180 HS days = 180 PS days

[Miss Tick]

I'm a little disappointed to re-discover this basic mathematic principle that 180=180, no matter who is counting.

 

We are getting close to the end of what I consider our "school year" and I notice that our last day is the same as the local school district's.  We will have done 181 days and they will have completed 178 (2 excused snow days).  I had somehow been hoping that since we homeschool very consistently we would have put in more school-days than the public school.  Weird.  I know my logic was faulty, but I'm still feeling disappointed.  We take short, standard breaks, no Thanksgiving to New Years holidays or anything so exotic.

 

I have noticed this type of illogical phenomena in my dc, but assumed that as an adult I was immune.

 

We will do 5 or 6 weeks of 1/2 time school over the summer, so there is some consolation there but the summer-work feels more like treading water than making progress.

 

Do you school more days than your local district?  Or less?  On purpose, either way?

[Eileen Aroon]

I hate to admit this but I just go until they are done with their books and goals for the school year. So my kids finish Saxon in April and May, and finish Writing with Ease in May or June. Stuff like that.

 

I probably school fewer days than public school.

 

Even though you had faulty logic, at least you had logic. Better than flying by the seat of one's pants.

[Ellie]

We don't have to count days in California, but if we had, I'd have checked 180 days on a calendar at the beginning of the year and filed it away, then done whatever I wanted to do. :D

[Spring Flower]

I have a feeling that you probably completed WAY more in 181 days than the public school did in 178. I think it is safe to say that 180 HS days do NOT equal 180 PS days. 

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I hate to admit this but I just go until they are done with their books and goals for the school year. So my kids finish Saxon in April and May, and finish Writing with Ease in May or June. Stuff like that.

 

I probably school fewer days than public school.

 

Even though you had faulty logic, at least you had logic. Better than flying by the seat of one's pants.

What an extraordinary opinion!

 

I am like Ellie. I mark my attendance records as required by law but other than that I do what I want with my schedule.

[Ellie]

I hate to admit this but I just go until they are done with their books and goals for the school year. So my kids finish Saxon in April and May, and finish Writing with Ease in May or June. Stuff like that.

 

I probably school fewer days than public school.

 

Even though you had faulty logic, at least you had logic. Better than flying by the seat of one's pants.

 

See, there are 365 days in a year, which begins January 1 and ends December 31. I am pretty sure that children are learning something for at least 180 of those days, even if they never open a textbook, and I count all learning as, well, learning. So I don't think it's possible to have fewer days than public school. :-)

[Miss Tick]

Even though you had faulty logic, at least you had logic. Better than flying by the seat of one's pants.

Thanks. I think your way is healthier, though! Less stress, more realistically addressing the needs of your kids, not tied to some artificial schedule. It's just that I drive past the school's electronic sign often. I love homeschooling, but that sign always wakes my inner reality check voice.

[Miss Tick]

See, there are 365 days in a year, which begins January 1 and ends December 31. I am pretty sure that children are learning something for at least 180 of those days, even if they never open a textbook, and I count all learning as, well, learning. So I don't think it's possible to have fewer days than public school. :-)

You're right of course, Ellie. Luckily I don't have to turn in the dang attendance-sheet-of-doubt. So I could count weekends and breaks from formal school, in which case I'm at 266 days. Woo-hoo!

[73349]

Did you start the school year after they did?

 

Today was #170 for us, but I only start counting in September, while the PS starts counting in August. We go year-round.

[Mrs Twain]

I schedule 180 days (according to state law) with handful set aside to be snow/sick days as the come up. My issue is that I have so much I want to cram into our schedule that I would like the public school year to be longer. I am usually in need of cutting out a few extra resouces because I can't squeeze them in.

 

I like to keep our school year in line with the public school because most of my kid's friends go there and because I don't want my kids to feel that they are being punished by homeschooling. However, all of our school days are real school days, as in my kids do difficult, good quality work all day, which ends up being more than the public school students do.

[Miss Tick]

Did you start the school year after they did?

 

Today was #170 for us, but I only start counting in September, while the PS starts counting in August. We go year-round.

I had hoped to start before, but I think our vacation meant that we started at the same time, I must not have adjusted my mental calendar. Ha!

