Anybody else do a four day week, not year round?

[knitgrl]

For the upcoming year, I have been planning to switch to a four day week. The general plan is to do the regular curriculum M-Th, and have Friday be a light day, with an Language Arts lab (spelling & phonics games) and a Math Lab (math games/Life of Fred), a trip to the library, and to catch up on things if necessary. Looking for affirmation, all the blogs I've run into that talk about a four day week are year-round homeschoolers. I'm not ready for year-round homeschooling! :scared: By the end of June I was in need of a break, and have enjoyed not having to do lesson plans or teaching for a month. Does anybody else do something similar? If so, for a more traditional curriculum geared for a five day week, do you skip day five, or do you double up on another day?

[Guest]

Well, I gave my kids a choice this year - 4 days/week and a longer school year or 5 days/week and a longer summer. I want to get 180 days in so we get all of our curricula finished. I can't see your siggy on my phone. When the kids are in K & 1st, I don't think there is any problem just schooling 4 days for a typical school year. We would skip review lessons in subjects like math and grammar, and most history/science aren't geared for 5 days anyway. About 2nd/3rd grade, though, I wanted to get through things and do them thoroughly.

[My3Munchkins]

We've always done a 4 day school week. Last year we did add an extra math lesson each week (5 instead of 4) so we wouldn't have to continue with new math lessons into the summer.

[caedmyn]

We do a 4 day week with summers off. I don't choose curriculum that's planned for 180 days because I don't want to try to tweak it to make it fit. My 5th grader will have to do a math lesson every 4th Friday to make it all fit this year.

[vaquitita]

I'm planning to do this this year. We will do four full days and then Friday is a light day. They still do math, Copywork and read to themselves. I don't teach new math material on Fridays, we don't do history or science, and the kindergartener gets the day off. I still read aloud. This allows us to be done early. After lunch we go do nature study and meet friends at the park. Actually, that's pretty much what we did last year too, other than often I was trying to squeeze in a make up lesson or AAR lessons on Friday. Which was just stressful. I've shifted more reading on to my two oldest this year, keeping my load more doable so hopefully we should be able to complete the assigned science and history work on schedule.

[Sherry in OH]

I do 3.5 days of academic subjects and 1.5 days of specials – gym, art, music, and outside activities/field trips. We start our school year in mid-August and finish by Memorial Day.  Our school day is long by homeschool standards, but no longer than the local public school day.

 

Our math curriculum is designed for a 5-day/35 week school year. Every fifth lesson is review.  I either incorporate some of these problems into other days’ lessons or skip them entirely. The program also has periodic consolidation and review weeks.  We skip over excessive review. 

 

Other than math, we don’t use any curriculum that comes already laid out.  I determine how much to cover each week/year.  For continuing subjects, such as history, if we don’t get as far as I had planned in a year, it isn’t a big deal.  We pick up at that point the next year.  

[knitgrl]

We do a 4 day week with summers off. I don't choose curriculum that's planned for 180 days because I don't want to try to tweak it to make it fit. My 5th grader will have to do a math lesson every 4th Friday to make it all fit this year.

 

That is a good idea! We are doing BFSU for science and trying to do Vol. I in two years instead of three and right now we are a few lessons behind. With this strategy, we might just start Vol. II when we are supposed to!

[knitgrl]

I do 3.5 days of academic subjects and 1.5 days of specials – gym, art, music, and outside activities/field trips. We start our school year in mid-August and finish by Memorial Day.  Our school day is long by homeschool standards, but no longer than the local public school day.

 

Our math curriculum is designed for a 5-day/35 week school year. Every fifth lesson is review.  I either incorporate some of these problems into other days’ lessons or skip them entirely. The program also has periodic consolidation and review weeks.  We skip over excessive review. 

 

Other than math, we don’t use any curriculum that comes already laid out.  I determine how much to cover each week/year.  For continuing subjects, such as history, if we don’t get as far as I had planned in a year, it isn’t a big deal.  We pick up at that point the next year.  

