Summer Days & Year Planning

[KBadd]

I saw a post asking what your ideal summer day is. It got me wondering, what do your ACTUAL summer days look like??

 

Also, what is your year planned out like? Do you take a summer break, school year-round, or something else? Do you do any "schoolwork" over the summer? Once you have your curriculum picked out, do you schedule it out by week or month? When do you do planning for the next year?

 

Sorry, I have lots of wonderings :)

[purduemeche]

We have moved to 6 weeks on, 1 week off, 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off.  This allows us maximum flexibility around vacations and other life events.  The weeks off are project time for mom and assessment time for mom and dad.  These off weeks are when all planning and curriculum work is done, along with the ever-present re-organization-of-the-homeschool-bookshelves takes place.

 

This does mean our HS kids are super bummed when their PS neighbor-friends are playing all day, but it really does fit our life schedule better. 

[strawberryjam]

We do 3 weeks on, 1 week off (approx.) year round. We live out in the country so don't have to be concerned about neighbourhood kids knocking on the door asking to play all summer. We're keeping up with our regular curriculum plus doing some extra "fun" stuff like a History of Science unit, Guesthollow's Geography, an Astronomy Unit... hopefully that will include a shiny new telescope, we'll see.

 

The way I've been scheduling our curriculum is using a loop schedule for Language Arts (we use a lot of different resources for LA), math we do for about an hour every week day, and the rest of the subjects we do on specific days. Ie. Mondays are gymnastics, history and Bible, Tuesday-Thursday are for unit studies, science or fine arts, etc. Fridays are music lessons.

 

So we do math first thing, then a few things from our LA loop schedule, then after that we do whatever is left in the time we have. I schedule a "break" halfway through for an educational video and a snack, which also gives me time to set things up for projects. We try to finish school by 2pm regardless of what time we start. We usually don't take a lunch break till after school is done. We like to sleep in though so we don't start too early :) Things like reading out loud, art projects, science experiments, etc. we usually do in the evening after dinner so I don't count that as school time.

[HS Mom in NC]

We follow the local ps school year (mostly) because my youngest's best friend across the street is in ps. It's modified year round with 2 months off (end of May to end of July) with 2 weeks for Fall, Winter and Summer breaks.

 

I do the 36 week hanging file folder system where I plan and prep the entire year at the end of summer so we're ready to go on day 1 of school.  I don't do any planning or prep work on weekends or evenings during the school year.  I pick up a few craft or supply items every now and then if what I bought in the summer when I planned runs out. Each supply list for each activity is planned in the summer and listed in my lesson plans. I pick up any library books we need for 3 weeks at a time. The books and call numbers and local library branches are listed in my lesson plans in the summer.

 

Here's link where I explain step-by-step how I do subjects that don't have a workbook: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/517577-planning-full-year-with-filing-system/?hl=%2Bplanning+%2Byear+%2Bwith+%2Bfiling+%2Bsystem&do=findComment&comment=5731699

 

Here's another current thread on planning: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/551739-do-you-or-have-you-had-your-children-use-an-assignment-book/

[Heidi]

I school year round. Every year is different. We always seem to have some major life event with military moves or a new baby, so i plan around those events, try to remain flexible,and at least finish math every year.

This summer I'm speeding my oldest through the rest of her 5th grade math doing two lessons a day for the next 5 weeks, and catching up my first grader in math,spelling, and handwriting. The rest of the kids have no school. We'll be moving into a new house in 5 weeks,so as soon as everything is settled down we will begin the new school year. We take breaks when we need them.