If you school year-round...

[73349]

How many days?

 

Just curious.

[NASDAQ]

Almost 300

[justamouse]

We're supposed to count? :p I don't count. We're 'done' with the year when we finish the work, and then we just pick up and start the new stuff. There is no day counting. 

[JumpyTheFrog]

I did 190 with my second grader and about 85 with my preschooler.

[lewelma]

NZ has a 40- week school year with four 10-week terms separated by 2 week breaks and 6 weeks in summer.  In the school holidays, my  kids go into art, drama, or sports holiday programs for a week (half days), and over the summer we do a January term for 3 weeks where we do all the fun stuff that we have missed, like cursive, geography games on the computer, poetry, etc. 

 

So officially 40 weeks, but then half days for another 6 weeks.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Farrar]

Not only did I not count, but I don't really believe in counting and I wouldn't know what to count and what not to count anyway.  There are a few days that we clearly do a "full day" and a few that are clearly nothing educational whatsoever.  Most are somewhere in between.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Define school days. ;)

 

By one count I have 365, by another I have less. ;)

[Woodland Mist Academy]

When my dd was younger we had a set year-round schedule of the typical 180 days. Those were "official school days." She was reading constantly and doing other educational activities every day of the year.

 

We no longer have a set pattern of weeks on and off school because it no longer works for us. I'm in the process of deciding what to count as "official school days." (Not that it really matters, but it does help me stay on track with books I want to cover.)

 

Does a day in the field count, or just a day in the study? Well, both are educational, but only one makes progress through Algebra. Hmmm...I need to come up with a different system...

[Farrar]

Yeah I did count for awhile, but then I thought...why?  Why am I counting?!

 

Technically we are to be able to produce an attendance sheet if asked.  I'd print out a calendar and circle a bunch of dates and have no qualms about doing so.  I think the requirement is stupid and I have never heard of anyone being asked for something like that.

 

When the not-a-state changed the school attendance policies they briefly looked like they were going to include homeschoolers in it and we were going to have to provide live online attendance records for our kids.  I was one of the people who went to testify to say, um, no.  Honestly, if I had to provide attendance records, I'd just pull that nonsense out of my rear.

[happypamama]

My state requires me to count at least 180.  I really feel that any day is a school day, because there's value in whatever they're doing, and they're always learning something.

 

However, to make it simpler and give the school district no reason to question me further, I only report days in which they do something that easily translates to the portfolio -- a book read, anything written, a field trip attended, a sport played, a family hike taken, that sort of thing.  If they participated in tennis or martial arts lessons or went swimming, I count those as school days, even if there was no "book learning."  We counted 204 days for the school year that just finished, although there are probably 15-20 day in June that weren't counted in that total.

[My3girls]

We're supposed to count? :p I don't count. We're 'done' with the year when we finish the work, and then we just pick up and start the new stuff. There is no day counting. 

 

I started out counting but quit around 150-something.  I figure we're somewhere between 180 and 200.  We've adopted the finish the work then start the new method.  I'm not worrying about days.

 

[rocassie]

We are not required to report days so I don't actually count.  If I did, I would include the days in which we did lessons related to the subjects we are required to teach: math, language arts, social studies, and science.

[Melissa in Australia]

we do not need to count, so we don't bother. We school year round- with half days  during school holidays etc.

[Rosie_0801]

We do about 200 school days, give or take, going by the counter on my blog. They're not all full academic days though.

[....]

I don't count them, either.  But, I would estimate (conservatively) 200.  We school 4 days a week (generally, sometimes the oldest doesn't finish everything and has a little bit of work over the weekend).

[....]

My state requires me to count at least 180.  

 

We're in TX now (where we don't have to do that), but we moved here from a state where we had to take "attendance" and count the hours/days.   :confused:   So, I still keep detailed records of everything - just out of habit.  

 

Taking attendance in your own home is ridiculous.  Um, "Here!"   :001_unsure:

[Caclcoca]

We are required to report attendance.  We have to have 180 days.  I count field trip days.  I stop counting once we get out required days finished.  I agree that it is crazy.  They are here learning something everyday.

[Ellie]

We hsed year-round. if I'd had to count days, there would be have been 180 of them, because there are 365 days in a year, regardless of when you start counting, so fo course you can count 180.

[Pen]

Not only did I not count, but I don't really believe in counting and I wouldn't know what to count and what not to count anyway.  There are a few days that we clearly do a "full day" and a few that are clearly nothing educational whatsoever.  Most are somewhere in between.

