeks.

 

So do you work with the quarter or semester system?

[kiwik]

Our schools do 10 weeks on 2 weeks off starting early Feb then have about 6 weeks off from just before Christmas to end of Jan (summer). We usually have better more settled weather in February though so the idea of splitting the summer break is frequently suggested.

[*Lulu*]

We have always schooled year round because of heat. Because of SN issues we take very few days off, but since I know that we will end up with anywhere from 250-300 days I can allow our days to be lighter.

 

Before we fully understood the nature of our children's SNs we schooled Jan-March, April off, May-August (outside in the mornings, seat work in the afternoon), September off, October-Christmas.

[NASDAQ]

We school year round.

 

I have, in my mind, three rough 'terms' -- July through October (end of school until the High Holidays), November through February, and March through June. Holidays change because Jews are on an adjusted lunar year, but that's about where it goes.

 

We work six days a week and take off time for Jewish holidays and Saturdays. We do work first thing in the morning and are frequently done by noon. The younger is generally done by ten a.m. Sometimes the older does some work in the afternoon. They do music practice in the afternoons.

 

We move through curriculum faster than usual. Some things are not to my mind developmentally appropriate (my first grader will finish SM 3 by summer, but she isn't ready to do formal writing composition).

[lil' maids in a row]

I don't like long breaks and the kids get wild without the structure of our schoolday. We log 15 days a month. That gives us 180 days. Often we school 5 days a week and take a week long break. Some months get busy and we school all month just 3-4 days a week. It works well. We get lots of breaks (but not too long), and we have lots of flexibility.

[Amominfl]

 

 

So do you work with the quarter or semester system?

 

We don't really do either. We just keep working. My son is just entering 9th grade, so I'll consider 3 sessions a semester.

[swellmomma]

Every year I say we are going to hs year round but then I start signing them up for camps, and the teens go to their dad's, last year dd13 stayed with auntie for a month so she could volunteer at the YMCA for a month, ds9 stayed at gramma's for a month so he could do a summer school program and bible camp etc. ANYWAY, it looks like this year will be our first year actually schooling in the summer, The combination of taking april off for dance festivals out of town and taking may off because of cadet activities. So through the summer it is, and no camps etc for the teens other than family bible camp because both are working this summer. My plan for this summer is to do our unit studies with the fun stuff, nature study, and math. Beyond that I will likely wait until after bible camp before starting to add more in. I enjoy using the summer myself for home projects, garden projects etc, I don't want to be stuck teaching all the time, so we are keeping it short and sweet but catching up for lost time this year.

[unfrumpable.]

We school year round, our school year starts in January. We don't take any "planned" breaks, but we take it easy during regular school weeks. We average 3-5 days of schooling per week. These past three weeks have been three day weeks. :)

 

I like stretching things out throughout the whole year and not being rushed. If there is something we want to do, we're not tied down to any strict schedule.

[Χά�ων]

I am struggling this year. When DS was in kindergarten we lived in Missouri where school year starts July 1. I liked that and have stuck with starting the next grade's curriculum July 1. This year it is killing me because the units that have the really cool field trips fall in the coldest, snowiest months no matter if we start July or September. Grr. I have even considered starting now but aside from screwing up my records it is not possible due to all the camps DS is signed up for in June.