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, I'm in CA too, so I'm not required to report, but I do try to hold myself to the standard of doing at least 180 days, even though I know Ellie is right and they are learning the other 185 days too . . . I find having a self-imposed standard helps keep me from slacking off.  So for us today is Day 150.  Day 1 was Aug. 5.  So we have 30 days to go before I start over with counting again.  I get what you are saying about being surprised that we'll end up with our 180th day happening two weeks after ps gets out . . . . :confused1:  :toetap05:

 

It's a self-accountability thing, really.  My 2nd grader has already started all her 3rd grade stuff, and my 6th grader's stuff doesn't resemble anything her 6th grade friends are doing, so it doesn't really mean anything about what they're doing - just for how many days they do it.

[Miss Tick]

My issue is that I have so much I want to cram into our schedule that I would like the public school year to be longer. I am usually in need of cutting out a few extra resouces because I can't squeeze them in.

 

I like to keep our school year in line with the public school because most of my kid's friends go there and because I don't want my kids to feel that they are being punished by homeschooling. However, all of our school days are real school days, as in my kids do difficult, good quality work all day, which ends up being more than the public school students do.

I want to double like this. I think this is the root of my problem really. I don't think the typical public school week around here includes world history, Spanish, Latin, piano, and ballet/soccer. So we get a lot done in those 180 days. I try hard to make all our days count, and I have the advantage of year-to-year continuity of teaching.

 

I don't mean anything negative about the local public schools in this. They tell me via electronic signs that they are very good, with lots of successful graduates.

[Miss Tick]

I find having a self-imposed standard helps keep me from slacking off.

 

It's a self-accountability thing, really. My 2nd grader has already started all her 3rd grade stuff, and my 6th grader's stuff doesn't resemble anything her 6th grade friends are doing, so it doesn't really mean anything about what they're doing - just for how many days they do it.

Yep.

[lewelma]

40 weeks here, so 200 days, minus 5 holidays that fall inside term dates = 195 days.  You guys have it easy!

 

Ruth in NZ

[Miss Tick]

40 weeks here, so 200 days, minus 5 holidays that fall inside term dates = 195 days. You guys have it easy!

 

Ruth in NZ

Ha! Outed as a complaining, American. :-)

 

Ruth, that would kill me! Even fewer opportunities for me to get any extra time in. Even more vigilance required to keep from falling behind.

[Targhee]

This is our first year without using an umbrella (so we can set out own schedule).  I began taking attendance in the fall, but when I realized my state has no attendance requirement I stopped.  So, I can't accurately say.  I think we will have a school year that is roughly the same length, with similar breaks, only we have lots of light days when we have people visiting, or we decide to take quick trip, or someone is sick.  So, I don't even think we will be at a full 180 days.  We do have school lite in the summer though.

 

The consolation, I think we cover a LOT more.

[Kelly1730]

I schedule 180 days (according to state law) with handful set aside to be snow/sick days as the come up. My issue is that I have so much I want to cram into our schedule that I would like the public school year to be longer. I am usually in need of cutting out a few extra resouces because I can't squeeze them in.

 

I like to keep our school year in line with the public school because most of my kid's friends go there and because I don't want my kids to feel that they are being punished by homeschooling. However, all of our school days are real school days, as in my kids do difficult, good quality work all day, which ends up being more than the public school students do.

 

 

Yes, this. I was just thinking today that while we have 19 days to go until we hit our 180 (the public schools around here will be in for another 2 weeks or so after that) we don't have snow days or sick days. We school on snow days and if one of the boys is sick than there is no school so I don't count it as a day like they would in ps. Not to mention none of the ridiculousness of all that goes on in public school so very little learning can even take place. 

[Kathryn]

We have to take attendance and have a plan book, so I just divide all of our curriculum into 36 weeks/180 days. When a day's worth of work is done, a day is counted as done. We started July 1 and finished our 180 days a few weeks ago.

[My3girls]

We started a week later and we'll "finish" a week later. However, our days are way shorter. The elementary school hours are 8:00am- 2:30pm and has 30min to an hours worth of homework depending on the grade. The middle school hours are 8:30am- 3:30pm with 1-2 hours of homework each night, and although they have 6 weeks worth of break they are a given a homework packet to during them. Our days typical run 3-4 hours for 2nd graders and 5-6 hours for the 6th grader total.

