Jan.-Dec. homeschoolers, I have a few questions?

[mama25angels]

How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.?  Have you ever done a "traditional" school year?  Was it easy to transition to a Jan.-Dec. school year?  When do you do your planning and purchasing?  What months do you take off? Thanks!!

[Ellie]

How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.?  Have you ever done a "traditional" school year?  Was it easy to transition to a Jan.-Dec. school year?  When do you do your planning and purchasing?  What months do you take off? Thanks!!

 

Well, when do you plan for a September-to-June school year? When do you buy stuff? Let's say you do it in June, which would be three months before you officially start. So, if your school year begins in January, you'd do your planning three months before then.

 

When we were hsing, 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 other times as needed (i.e., middle of the week in March so we could go to Disneyland when no one else was there, grandparents visiting, etc.).

 

I offically Promoted dc in September, for the sake of Sunday school classes or team sports or whatever--activities which group children by grade level--and grandparents, who have their own peer pressure to deal with (friends who ask them what grade the grandchildren are in). Otherwise, we just kept working on things until we finished or got tired of them and moved on to something else.

 

We had to do a September-to-June school year when dds began taking classes at the community college. Well, technically, an August-to-December term followed by a January-to-May term. Totally messed with my head, lol. And we had to learn to take vacations along with everyone else. What a pain!

[Aurelia]

How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.?  DD always had a cognitive leap around December, making the current curricula no longer a challenge. It made sense to switch, since she started doing the next grade level's work then.

Have you ever done a "traditional" school year?  Yes. 

Was it easy to transition to a Jan.-Dec. school year?  Yes.

When do you do your planning and purchasing?  After I finish planning and purchasing the previous year. Seriously. I buy most of our stuff used, so I buy whenever I find a good deal, once I've planned it out. Sometimes I finish early, sometimes I order the last few books two weeks before we need them.

What months do you take off? None. We take several weeks here and there, like around Christmas, but DD retains everything better without a break of several months. I usually plan for 45 weeks of school (stretching the material from 36), so the work isn't as intense and DD has more time to pursue her interests during the day. It also leaves time for plenty of sick and "I need a vacation RIGHT NOW" days. For us, the best time for vacation is March or April and October, because it's neither too hot nor too cold (and wet).

[blondeviolin]

We school mostly year round. My 6yo grades up around January or so. (And yes, "grading up" is a lot like "leveling up" in a video game. ;)). I do tell him he's in K, though, regardless of the grade levels on his books.

[Mandylubug]

I do a formal right up at June every year for my school systems requirements but we really don't school on a yearly schedule. We just move forward with each level until it is time to move on to the next level. I can guarantee failure if I map out our lessons by each week, month, etc. I won't complete it that way. Some weeks we do double lessons. Some weeks, we don't write a thing from our books but we are still discussing and learning, etc... Since the kids work faster in some subjects, I am fairly frequently buying a new level here or there, so I don't even have big purchase months, etc.. I do try to set aside money from our tax returns to buy any fluff. I also save used curricula for my younger ones. 

[dbmamaz]

I school year round, i tell them they are in a new grade in september, and I change curriculum/materials/plan whenever we need to.  I start to plan for a subject when we get near the end of the curriculum or what we are doing is no longer the right fit.  I think throughout the year about what I think they will do next year or later this year when we finish with (whatever).  I also try to think roughly about a 2-3 year plan.  Nothing written down, just picturing it.

[GoVanGogh]

How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.? Have you ever done a "traditional" school year? Was it easy to transition to a Jan.-Dec. school year? When do you do your planning and purchasing? What months do you take off? Thanks!!

DS's birthday is very end of the year and generally makes a cognitive leap around that time, so it made sense for us to school January to December. We go by his age, not grade level.

We started with a traditional school year, but switched just a year in to homeschooling. It wasn't that big of a deal for us.

I make light plans and purchase year-round, then do detailed lesson plans between now and the new year.

We school year-round and take time off as needed. I don't generally plan that out in advance but go on a month to month basis.

[Korrale]

I grew up in the Southern Hemisphere so Jan-Dec is the normal school year. Sept-May is still a little odd to me. So we would opt for a Jan-Dec school year

 

My son also has his birthday in December. I plan all year round. Tweaking as we go. Sometimes he exceeds my expectations, sometimes he is a little slower, so we need to adjust. I write out my yearly goals for what I want him to learn by the time he is X years old. If he completes a certain grade of math before the years end I am not going to wait until Jan to start the next grade. He gets a fun excursion or a treat for completion, and he keeps going on. This was we can limit any review.