 

same here

[maize]

We're not required to count so I don't. I don't plan for days off, except for Sundays and family vacations (and even then, one of my children finished half a math book on a long car trip).

[Myeightkiddies]

I don't count.  If I do pre-planning, I start with 180 days.  Things get adjusted throughout the year.  I'm sure that we go over that amount on average, but do at least that.

[Mandylubug]

On paper 180. In actuality no clue.

[Maela]

We also don't count. It's almost every day, but the days are usually lighter than the average non-year round-schooler. I like it that way - it's so relaxed!

[boscopup]

Since I keep track of our work in HST+, it counts days for me, and I do have to keep a record of that for my cover school (state requires reporting days absent :lol:).

 

I average around 200-205. That includes days that we do any number of subjects, plus field trip days. I don't count says that my kids read or learn something on their own. That would obviously be 365. ;)

 

We take various breaks throughout the year, especially when the weather is nice in spring and fall.

[Raifta]

I figured it out this year because I was curious how much time my illness last fall/winter had taken away.  We did 195 days and that was the right amount.  It let's me know how many weeks we can take off (approximately) throughout the year for future reference if we want to travel or really focus on something in particular (market gardening project for eg.).

[DragonFaerie]

We had to count days up until this year, so I'm just in the habit of doing it.  I aim for 180 "official" school days, but we also do homeschool lite over the summer.  So for this year, we had 171 official full days and we'll probably do about 6 weeks of homeschool lite (I consider those half days), so that should put us between 180 and 200 for the year.

[foxbridgeacademy]

Yeah I did count for awhile, but then I thought...why?  Why am I counting?!

 

Technically we are to be able to produce an attendance sheet if asked.  I'd print out a calendar and circle a bunch of dates and have no qualms about doing so.  I think the requirement is stupid and I have never heard of anyone being asked for something like that.

This.  I tried counting at first, it didn't work. I also have no problem with handing over a quickly done up attendance sheet. 

[freeindeed]

We are required to have 180. We typically get around 200. During the summer we do a Tues, Wed, Thurs school week. We take week long breaks throughout the year as needed.

[marbel]

My state requires me to count at least 180.  I really feel that any day is a school day, because there's value in whatever they're doing, and they're always learning something.

 

However, to make it simpler and give the school district no reason to question me further, I only report days in which they do something that easily translates to the portfolio -- a book read, anything written, a field trip attended, a sport played, a family hike taken, that sort of thing.  If they participated in tennis or martial arts lessons or went swimming, I count those as school days, even if there was no "book learning."  We counted 204 days for the school year that just finished, although there are probably 15-20 day in June that weren't counted in that total.

 

Yep, have to count 180 here too.  I pretty much count the if we do anything at all, but I just stop counting when I hit 180.  I hate counting days.  At high school level, it's all about figuring credit hours anyway, so it really annoys me to be counting days now.

 

I also counted days my kids were at camp.  If nothing else, they were getting socialization.  :D   One homeschooling acquaintance actually told me that was cheating because schooled kids don't get to count it.  I had no response to that comment.

 

[Ellie]

Since I keep track of our work in HST+, it counts days for me, and I do have to keep a record of that for my cover school (state requires reporting days absent :lol:).

 

I average around 200-205. That includes days that we do any number of subjects, plus field trip days. I don't count says that my kids read or learn something on their own. That would obviously be 365. ;)

 

We take various breaks throughout the year, especially when the weather is nice in spring and fall.

 

Surely you don't report more days than what is required for your state?

[La Texican]

We're currently doing seven days on, seven days off. There's no reporting at all in our state. So it would be 182 days, but we made this schedule sometime during the middle of the year when a "normal" Monday through Friday schedule was frusterating us. This schedule is really working well for us right now. I don't know the exact number, but I voted 180-200. The poll didn't ask but it's half-days, 2-3 hrs. plus an hour of reading. We homeschooled the summer prior as a trial run to decide between homeschooling or public kinder last year.

[boscopup]

Surely you don't report more days than what is required for your state?