 

I start school in mid-August and tell the school district I'll be done by June 30. So, I give myself an extra month to play with because life happens. If we get done early, yay!

 

We use Math-U-See and have never done all the worksheets for each lesson. I suppose I could intersperse a few review problems each day, just to make sure she gets it. I ran into a blogger who said she doesn't do the weekly tests, which is an option I had not previously considered.

 

I've let a few things run over to this year from last year, most notably AAS and Song School Latin. We only have a few lessons to do in each one, and somehow it doesn't seem wise to skip them entirely.

[TracyP]

We were able to until my oldest was in about 5th grade, then we added math on Fridays. I expect to continue this until high school. But it does mean I have to be diligent during the school year - I can't teach this way and call a "snow day" or a random field trip day. I would quickly get behind because there isn't much leeway built into my schedule.

[happypamama]

We used to take one day a week off because a class and drive to and from the class kill a lot of the day. As they've gotten into middle and high school, though, we've needed to make that at least a half day in order to get everything done.

[ScoutTN]

We do. My kids have an enrichment tutorial one day a week that takes over the better part of the day, after drive time and lunch.

Last year when Dd hit 5th, I began requiring some work on Fridays, math and reading (history or science).Both kids have always done piano practice and reading (literature) on Fridays.

This year we will up the Friday requirements a bit.
Dd will do math, Latin and whatever else she thinks needs to be done. She will be using a student planner this year and mapping out when to do the week's work. That may mean some evening or weekend work. Taking steps towards real independence!

Ds will add a short math lesson and some facts drill because he needs the consistency.

In general, it works for us. It does mean some longer afternoons and a general watchfulness about random days off. We often have a core only day - piano and 3 R's - instead of a complete day off, for a FT or snow day. Content subjects are easy to catch up on. Math, not so much.

 

We do a little math and lots of RA in the summer. Very light. We all NEED the change of pace!

Edited August 4, 2016 by ScoutTN

[staceyobu]

We have always done a four day week with a co-op on day 5. We've always managed to finish everything between mid-August and end of May!

[MerryAtHope]

For the upcoming year, I have been planning to switch to a four day week. The general plan is to do the regular curriculum M-Th, and have Friday be a light day, with an Language Arts lab (spelling & phonics games) and a Math Lab (math games/Life of Fred), a trip to the library, and to catch up on things if necessary. Looking for affirmation, all the blogs I've run into that talk about a four day week are year-round homeschoolers. I'm not ready for year-round homeschooling! :scared: By the end of June I was in need of a break, and have enjoyed not having to do lesson plans or teaching for a month. Does anybody else do something similar? If so, for a more traditional curriculum geared for a five day week, do you skip day five, or do you double up on another day?

 

This doesn't sound like a "4-day week" to me--it sounds like 4.5 or 5 days, just with a different agenda on the 5th day. To me that 5th day "counts," at least as a partial, if not a full day. 

[3 ladybugs]

I figured out a way this year for my son to do 4 day weeks with the month of July off next year. We started yesterday. 

 

This is what I have. It is, of coarse, subject to change. ;)

 

School days:

August: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31

September: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30

October: 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31

November: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 30 (we have a planned vacation for Thanksgiving)

December: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30

January: 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31

February: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28

March: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31

April: 3, 4, 5, 6, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27 (planned week off, this could move depending on when my in-laws come out... it is basically a week off for when they come out to visit)

May: 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31

June: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29

 

Total of 180 days!

[HomeschoolingHearts&Minds]

For the upcoming year, I have been planning to switch to a four day week. The general plan is to do the regular curriculum M-Th, and have Friday be a light day, with an Language Arts lab (spelling & phonics games) and a Math Lab (math games/Life of Fred), a trip to the library, and to catch up on things if necessary. Looking for affirmation, all the blogs I've run into that talk about a four day week are year-round homeschoolers. I'm not ready for year-round homeschooling! :scared: By the end of June I was in need of a break, and have enjoyed not having to do lesson plans or teaching for a month. Does anybody else do something similar? If so, for a more traditional curriculum geared for a five day week, do you skip day five, or do you double up on another day?