We intend to school year round. In our house it is mandatory to do math and reading a little everyday. But we do other subjects M-F. With weekends, daddy's vacation days and holidays off. Sickness is usually an off period too.

 

I don't purchase much in the way of curriculum. But anything I would purchase that is pricy I plan to purchase for the year in advance after tax returns. :)

[ShellLou]

We live in Australia so we school Jan to Dec as that is how we work here.  We don't follow the school terms here though - I usually school 6-7 weeks & have 1-2 weeks off.  We usually have a bigger break at some stage during the year - this year happened to be Oct as we wanted to go somewhere in particular & that time of year was warm enough for swimming, but not too hot for other activities, so we took 3 weeks.  We are just in the middle of our last 6week school cycle before we break for Christmas.  We only break for about 4 weeks at Christmas as this is long enough given we have plenty of breaks through the year.

 

Traditionally in Australia, the schools start last week of Jan/first week of Feb (usually after Australia Day, depending which day of the week it falls - it is on Jan 26).  They usually school for about 10 weeks & then have two weeks off & do this for four terms, with a 6-8 week break over the Christmas/New Year period which is of course our summer.

 

Purchasing curriculum - I usually order most of my curriculum after end of financial year (which runs July-June) & if I need to top up through the year I just purchase as needed - e.g. if we start on a product that will take us 6 weeks to use I would order as I start the last book I have on the shelf.  (Does that make sense?)  It doesn't take long for product to get to us even from the States.

 

HTH

 

 

[Tanikit]

I live in South Africa and we school Jan-Dec, so my DD moves up a grade in January to keep her Sunday school and gymnastics classes moving like normal. We school however year round and I order new things when the old ones are nearly finished - I never order a years curriculum as I never know where she will be and what she will need.

 

We know when school holidays are based on when her extra curricular activities stop, but we take holidays out of season whenever we need them and then have a break at the end of the year (mid December - mid January which is summer here). My DD is still young however and is only meant to be starting first grade this year so I am not sure how I will change things later. I know many of the homeschoolers here order their yearly supplies in July-August to have them here for the start of the New Year and then we buy stationery as schools begin in January as there are a lot of specials then and it is cheaper.

[....]

How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.?  DD always had a cognitive leap around December, making the current curricula no longer a challenge. It made sense to switch, since she started doing the next grade level's work then.

 

 

My kids all have winter birthdays and this makes so much sense to me.  I end up doing new things every January anyway (because of the developmental leaps).  

 

What about high school if you are in the US, though?

[Ellie]

 

What about high school if you are in the US, though?

 

Same thing as any other level. You just plan ahead if your dc wants to go to a 4yr-college and a fall entry will be the best. Otherwise, it makes no difference when you do what.

[coralloyd]

We have done year around from the beginning. It just made sense for us to keep moving on. When my children take long breaks there needs to be too much review. I also like school to just be a part of our life. I mainly plan when it is needed. There are a few things that I get at our convention each year, like math. If I see the next level of a curriculum for sale used, I will snap it up. I love planning though, so I always have some ideas brewing or lists going.

We have no designated breaks. We take them when we need them or want them. It works for me to know that we will do school every week we can. It makes it a habit of my life as well as the children's. I am still trying to decide if we are going to do some school this week or take the whole week off for Thanksgiving. Doing things this way just seems to work without us having to stress about getting done with something by a certain time. My children have never been " behind" their grade level. Usually they are ahead and not because we try.

[TracyP]

Officially my kids are in the grade that they would be in public school. We take our longest break over the summer although we keep up math and learning to read (as needed) year round. I am planning right now and will do my purchasing after I get my tax return. Some of these purchases will be for the rest of this year, most are for next year. We move on when we are ready regardless of when the year ends or the grade level on the book.

 

As you can tell, basically my kids follow a normal school year so this might not be the type of response you are looking for. But in my head my kids will bump up a grade in January. My kids have fall birthdays so they are old for their grade. They always seem to be ready to up their game at this time of year. I don't know whether it is the cold MN winter or what, but they seem to make a big leap at this time of year. We take a couple weeks off for Christmas. When we restart it is always with upped expectations more typical of the higher grade level that I now consider them.

