Length of Semester?

[Durriyyah]

This is the first year I'm defining semesters and noticing that by following the typical school year, semester 1 is about 13 weeks and semester 2 is around 16. I'm wondering how many weeks you have each semester and how you split it up. When do you start and end?

[regentrude]

For homeschool, I do two 17 week semesters (and summer school).

Our university has two semesters of equal length:  15 weeks+ 1 week Finals. I start school one week before the university semester begins and go through the end of Finals week, maybe a few extra days

Our home fall semester begins August 12 and ends before Christmas. Our home spring semester begins in January the week before MLK and ends in mid- May.

[Lori D.]

That is unusual to have such short semesters! In the U.S., most texts are scheduled for a 36-week school year, and many states require 180 school days, which works out to two 18-week semesters. Colleges usually have shorter semesters (16 weeks -- 15 weeks of classes + 1 week finals).

 

Since our DSs had many friends at schools, we tended to follow the school district's semester schedule and vacations, although we took an extra week at Christmas so we started a week earlier. Here's how we scheduled our two 18-week semesters with included vacation:

 

Fall semester: mid-August through mid-December

That was 18 weeks, plus it allowed for about 1 week's worth  of holidays taken as 1- or 2-day vacations here and there. So for scheduling, I picked an end day in December, and to determine our start day, I counted back a total of 19 weeks). 

 

Christmas break: 3 weeks

 

Spring semester: usually start somewhere between Jan. 4-7 and ended the 3rd week of May or so

That was 18 weeks, plus it allowed for 2 week of holidays -- 1 week of spring break, and 1 week taken as 1- or 2-day vacations here and there. So for scheduling, I picked our Jan. start date, and to determine our end day, I counted forward a total of 20 weeks.

 

summer break: 10 weeks

 

 

I always wished we could have tried a year-round schedule, with three blocks of 6-week school-1-week off per semester:

 

Fall Semester (18 weeks)

1st 6 weeks = July/mid-Aug.

1 week break

2nd 6 weeks = Sept./early Oct.

1 week break

3rd 6 weeks = mid-Oct./most of Nov

 

Christmas break = 6 weeks (end of Nov through first of Jan)

 

Spring Semester (18 weeks)

1st 6 weeks = Jan./early Feb

1 week break

2nd 6 weeks = late-Feb/Mar.

1 week break =

3rd 6 weeks = April/mid-May

 

Summer break = 6 weeks (mid-May/June)

 

 

BEST of luck, however you schedule! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Mom22ns]

Our semesters run 17-18 weeks. The first semester is mid-August thru mid-December. The second semester is Jan-May. We finish different subjects at different times in May. Some are lighter and we're done the beginning of the month. Others take until nearly the end. Each week seems to have fewer subjects left though. We really enjoy that!

[Julie in MN]

This is the first year I'm defining semesters and noticing that by following the typical school year, semester 1 is about 13 weeks and semester 2 is around 16. I'm wondering how many weeks you have each semester and how you split it up. When do you start and end?

 

We've always followed a public school calendar.  When the semesters are different lengths, it typically means there are more days off during one of the semesters.  For instance, there are a lot of "Monday holidays" in the 2nd semester (MLK Day, President's Day, Memorial Day) and there are days off for teacher training, teacher make up day after evening conferences, a grading day off between semesters, a week or so of spring break, etc etc. 

 

I agree that typically schools have 36 weeks, but in Minnesota it is usually 34 weeks.  The school year starts the day after Labor Day, and the semester break is around the last week of January, with the school year ending around the 10th of June.  There is no actual law in Minnesota about how many days must be in a school year (public or homeschool), just that there must be a calendar  :huh:   So each state will be different on that.  I've never seen 29 weeks, tho!

 

Julie

[Durriyyah]

We've always followed a public school calendar.  When the semesters are different lengths, it typically means there are more days off during one of the semesters.  For instance, there are a lot of "Monday holidays" in the 2nd semester (MLK Day, President's Day, Memorial Day) and there are days off for teacher training, teacher make up day after evening conferences, a grading day off between semesters, a week or so of spring break, etc etc. 

 

I agree that typically schools have 36 weeks, but in Minnesota it is usually 34 weeks.  The school year starts the day after Labor Day, and the semester break is around the last week of January, with the school year ending around the 10th of June.  There is no actual law in Minnesota about how many days must be in a school year (public or homeschool), just that there must be a calendar  :huh:   So each state will be different on that.  I've never seen 29 weeks, tho!

 

Julie

We're in MN also, so maybe I was counting it wrong for the second semester, but that makes sense that the semester goes in to January. I guess I never picked up on that while I was in school! I always thought the semester ended before January. 

 

Thanks, everyone! I think for DD13's history and government classes, I'm just going to have her start in August because I can't fit it all in the typical school year.

[elegantlion]

We do 3 - 12 week terms, so 36 weeks. Half credit classes are either done in two terms or spread out over the year. 

[swellmomma]

My semesters are the same as the public school out here, Sept-End of January with the xmas break in there, and then Feb-June with the spring break in there.  So 5 months for each term each with a total of about 14 days worth of breaks.