[Desert Strawberry]

We go pretty much year round. I scheduled something crazy like 240 days, planning to take sick days/mental health days/field trips / whatever off during that time. I ran out of planner pages today, with a month left. I guess we met the goal.

 

[Carrie12345]

What I consider "school" is often different from what I consider "mark as a school day."  My kids learn more than 180 days, but I usually mark the more... "traditional" days instead of marking them all and wondering if the district might see that as a red flag.  I don't like hassles!

 

We also take lots of mental health days, so there's that.

[Korrale]

Here it is just 900 hours.

[Ellie]

What I consider "school" is often different from what I consider "mark as a school day."  My kids learn more than 180 days, but I usually mark the more... "traditional" days instead of marking them all and wondering if the district might see that as a red flag.  I don't like hassles!

 

 

There was a court case in California close to 20 years in San Mateo county (S.F. Bay area) ago that was decided against the homeschooling parent (she was a single mother, with sons who had Big Brothers; one of the Brothers turned her in). She had enrolled her dc in a PSP (California homeschool umbrella-sort-of-thing) in Southern California. She had been given an attendance calendar that's pretty common--columns for 1-31, 7 days, check off each day the dc are "present." The D.A. gave the mother grief because she had indicated that her children were "present" on a legal holiday. So, here's where my thoughts took me:

 

Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law, even an attendance record (even though the law doesn't say you *can't* do school on a legal holiday).

 

When keeping an attendance calendar, check off regular school days, not weekends or holidays, even if you do Official School Stuff on those days.

 

California law says private schools are supposed to indicate when their students are *absent,* not when they are *present.* At that time, I owned/administered a PSP, and I had been requiring parents to turn in attendance forms monthly on which they had checked off days present. First I changed the form (which I designed myself) so that it only had Monday through Friday, not Sunday through Saturday, and required them to ONLY mark absences. Homeschooled children are never absent...you get up every day and there they are. If you're on vacation, school isn't in session, so the children cannot be absent. If they're visiting grandparents, they're not doing school, so school isn't in session for them, so they aren't absent. :D (If California law were more specific about what makes a child present, or what counts as a school day, I would be more specific, too, but it doesn't, so there you go.)

 

Later I discovered such a thing as a one-page annual calendar, and I began keeping those in the children's cumulative files, instead of giving parents attendance forms to fill out and mail in; when they called me once a month to talk, if they could convince me that no learning whatsoever happened on a specific day, I would mark the children absent. That never happened, however. :-)

[EKS]

When I homeschooled before, we generally did 40-42 weeks (even though I always planned 32-36).  Next year, when we homeschool again, I'm planning 36 four day weeks (144 days).  After having my son in school for two years, it is blindingly obvious that I will be able to do far less than I used to do and I will still be doing far more than he does in school.  This is a "rigorous" private school, BTW.  Anyway, I've decided that life is too short to be doing schoolwork all the time. 

[vonfirmath]

.

[SkatingMom]

I literally have no idea what the local PS schedule is. I

[MiMi 4under3]

California law says private schools are supposed to indicate when their students are *absent,* not when they are *present.* At that time, I owned/administered a PSP, and I had been requiring parents to turn in attendance forms monthly on which they had checked off days present. First I changed the form (which I designed myself) so that it only had Monday through Friday, not Sunday through Saturday, and required them to ONLY mark absences. Homeschooled children are never absent...you get up every day and there they are. If you're on vacation, school isn't in session, so the children cannot be absent. If they're visiting grandparents, they're not doing school, so school isn't in session for them, so they aren't absent. :D (If California law were more specific about what makes a child present, or what counts as a school day, I would be more specific, too, but it doesn't, so there you go.)

 

 

The bolded made me laugh out loud to myself. I don't know why. Perhaps being with my kids 24/7 for years has made me a little nutty. But it's so true - you get up every day, and there they all are!!

 

I'm still chuckling...

 

Thank You Ellie, I needed that.

[Coco_Clark]

I'm sure we did school less than 180 days this year. Shrug. They don't make me count, so I don't.

[Erin]

I run on the local school calendar. But then I have one kid in school and one at home. Life is easier if everyone is on the same page!

[CourtneyBrooke]

 Since I'm in PA, I have to do 180. We are currently at around 190 days, technically.

Seriously, what day do homeschooled children *not* learn something??