[Walking-Iris]

We're slowly becoming year round homeschoolers. I've discovered that there are things that my kids just seem to learn better in the warmth of outside summer sun, and lots of reading and writing get done in the cold months. 

 

I don't usually move on the the next thing in the same year though. So if we finish a math book, spelling book etc, I don't automatically jump into the next level. I fill that space in the schedule with some other subject or project that we haven't had time for. Basically that's what prompted the year round idea---there's so many things we want to do that we couldn't get to in a typical 34-36 week year. 

 

I plan ahead in the winter months what I want to do for the next year because I typically buy things with tax returns. I also order some things in summer. 

 

We take longer breaks in Dec and Easter week and most of July, or whenever we need it. 

[Chelli]

We started schooling on a Jan-Dec schedule last school year. It was prompted because we got behind where I wanted us to be due to life circumstances so I couldn't start our new stuff in the fall like I wanted. I pushed back our start time to January while we finished up our other work. We are right now coming to the end of our school year, and I can honestly say that we will continue with the Jan.-Dec. school year even though we don't need to this year.

 

We take off the entire month of December because of the busyness of the holiday season plus it gives me time to get things in order for starting in January. I buy curriculum throughout the year as I see it on sale or have the money to do so.

 

I promote the kids to the next grade in the fall when our local schools start back, but we don't officially start our new work until January. Like others we start the next level of math, grammar, and writing (core subjects) whenever we finish the previous level no matter what time of year that is, but I hold off on starting new content subjects and extras until January.

 

The summers are VERY hot here in Texas so we actually get most of our schooling done then because the extracurricular activities my girls participate in take the summers off. As for scheduled breaks we don't have many. We have a scheduled break in March every year because my parents and sister come down to visit over their Spring Break (they are all teachers) and another scheduled break in the summer for VBS and church camp (they are back to back weeks in June/July). Other than those breaks and taking off the month of December, we really only take off when we want/need to do so. I keep track of how many days we need to school in a year to finish our curriculum. I keep track of how many days we school in a month to make sure we are meeting our goal. I describe more of how I schedule our school year in this blog post.

 

I tried a traditional school year the first year I homeschooled, but the summer was so hot that my oldest didn't want to go out and play. She was sitting around all day watching TV or playing the Wii. I decided that if she wasn't going to do anything, then we might as well do school, so we started first grade that summer and morphed into a year round school, but officially started a Jan.-Dec. schedule last year as I explained above.

[....]

I tried a traditional school year the first year I homeschooled, but the summer was so hot that my oldest didn't want to go out and play. She was sitting around all day watching TV or playing the Wii. 

 

See, this is the problem we have, too.  We're also in TX.  We've homeschooled year-round since the beginning (5 years), so we're already used to that.  But, how do you work it for high school if you start your new school year in January?  Everything is so geared to the Sep-Jun school year here, I'm not sure if colleges would frown on weird transcripts that start in Jan and end in Dec.  Or maybe I'm WAY overthinking this (as usual). 

 

Starting the new school year in January is actually a great idea (with my winter birthday kids).

[Ellie]

See, this is the problem we have, too.  We're also in TX.  We've homeschooled year-round since the beginning (5 years), so we're already used to that.  But, how do you work it for high school if you start your new school year in January?  Everything is so geared to the Sep-Jun school year here, I'm not sure if colleges would frown on weird transcripts that start in Jan and end in Dec.  Or maybe I'm WAY overthinking this (as usual). 

 

Starting the new school year in January is actually a great idea (with my winter birthday kids).

 

A transcript doesn't specify which months school was "held."  :-)

[RootAnn]

But, how do you work it for high school if you start your new school year in January?  Everything is so geared to the Sep-Jun school year here, I'm not sure if colleges would frown on weird transcripts that start in Jan and end in Dec.  Or maybe I'm WAY overthinking this (as usual). 

 

Starting the new school year in January is actually a great idea (with my winter birthday kids).

 

I have one that 'promotes' in January. The rest of mine are Sept-May, so I just add in stuff for her in January. (She's usually done with the additional stuff in one semester.) I have no idea how to do this for US high school transcript credit -  except to give them an extra semester at the very end & otherwise list the Jan-Dec stuff as Sept-May (and then add in the extra semester of work).

 

So, Jan-Dec 2013 would be listed as 2013-2014 Freshman Yr. The last year would 'look heavy; as you'd have an extra semester to either finish stuff up or add some semester-long courses. Another thing to ponder is having a lighter load in the fall of their "senior year" so they could concentrate on applications & scholarship stuff in Sept-December and then finish the cousework up in Jan-May while they are waiting for acceptances to roll in. 