 

 

This doesn't sound like a "4-day week" to me--it sounds like 4.5 or 5 days, just with a different agenda on the 5th day. To me that 5th day "counts," at least as a partial, if not a full day. 

 

:iagree:

 

Day 5 is a homeschool day, it just has a different program.  :thumbup:

 

For sure you can do that---you just need to arrange what you want to accomplish so it gets accomplished in the framework you have set up.  We've done light Fridays, we've done art/music Wednesdays, we've also done "switch weeks" (where we did our regularly scheduled stuff for 4-6 weeks and then did a unit study or something different for one week, then returned to our regularly scheduled stuff for 4-6 weeks and so on).  We take summers off and only do things like math and independent, kid powered projects.  Year round schooling doesn't suit us, though the teen has worked through the summer on unfinished stuff before.

[2_girls_mommy]

We do 4 days at home, one at co-op.  So for some subjects, we only do them 4 days a week (or even 3.) We take 8 wks off in the summer, basically June and July.  That is considered a year round school here for the public schools that have that schedule. The non year round publics go from mid August to mid May, and have less breaks in the school months.

 

We just don't aim to finish an entire text. We work from where we are. And if we move onto the next level when I feel we have completed enough. So somethings we start new at the beginning of August.  Somethings we just continue from where we were.

 

For my oldest who is now in high school, I am thinking about having her do math on co-op day this year, just because I think she needs the daily practice. Or possibly one lesson over the weekend. However each week works out for her.

[Sherry in OH]

I count our 1.5 days a week of specials and field trips as school days.   I do not count fall, winter, or spring break, or holidays dh has off.  We actually school more days than the public school in the same time frame, because we do not have teacher training days, weeks of testing, or calamity days.  Public school students do art,music, p.e., and other specials too, they just space them differently.

[HS Mom in NC]

We homeschool 4 days a week for 36 preplanned and prepped weeks from August to mid May. Thursdays  are for PE and socializing.  We take 2 weeks off in Fall, Winter and Spring. We've done it for years.

I've done do the next thing year round at a time when it worked for us.  It doesn't work for us now.

[Milknhoney]

I used to school four days a week. Fridays were open for grocery shopping, doctor appointments, social activities, and family outings. All the curriculum I used was designed to be done two, three, or four times a week, so it worked out. We take 2-3 weeks off at Christmastime, two months in summer, plus all the random days that pop up during the year. I loved it that way. By the time my youngest was ready for first grade, I realized there was no way I could do everything I needed to do with both of my kids and still make it to work by noon. So we've added school on Friday. This year ds is doing seventh grade work, and several of his subjects require five days of work, so probably I would have had to make the change anyway. 

[allisonknits]

We switched to 4 day weeks last year, mostly because Friday is DH's day off and we like to make it a fun family day. It worked really well for us! Math is the only subject they didn't finish by the time we took summer break, and that was on purpose. I like to keep math going a couple days/week throughout the summer so that they don't need as much review in the fall, so we purpose to leave some math to finish in the summer. It does make each school day a little longer than when we did 5 day weeks.

[Bluegoat]

Yes, we have until this upcoming year.  We've always had piano lesson one morning a week, and fitting in school around them has just never worked.  So, that included my kids in grades K to 5 on the four day a week scedual.

 

This year my eldest is going to ps so the time for lessons will change, but we might have had to change anyway, as I felt last year she could really benefit from a five day a week plan for grade 6.  I don't generally do school in the afternoon, it generally isn't done well by the kids and I also need time to do outings and such for the little ones, not to mention household stuff.  So, mornings is it.

 

We have done some work in the past in the summer, especially science, but mostly we take a break.