[mom2myboys]

We do 180 days because that works out nicely with our curriculum that is scheduled for 36 weeks. The local public schools do 175. We start earlier than the public schools and get out around the same time. We take more breaks in the middle though. I use roughly a 6 week on, one week off schedule. There is usually 3 or 4 weeks instead of 6 between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That leaves us 2 or 3 weeks after our last break week of the year. Sometimes we push through instead of taking that week off and finish early. We take the summers off. We also take 2 weeks off around Christmas and New Year's. 

 

I love what Ellie said. It is so true. The kids are learning everyday, whether it is a scheduled school day or not. 

[lea_lpz]

My kids are enrolled in a public charter in CA. They have a school calendar with 175 days of school. I just mark that we have followed the calendar which is roughly accurate. We do school type activities M-F, even if its a park day or field or what have you. Even when we took 5 weeks off when I was at end of my pregnancy / baby was born, my kids did a lot if "unschooling".

 

In general my goal is to complete 180 days of formal school in a school year but I like more flexibility and school year round instead of doing school on ps calendar.

[lea_lpz]

My kids are enrolled in a public charter in CA. They have a school calendar with 175 days of school. I just mark that we have followed the calendar which is roughly accurate. We do school type activities M-F, even if its a park day or field or what have you. Even when we took 5 weeks off when I was at end of my pregnancy / baby was born, my kids did a lot if "unschooling".

 

In general my goal is to complete 180 days of formal school in a school year but I like more flexibility and school year round instead of doing school on ps calendar.

[Laura Corin]

See, there are 365 days in a year, which begins January 1 and ends December 31. I am pretty sure that children are learning something for at least 180 of those days, even if they never open a textbook, and I count all learning as, well, learning. So I don't think it's possible to have fewer days than public school. :-)

 

I agree that children learn even when they are not opening a text book, but that is the same for bricks and mortar schooled children.  My boys have not stopped learning at weekends and in holidays just because they now go to school.

 

40 weeks here, so 200 days, minus 5 holidays that fall inside term dates = 195 days.  You guys have it easy!

 

Ruth in NZ

 

Yes - same here.  I worked out that the UK education system adds an entire extra year of schooling compared to the US by age 18, due to the longer school year.  For better or worse, that means that general education is out of the way before university and an English university course is usually three years of intense specialisation.

 

L

[eternalsummer]

I agree that children learn even when they are not opening a text book, but that is the same for bricks and mortar schooled children.  My boys have not stopped learning at weekends and in holidays just because they now go to school.

 

 

Yes - same here.  I worked out that the UK education system adds an entire extra year of schooling compared to the US by age 18, due to the longer school year.  For better or worse, that means that general education is out of the way before university and an English university course is usually three years of intense specialisation.

 

L

 

 

I did several months of teacher training in schools in NZ (Christchurch); I don't know if it's the same in the UK, but in NZ, high school at least is something like 9 am to 3/3:30 pm, with 25 minutes for "tea" in the late morning and an entire hour for lunch.

 

High school where I grew up in the US was 6:30am to 3pm, no tea, lunch was 25 minutes.

 

Not, honestly, that it makes any difference, because the schools waste so much time anyway.  I think the US system could stand an overhaul, which might very well include allowing students with certain specializations to avoid gen ed requirements in University (which most advanced students do anyway, to a degree).

[eternalsummer]

Also (tangent) I have to say that the difference between lunch in NZ schools and US schools (in my limited experience) was just insane.

 

In the US, everyone gets in a long line; the getting of your lunch and paying for it takes maybe 5-10 minutes.  Then you sit at a table in the cafeteria (indoors) and have 10-15 minutes to eat and a few minutes to throw the trash away, use restroom, etc.

 

That is the only break time in the whole day.

 

In NZ, on every half-decent day (of which there are a lot more in NZ than the Midwest here, granted), all the kids eat lunch outside!  And there are no long tables with seats where everyone sits in rows and shovels in the food - they have an entire hour for lunch, and they sort of eat and then run around and talk and play rugby or basketball or whatever.  I just found it amazing, and such a better way of doing things.

[Laura Corin]

 

In NZ, on every half-decent day (of which there are a lot more in NZ than the Midwest here, granted), all the kids eat lunch outside!  And there are no long tables with seats where everyone sits in rows and shovels in the food - they have an entire hour for lunch, and they sort of eat and then run around and talk and play rugby or basketball or whatever.  I just found it amazing, and such a better way of doing things.