 

My state doesn't have a minimum requirement of days. My cover school requires 160 days. I think that's pretty low. I don't have a problem saying we did 200 days. That's what we did. The state never sees my reports anyway. Only my cover school sees them if I ever change cover schools. It's kind of a weird system. I used to have to report to my cover school every 6 months, but then the cover school changed their rules and said we keep our own reports. About every 2 years, I go back and fill mine in. :tongue_smilie:

 

Since the school system does 180ish days, I don't see them making rules about homeschoolers needing to do 200 days because I reported 200 days to my cover school. ;) (especially since the state never sees my report)

 

I also don't have to turn in which days we did school. It's just a number at the top of the report that says what we did in a year (a one page quick summary - all subjects on that one page, so very brief).

 

[DragonFaerie]

Just curious as I read the replies to this thread... those of you that don't count, does your state require a set number of days but you just choose not to track them? How is your state law worded? Like are days or hours mentioned at all?

 

The law in my state says we have to do "the equivalent of" 180 days with 4.5 hours of instruction per day.  However, we do not have to report attendance anymore, so it's really an honor system thing, I guess.  I still keep really good records, including "attendance" records, just in case.

[wendyroo]

Just curious as I read the replies to this thread... those of you that don't count, does your state require a set number of days but you just choose not to track them? How is your state law worded? Like are days or hours mentioned at all?

 

Peter is still a year away from being compulsory attendance age here in Michigan, but even then we will not have to notify anyone that we are homeschooling him unless we choose to do so, nor report attendance, curriculum, testing or anything else.

 

If a parent or legal guardian decides not to send a child to public school, all Michigan asks is that they provide "an organized educational program in the subject areas of reading, spelling, mathematics, science, history, civics, literature, writing, and English grammar."  There is no mention of how long that should take.

 

Wendy

[LisaKinVA]

Normally, I'd say we're at leas 280.  However, we're still making up time this past year.  The summer has been crazier than anticipated, so we're lucky to get 3 1/2 days in right now.  But, we're back to full time August 1st (although, we're still finishing up 2013-2014).  We've got quite the pace for the fall (6 days a week, except for travel weekends, and a few 1/2 days planned).  We'll take a week off for Thanksgiving, and 2 weeks off at Christmas.  Since two of my children are planning to go back to VA with my parents for the summer, we're trying to finish up most things by mid-May.  They'll continue on with test-prep, math, and foreign language throughout the summer with my mom.  I'd really like to get back to a bit more flexible calendar by the end of July 2015

[chiguirre]

I don't count, but T probably does something that could technically count as school everyday. Even when we're on vacation, she's done surfing lessons, visited museums or, at least, read for an hour. When we're home we work on something academic everyday. This summer that's been Spanish. We'll finish the Spanish 1 book by the end of July.

[Ellie]

My state doesn't have a minimum requirement of days. My cover school requires 160 days. I think that's pretty low. I don't have a problem saying we did 200 days. That's what we did. The state never sees my reports anyway. Only my cover school sees them if I ever change cover schools. It's kind of a weird system. I used to have to report to my cover school every 6 months, but then the cover school changed their rules and said we keep our own reports. About every 2 years, I go back and fill mine in. :tongue_smilie:

 

Since the school system does 180ish days, I don't see them making rules about homeschoolers needing to do 200 days because I reported 200 days to my cover school. ;) (especially since the state never sees my report)

 

I also don't have to turn in which days we did school. It's just a number at the top of the report that says what we did in a year (a one page quick summary - all subjects on that one page, so very brief).

 

 

See, I would not report to the cover school more days than what they require. Even though you're reporting to the cover school and not to the state, and the state doesn't see that report, the principle is that you never over-comply with any requirements, even if you actually do Official School Stuff for more days than the cover school requires. :-)

[mom2scouts]

I'm not sure that I can really say that we school year round because our summers look very different than the rest of our year.  I do count many of the things we do in summer when I make our portfolios because we go to orchestra concerts, Civil War reenactments, zoos, and museums during the summer and those are just as educational as our more scheduled academic work. I guess I consider us summer unschoolers and I wouldn't even know how to count days.

[73349]

My state requires us to track days but doesn't have a minimum number of days; we are to conduct school "regularly" from  September through May (other months optional) during at least 9 months out of the year. They don't routinely ask for anyone's records, but they could.

 

I keep the school day short, but I don't take a weekday off without a reason.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Carolina Wren

[Ellie]

I write down what we do and circle the date when we have done a school day. I figure if anyone asks about records I could just show them that planner. But I would like (for myself) to be able to refer to it even past the min. required days. If you don't report more than you have to, do you keep 2 separate records? Or just not write anything down for the "extra" days?

 

Or not physically show them anything and simply say, "yes, we did ___ number of days"? I wouldn't even know what they would ask for if they asked for anything.