[wendyroo]

We school 4 days a week, but I don't pre-plan which days they will be.  

 

Normally we take off Wednesday which is speech therapy day; we will often run an errand either before or after the appointment since we are already out of the house.  However, it we have another day I want to take off we can buckle down and get school done before we have to leave on Wednesday morning.

 

I also make full use of the fact that weeks have 7 days, not 5.  If we are running behind or I want to get ahead, we can do school over the weekend while DH is around to take care of the little ones.  If we school Saturday through Tuesday we are done for the week...except we normally do a little math even on non-"school" days.  Other times, when we are on a roll, we will school 6 days in a week which means we accomplished 1.5 "weeks" of school.  That gives us a bit more breathing room in our schedule for when things do haywire.

 

Wendy

[Aloha2U]

We've always had a four day week. This was determined by my hubby's work schedule. That being said, our upcoming and past two years are different from the first several years.

 

K-4th: 7-day study week. 4 days on, 3 days off. Roughly averaging 6 weeks on, 1 week off. All studies were accomplished in these 4 days, by the end of the study year, before summer break. Extracurriculars (i.e., martial arts and music instruction) were on set days and may or may not have fallen on our study days; it just depended on which side of the week my hubby was working, and so we were flexible every three-ish months. (36 study weeks + 6 break weeks + 10 summer vacation weeks = 52 week year)

 

5th-7th: 6-day study week (due to hubby's rotating schedule). 4 days on, 2 days off. Roughly averaging 7-8 weeks on, 1 week off. All studies were/will be accomplished in these 4 days by the end of the study year, before summer break. Extracurriculars (i.e., martial arts and music instruction) were on set days and may or may not have fallen on our study days; it just depended on which days of the week my hubby was working. (45 study weeks + 6 break weeks + 9.5 summer vacation weeks = 60.5 week year) 

Edited August 3, 2016 by NCAmusings

[Pistachio mom]

We start school about the 3rd week of July. And I do 4 day weeks during the "summer." Once we get close to September, we switch to full weeks. We start early to allow me time for 2 weeks of breaks in fall and spring, as well as appt days to take off.

[knitgrl]

So the take away is that there are lots of reasons and ways to manage a four day week. It's possible, but I should not be surprised nor devastated if it doesn't work out and I have to go back to a five day week, or if it needs to be significantly altered from what I initially planned. Gee, that kind of sounds like homeschooling in general. :001_smile:

[Leftyplayer]

We do a 4 day week with summers off. The main reason is that I burn out after 4 days. I also often need some time each week to review their material and prep for the upcoming week and, to be honest, I didn't want to eat into my weekend and, on the days that we do school, my brain's too fried afterwards to do it in the evenings. And most late afternoons, I have my own things to do (cooking, errands or hobbies). We've also used the day "off" for co-cop when we used to go, for homeschool classes at the local FCC or to do extracurricululars (like piano lesson or dance class). So not quite "off" but rather not doing our standard curriculum.

 

We've managed to keep up just fine at 4 days per week and quite a lot of breaks, but then again I try to not be too rigid about what needs to be covered and, when push comes to shove, we get down to basics and take our time with the extras. Having said that, my son has some learning disabilities that affect his math and writing and, this year, I'm going to have to work him a little harder/ longer to make sure he doesn't "fall behind" for middle school next year. But I suspect I might be concerned about this with him regardless of how many days we did.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Leftyplayer

[UnlikelyHomeschoolingMama]

We start mid-August (this year we start August 8) and finish early May.  We do four days per week (5th day is co-op or field trip or just OFF).  We get everything done.  I just don't do tests for math (we use Abeka) which is the 5th day anyway.  We use MFW, so it is already on a four day per week with a light fifth day that I just work in elsewhere.  

 

Over our LONG summer I do three days per week of LIGHT school.  This year my kinder did handwriting and phonics.  My 3rd did spelling and math (just used the tests and sheets we didn't use during the year).  It works for us. 