 

In the UK there is also an hour for lunch - half an hour for eating and half an hour for formal or casual activities: choir, running around, debating.....

 

About school time: when I was at school the timetable (age 11 to 18) had lessons from 9am to 3.30, with an hour for lunch and fifteen minutes for a break mid-morning.  My boys' school (age 12 to 18) has lessons from 9am to 4.15 with an hour for lunch and half an hour mid-morning.

 

L

[Kathryn]

I'm in the US and the local school is 7 hours with an hour for lunch/socializing. Well, more like 50 minutes, but it's the same as a regular class period.

[Soror]

When I homeschooled before, we generally did 40-42 weeks (even though I always planned 32-36).  Next year, when we homeschool again, I'm planning 36 four day weeks (144 days).  After having my son in school for two years, it is blindingly obvious that I will be able to do far less than I used to do and I will still be doing far more than he does in school.  This is a "rigorous" private school, BTW.  Anyway, I've decided that life is too short to be doing schoolwork all the time. 

I oficially schedule 36 weeks/4 days week, although we have some lighter weeks. We were still yet able to finish a full spelling program (LOE), grammar/vocab/poetry (MCT), 1+ writing programs (WR bk 1 and 2 and 2/3rds of WWE) and 1yr+ of Math (1/2 of RSE, 1/2 yr of BA and various other supplements). I see other people doing more but then again we seem to be making good progress and accomplishing a fair amount.

[Rebel Yell]

I'm a little disappointed to re-discover this basic mathematic principle that 180=180, no matter who is counting.

 

We are getting close to the end of what I consider our "school year" and I notice that our last day is the same as the local school district's.  We will have done 181 days and they will have completed 178 (2 excused snow days).  I had somehow been hoping that since we homeschool very consistently we would have put in more school-days than the public school.  Weird.  I know my logic was faulty, but I'm still feeling disappointed.  We take short, standard breaks, no Thanksgiving to New Years holidays or anything so exotic.

 

I have noticed this type of illogical phenomena in my dc, but assumed that as an adult I was immune.

 

We will do 5 or 6 weeks of 1/2 time school over the summer, so there is some consolation there but the summer-work feels more like treading water than making progress.

 

Do you school more days than your local district?  Or less?  On purpose, either way?

I believe our local school have to do 180 days... and I foreget, but there is a minimum number of hours that counts as a day- for a 2-hour snow delay or early dismissal, for example. They are also allowed a number of excused/unexcused absences, not sure how they deal with individual tardies or early dismissals.

 

My state (PA) requires 180 days OR 900 hours (through 6th grade) 990 hours grades 7-12.  Nothing in the law defines the length of a "school day" or what has to be done for it to "count" as a school day. But we don't have 'sick days.'

 

Our "school year" is shorter- we do 'official school' between Labor Day and Memorial Day or the last Friday in May, depending on what we need. But I also "count" all of their activities on weekends and Summer- so we have probably double the required hours, but of course not all of them are spent doing Math and formal Language Arts. For Science & History, when the book is finished for the year, they are finished for the year in that subject, whether it be November or June... I do this "on purpose" since my primary goal  for homeschooling is flexibility- of the pace, the subject matter, and the timing of courses.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yeah, if you count days, it always brings up the question of what all you count.  My kids did a very intensive theater camp for 15 days, 9-3, culminating in several weekend performances.  They learned as much in a day of this camp as they do in a school day.  I didn't count those days - if I did, we'd be at 165!  I think counting them would be totally justified by my own internal metric.  OTOH, their all-day horse camp I wouldn't count, i don't think - great as it was, and definitely PE, it doesn't quite make my cut as a "school day"  

 

Not that it matters! But these are the kind of conversations that go on inside my own head (usually  ;) )

[Ellie]

Yeah, if you count days, it always brings up the question of what all you count.  My kids did a very intensive theater camp for 15 days, 9-3, culminating in several weekend performances.  They learned as much in a day of this camp as they do in a school day.  I didn't count those days - if I did, we'd be at 165!  I think counting them would be totally justified by my own internal metric.  OTOH, their all-day horse camp I wouldn't count, i don't think - great as it was, and definitely PE, it doesn't quite make my cut as a "school day"  

 

Not that it matters! But these are the kind of conversations that go on inside my own head (usually  ;) )

 

I count every day the children open their eyes.