 

I sort of look at this past year as a trial year. Our state law didn't require ds to attend this year due to his age but I started tracking. I may need to modify how I do things for next year, but I don't want to keep two separate planners. I wonder if I should make an excel spreadsheet and just check off dates as we go? Hmm.

 

 

I guess I'm confused. I thought you said that your cover school requires 160 days. How do you report that? Do you just give them a number, or do you have to turn in an actual piece of paper? Or what? Whatever the case, IMHO you should only "report" that you did the minimum that is required (and IMHO, that would be every day your children wake up), even if you did do Official School Stuff 365 days a year. There is no benefit in reporting more than is required.

 

If the law does not require homeschoolers to do a specific number of school days, then you would not have to show any school official your planner. Your planner is for your use alone.

 

In our home, there weren't "extra days." All of them were learning. California doesn't require private schools (which is what homeschoolers are) to be in session a minimum number of school days; some PSPs (Private School Satellite Programs, the California version of an umbrella or cover school) require their families to have 180 or 175 or whatever the PSP administrator's magic number is, and they usually have some sort of attendance records for the parents to fill out and turn in. Had I enrolled my dc in a PSP with a required number of school days, I would happily have just put check marks on every Monday through Friday (excepting holidays) until there were 180 of them. Then I would have kept on doing what I was doing. :-) 

 

Attendance records for homeschooled children are a joke. You get up every day and there they are. :D Other things like samples of their work, standardized test scores, etc., make more sense to me than attendance records (although I'm happy that I never needed to keep those for anyone except myself).

[Cheryl in CA]

I guess I'm confused. I thought you said that your cover school requires 160 days. How do you report that? Do you just give them a number, or do you have to turn in an actual piece of paper? Or what? Whatever the case, IMHO you should only "report" that you did the minimum that is required (and IMHO, that would be every day your children wake up), even if you did do Official School Stuff 365 days a year. There is no benefit in reporting more than is required.

 

If the law does not require homeschoolers to do a specific number of school days, then you would not have to show any school official your planner. Your planner is for your use alone.

 

In our home, there weren't "extra days." All of them were learning. California doesn't require private schools (which is what homeschoolers are) to be in session a minimum number of school days; some PSPs (Private School Satellite Programs, the California version of an umbrella or cover school) require their families to have 180 or 175 or whatever the PSP administrator's magic number is, and they usually have some sort of attendance records for the parents to fill out and turn in. Had I enrolled my dc in a PSP with a required number of school days, I would happily have just put check marks on every Monday through Friday (excepting holidays) until there were 180 of them. Then I would have kept on doing what I was doing. :-) 

 

Attendance records for homeschooled children are a joke. You get up every day and there they are. :D Other things like samples of their work, standardized test scores, etc., make more sense to me than attendance records (although I'm happy that I never needed to keep those for anyone except myself).

 

Well, they are there but not necessarily doing anything that could be counted as school attendance.  I only count the days on which my children participate in what would be considered a "school day" if they were in a brick and mortar school. 

[Lang Syne Boardie]

My state requires attendance records. That's our only requirement, and evidently not considered important since nobody knows of a single homeschooler in the history of Hoosier homeschooling who has EVER been asked for that document by anybody at all. Still, it's the law, so we all put down something.

 

I check off all my boxes on my printed record from donnayoung.org. Once we hit 180 days I stop fooling with it until the next year. So I don't know how many days we actually schooled, but I do know that I made 180 checkmarks on a paper last year.

[Ellie]

Well, they are there but not necessarily doing anything that could be counted as school attendance.  I only count the days on which my children participate in what would be considered a "school day" if they were in a brick and mortar school. 

 

If the law does not define what "attendance" is, then I have no qualms about saying that my dc are "present" every day, because they are. This would especially be true in states that require other documentation, such as samples of their written work, or evaluations of some kind (especially if those evaluations are done by a third party). As long as those things are showing progress, then as far as I'm concerned, my dc are always present.

 

In any case, there's no point in reporting more days than is required by law.

 

In California, there are no minimum days required, and private schools (which is what homeschoolers are) are only required to indicate when dc are "absent." My dc are never absent. :-)

[Cheryl in CA]

If the law does not define what "attendance" is, then I have no qualms about saying that my dc are "present" every day, because they are. This would especially be true in states that require other documentation, such as samples of their written work, or evaluations of some kind (especially if those evaluations are done by a third party). As long as those things are showing progress, then as far as I'm concerned, my dc are always present.