 

 

[TheAttachedMama]

We did four days per week when my kids were younger.   (Kindergarten and first grade.)    I was told by lots of more experienced homeschool moms that a 4 day week was fine.   However, looking back I think it was a mistake for *those* age ranges and for my kids.  My kids are dyslexic, and I think they really needed more than 4 days per week to study reading and writing.   (In other words, more frequent, shorter lessons would have been better.  Three days off per week, counting weekends, was too much to make any kind of quick progress for them.)     

 

Now that my kids are reading and writing, we are trying a 4 day week again this year.   I will have to see how it goes.   They are in 3rd and 4th grade.   The "5th" day is not really off.   They just do lighter work that doesn't require a lot from me.    We all deep clean the house in the AM.  Then, they spend a lot of time reading (both fiction and some science and history).   Later they watch their Latin video (SSL 2), they watch a geography video (visualize world geography).   Then, later in the afternoon, we get together with another homeschool family to do our chemistry lesson (RSO Chem) and art lesson/project.    So it really isn't a day off.   But if *feels* like a day off because I am not teaching any direct lessons in spelling or writing.   Plus, I can get some stuff done around the house.   

[SamanthaCarter]

For the upcoming year, I have been planning to switch to a four day week. The general plan is to do the regular curriculum M-Th, and have Friday be a light day, with an Language Arts lab (spelling & phonics games) and a Math Lab (math games/Life of Fred), a trip to the library, and to catch up on things if necessary. Looking for affirmation, all the blogs I've run into that talk about a four day week are year-round homeschoolers. I'm not ready for year-round homeschooling! :scared: By the end of June I was in need of a break, and have enjoyed not having to do lesson plans or teaching for a month. Does anybody else do something similar? If so, for a more traditional curriculum geared for a five day week, do you skip day five, or do you double up on another day?

 

My plan is similar to yours. I'm only doing language arts and math on Mondays, because we have a whole lot of other stuff piled up on Mondays (writing class, PE, choir). Afternoon free read. 

 

The rest of the days:

T: Language arts, math, bible, read aloud, science, Spanish, free read

W: Language arts, math, bible, PE, history, typing, free read

TH: Language arts, math, bible, read aloud, science, Spanish, free read

F: Language arts, math, bible, read aloud, history, typing, free read

 

To me, this is 5 days a week. (above is for the 5th grader, swap out typing for handwriting for the 2nd grader) Everything not language arts and math is not 5-day curriculum anyway. 

[MEVmom]

Yes we do 4 day- and not year around! Fridays are for chores, art, and Latin. Personally I think a lot of people just try to do too much! I can't imagine going year around...

[Lori D.]

For the upcoming year, I have been planning to switch to a four day week. The general plan is to do the regular curriculum M-Th, and have Friday be a light day, with an Language Arts lab (spelling & phonics games) and a Math Lab (math games/Life of Fred), a trip to the library, and to catch up on things if necessary. Looking for affirmation, all the blogs I've run into that talk about a four day week are year-round homeschoolers. I'm not ready for year-round homeschooling! :scared: By the end of June I was in need of a break, and have enjoyed not having to do lesson plans or teaching for a month. Does anybody else do something similar? If so, for a more traditional curriculum geared for a five day week, do you skip day five, or do you double up on another day?

 

That's what we did -- 4 days for regular materials and a 5th day for educational supplements, games, videos, field trips, etc. -- with only a 36-week regular school year (no year-round school), and it worked great! At about 7th grade, we were starting to need an hour or two of regular work on that 5th day, and for high school, we really needed to still put in at least 3-4 hours on that 5th day. A few years in high school we opted to just run long into the summer to finish off the subjects that we weren't able to complete during the regular school year.