 

[Dmmetler]

We usually end up starting a week or two later than PS and end a week or two earlier. but we don't take those 1 day holidays, snow days, both "Fall Break" and "Thanksgiving Break", both "Spring Break" and a break that just happens to hit Easter, or a several week long Christmas break.  Even with traveling with DH for work for a week or so a couple of times a year, it still leads to 180 official "school days" happening earlier. We taper off in April as DD starts finishing materials.

 

Having said that, we also do school some through the summer-we taper off in April/May as DD's recital schedule picks up, usually travel for work with DH in late May or Early June, and then come back and spend the summer doing different work, but still school-usually a "fun math" book (logic puzzles, different kinds of math puzzles and activities, etc), a thematic unit that DD picks, and lots of outside stuff until it gets hot. We usually have a 30 day or so "summer session", leading to somewhere around 210-215 full days of school each year. I don't record anything done on vacation as school, and if we have a day of dentist appointments, etc or a sick child, that simply isn't a school day. Not an absence, just not a school day.  Which means my DD has had perfect attendance since 1st grade :tongue_smilie:  (she also has the highest GPA and the best citizenship. Of course, her class roster consists of DD, two American Girl Dolls, and a bunch of stuffed animals).

 

 

 

 

[KrissiK]

I count 190 days this year. I try to finish our curriculum and it's just one more way in my insecure little mind that I can say I am superior to the public schools. Stupid, I know. Mostly, it's so we finish curriculum, though.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I count every day the children open their eyes.

 

 

Well, I'm not sure if that would add up to 365 at our house, but close enough!  ;)  :smilielol5:

 

 

ETA:  I added in the theater days, and suddenly we're on Day 166!  I feel so much better!  :lol:  :huh:

[Homemama2]

I found an attendance chart with 180 squares where you fill in the dates and I just fill that in.  I don't record any extra days we do. (Our state requires the "average" amount of days that the public schools do, which they say is 180.)  We moved recently and our local school did less than the 180.  Where we live now does 180.  Do we do more days than that?  Yes.  In fact we usually do math all summer, maybe taking one or two weeks off before school starts for the next year.  But honestly, I don't think we need to compare or worry about what ps is doing as long as we meet state requirements.  After all, if we wanted to be carbon copies of ps, I'd just send my kids there.  We never run out of curriculum before 180 days....I like shopping WAY too much for that to happen!! :laugh:

[mama27]

In my current state we are required to do 180 days. Tomorrow will be day 180. It's actually really annoying to have to count these stupid days when I see a teenagers Fac ebook page saying something like "We watched a dvd on aliens in history today!" or see pics of kids having end-of-the-year parties. I'm not against parties I just don't want to keep attendance! lol

 

 

[JessReplanted]

The 180 days is driven by union contract, not any relationship to educational goals. Start there.

 

Then, remember that the following count toward the 180 days:

 

Teacher training in-services

Half days

Parent-teacher conference days

Teacher prep and shut-down at the beginning and ends of the school year.

 

Be sure to count these days if the 180 number matters. You can also add in student retreat days, field trips, cultural experience days, service days...

 

That matters if you are in a day-counting state.

 

:0)

 

Me, I just educated my kid.

 

I think I may  print this out and tape it to my planner so I can read it every few days. :hurray:  This is my first homeschooling year where we won't hit our "180 days" by May, and it's been stressing me out.

[happypamama]

We're required to do 180 days in our state, and I'm of the "if they opened their eyes, it's a school day" mentality. But for purposes of counting for the portfolio, I am a little more selective. We count days with martial arts classes, read alouds in the car, or bike rides with Daddy as school days, and we also count any day they do any math, history, science, etc. I don't do half days; even if it's a light bookwork day, it's a full day. But even if we get to 180 days, I don't stop counting until we finish what I consider to be a reasonable amount of our curricula -- a certain point in math, a certain point in history, etc. We'll be done by Memorial Day, and we'll log somewhere around 210 days. PS will get their 180ish (I think they may have had some days forgiven because of snow this year, which makes no sense to me, but whatever) and won't finish until sometime in June (and the seniors in our district are having to go a few Saturdays because of so many snow days).