 

The high school board guys would probably have more info on logistics & ideas as you get closer to that time. I've only pondered it in theory. Too early for me to worry about it for my dd#3 (the one who promotes in Jan).

[....]

A transcript doesn't specify which months school was "held."  :-)

 

I did not know this!

[Willa]

I am just switching over to a December-->November school schedule.  It hasn't been hard at all, though it does help  that we don't have any kids in the school system this year.   

 

It helped that we already had our school year divided in 6 2-month periods....    December/January, February/March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November.       Each term has its own distinctive features, eg the June/July term is more field trips and outdoors, etc.    We try to do 7 weeks per 2 month term -- the other 2 weeks usually get swallowed up by life events -- last month I was really sick, the term before that we took a family trip, etc.  

 

I have a high schooler and basically for his transcript I would just put the work he has done -- not specific dates.   That's how I did it for my older 3 and it wasn't a problem -- no one asked.       Some colleges are on trimester, anyway -- so for example, my son in college has a September-December term and then a January-March term and an April - June term.   It's easy to plan my high schooler's work on a similar framework.    Eg I am going to add Economics next month since it's a graduation requirement in CA.  

[ladydusk]

QUOTE: How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.?  Have you ever done a "traditional" school year?  Was it easy to transition to a Jan.-Dec. school year?  When do you do your planning and purchasing?  What months do you take off? Thanks!!

 

We have never done a traditional school year.  We knew we wanted to homeschool (before we were engaged, we dreamed about family and our hopes and desires).  Our oldest was born in October and was really ready for school at 4 (slowly).  She already knew how to read and had begun with math stuff.  I knew we wanted to school year round for flexibility, continuity, and because learning never stops.  I also knew that I love Christmas-time and wanted a big break around then.  It made sense to do things on a regular calendar year.  My second child's birthday is early in January (the 5th), so it made sense to wait until after his birthday to start since we take birthdays off.  January 6 is Epiphany, so our break becomes Thanksgiving, Advent, and Epiphany.  We call it Yuletide Session.

 

Usually we start the Monday after his birthday, this year we're planning to take one more week off because his birthday is on Sunday, it is a crazy time, and that'll give me more time to plan. 

 

We take off time when we need it.  We also do only about three days per week in July.

 

I'm not a big planner, tend to use "do the next thing" curriculum.  I buy at the Homeschool Convention in May or as needed, when we finish something we start the next thing. 

[mama25angels]

Ladies thank you so much for your responses. I think we're going to give it a shot and restart our year January.

[LEK]

We are in australia and jan-december is the school year here. We typically finish school 1st week of december and start up again mid jan.

i find it great, we take a long break over christmas which we would probably do anyway due to the busyness of that time of year.

i buy my new books and other school related items around november, that way i can give them any games and fun stuff (that i bought for school, shh!) as christmas presents and have everything else ready for me to flick through during the break so that i can roughly plan the year ahead.

The start of the school year does not necessarily correlate to grade level changes however. We just continue on once finished the previous books. In some areas we are up to 2 years ahead but in other subjects we are right on target grade wise.

[Amy M]

How did you decide to go from Jan.-Dec.?  Have you ever done a "traditional" school year?  Was it easy to transition to a Jan.-Dec. school year?  When do you do your planning and purchasing?  What months do you take off? Thanks!!

We decided to follow the school calendar here in South Africa, which starts in Jan. We haven't switched from traditional to the calendar year. I'm always planning and purchasing, since I'm in Africa--I buy several years ahead.

 

We like to take Thanksgiving through New Year, or my birthday (which is mid-Jan and when schools start up again) off. Sometimes that doesn't work due to other events that year. We also try to take off a week around Easter, a week or two in June and July, and maybe another in September. Those are somewhat around the same breaks as here in SA.

 

I like this way, and don't know if I would have been brave enough to try it in the States. :) Now, however, I think basically, the same breaks work out in the end. Just depends when you start your content subjects. Hope it works out for you!

 

[....]

Ladies thank you so much for your responses. I think we're going to give it a shot and restart our year January.

 

Me, too!  We were almost finished with everything already, anyway.  And, it is virtually impossible to homeschool in December.  I plan to take December off from now on.  Thank-you for posting this thread!