 

In any case, there's no point in reporting more days than is required by law.

 

In California, there are no minimum days required, and private schools (which is what homeschoolers are) are only required to indicate when dc are "absent." My dc are never absent. :-)

 

I would not be comfortable reporting only days that my children happened to be in my home because my intent (and the requirement of my PSP) is to show their "school" attendance.  I would not go above their (what I consider reasonable and typical) requirement of 180 days. 

[boscopup]

I guess I don't see what the problem is with reporting your actual number of school days if it's above and beyond what the law requires. I also report what level curricula we use, even if it's above and beyond the grade level my child is in. If I'm doing it, I'm going to report exactly what I'm doing.

 

I understand not giving more information than is required (like not giving test scores if the law doesn't require them), but reporting that I did 200 days? I just don't see any downside to homeschoolers at large. It's not like they're going to change the attendance rules to be more than that of the public schools.

 

I find it easy to differentiate between a school day and a day that we piddle around and do nothing. There is a huge difference between doing 5 academic subjects and playing outside all day. So I wouldn't feel comfortable saying we school 365 days a year, since we clearly don't. Maybe an unschooler could do that. I'm not an unschooler. I have clear educational instruction time on certain days that is very obviously "school", outside regular living of life (housework, cooking, playing).

[boscopup]

Oh I'm not the poster that is using a cover school, Ellie. Sorry for the confusion! I don't know if/what my state would ask for as "proof." I have no idea how that works. I am sure it's rare that we have to show anything.

Yeah, it was my cover school that requires a minimum of 160 days. The public schools have 180 days. I don't feel comfortable reporting only 160 days, especially when I do so much more.

[Ellie]

Yeah, it was my cover school that requires a minimum of 160 days. The public schools have 180 days. I don't feel comfortable reporting only 160 days, especially when I do so much more.

 

If the homeschool law does not require you to report days, but your cover school requires 160, then you should report 160, regardless of what the public schools do. That you do so much more is irrelevant for legal purposes. That is the principle: only report, or otherwise put in writing to give to someone else, what is required by law (or by the entity to which you belong, although personally, as the owner/administrator of such an entity for 16 years, *I* would not require more than what the law requires, but that's just me). The records you keep for your own use are just that: records you keep for your own use. I have no doubt that all of us do more than the law requires :-) but there is no benefit of any kind to documenting our work above what is required.

[marbel]

If the law does not define what "attendance" is, then I have no qualms about saying that my dc are "present" every day, because they are. This would especially be true in states that require other documentation, such as samples of their written work, or evaluations of some kind (especially if those evaluations are done by a third party). As long as those things are showing progress, then as far as I'm concerned, my dc are always present.

 

In any case, there's no point in reporting more days than is required by law.

 

In California, there are no minimum days required, and private schools (which is what homeschoolers are) are only required to indicate when dc are "absent." My dc are never absent. :-)

 

I have to count 180 days.  As soon as I hit 180 days, I just stop counting.  I don't really care how many more days we do school beyond the legally-required 180.   I'm curious why people count more days than they have to.  I guess... why do you care how many days you do school, beyond fulfilling the requirement?  I mean, I know we do more than 180 but how many more?  I don't know.  I don't need to know.

 

I'm not objecting to the counting, just curious why.

 

(I do object to overcompliance but that's not what I'm asking about.)

[boscopup]

It's not any more work for me to count 200 days than it is to count 180 or 160. My lesson planning software does that for me when I check an assignment as "done". And when the cover school requests number of days completed, saying less than the actual numbers would be a lie. I just don't see what the problem is at all. They ask for information, and I provide that information.

 

I could choose a cover school that doesn't require the information, but those are few and far between, and the ones I know of have websites that I would not want prospective colleges googling (like the one that has peace symbols all over it that talks a lot about unschooling). So I picked one with minimal requirements and a minimal fee. The cover schools mostly choose 160 days because that is what private schools are expected to do as a bare minimum. The law technically says to report says absent, which is stupid, of course. But oh well. It really is not a big deal to write "205" on the little report that I keep in case I need to change cover schools (the cover school would then take my reports and forward them to the new cover school).

 

I just can't think of any problems that would arise from telling the truth about the number of days we did school, and I don't think this falls under the principle of not reporting more information than is required by law. If my cover school requires days attendance, I report says attendance.

[mysticmomma]

Llgds