 

re: scheduling… We just "did the next thing" in elementary grades as DSs were ready for it. Looking back, I realize that our more traditionally-scheduled curriculum didn't really take us a full 36-weeks, so it never seemed to be a problem to bump a lesson on that 5th day to the next week… Or, one DS struggled a lot with Math and LA, so we just did what he was ready for, or spent extra time on topics he struggled with, and didn't worry about finishing a program by the end of the year -- we just picked up where we left off in the new school year.

 

And yes, *I* needed that longer summer break each year to get a break from teaching, researching, and planning! ;) By high school, much of what your student is doing is independent work, and most of the programs you are using don't really require the same amount of advance planning, as there is a teacher manual or book with everything you need to guide you, so the few times we did have to run long into summer was not really that big of a deal -- I still felt like I got a break. :)

Edited August 10, 2016 by Lori D.

[Hobbes]

We do four days. We begin in Sept and end at the end of May, generally. So far it has been easy to finish everything on time, which is what I remember from being homeschooled. Our Wednesday is a group morning (enrichment) and we don't do anything in the afternoon.

[Momto6inIN]

This doesn't sound like a "4-day week" to me--it sounds like 4.5 or 5 days, just with a different agenda on the 5th day. To me that 5th day "counts," at least as a partial, if not a full day. 

 

:iagree:

 

We do this too. Our 4 regular days are "skill & subject heavy". Our 5th day is much, much lighter with just math and art and either speech/debate club, drama, or PE. But that doesn't mean it's not still a 5th day. We never have any trouble getting all of our regular curriculum done in 144 days (4 days x 36 weeks). But as another poster mentioned, I choose what I want to cover for the year instead of the curriculum dictating that.

 

My high school kids have to do some fun geography games and also either vocabulary or grammar review on the 5th day in addition to math and extra-curricular stuff, but it is still a much needed half day break from the routine of the other 4 days.

[EKT]

We do a four-day week, but the fifth day is for our co-op, so I don't think of it as a day off from school. (My kids are doing valid work at co-op, even if it's mostly "enrichment"-type stuff.)

 

So, I plan for 36 weeks during the school year, and then, all through the summer we do "light" daily homeschooling (typically just math, spelling, and reading; takes about an hour/hour and a half). The summer homeschooling pretty much allows us to finish out any curriculum that wasn't completed in the 36 weeks, so I stay on track without going crazy during the school year. The bonus of light summer homeschooling has been that my children don't seem to lose their math skills they way they did when I first started and completely took summers off.

[homeschoolmama37]

For the upcoming year, I have been planning to switch to a four day week. The general plan is to do the regular curriculum M-Th, and have Friday be a light day, with an Language Arts lab (spelling & phonics games) and a Math Lab (math games/Life of Fred), a trip to the library, and to catch up on things if necessary. Looking for affirmation, all the blogs I've run into that talk about a four day week are year-round homeschoolers. I'm not ready for year-round homeschooling! :scared: By the end of June I was in need of a break, and have enjoyed not having to do lesson plans or teaching for a month. Does anybody else do something similar? If so, for a more traditional curriculum geared for a five day week, do you skip day five, or do you double up on another day?

 

We do a four day week here not year-round. On Fridays, we have a co-op, so no school that day. But, I also use Heart of Dakota which is scheduled only four days a week so this makes it easy to do. For subjects not in the HOD guide, I just do a little extra every week to make sure we are done M-Th. It's actually quite nice and I've found it to be helpful to have one day a week that we focus on something other than core academics.

 

Previously for a number of years, we did a co-op on Monday afternoons and that was harder because I was using different curriculum and felt like I was cramming a lot in those other four days. But with HOD, it makes it very simple. You can copy this model by just scheduling four days a week instead of five by doing just a little bit more in each subject throughout the week.

[knitgrl]

 

So, I plan for 36 weeks during the school year, and then, all through the summer we do "light" daily homeschooling (typically just math, spelling, and reading; takes about an hour/hour and a half). The summer homeschooling pretty much allows us to finish out any curriculum that wasn't completed in the 36 weeks, so I stay on track without going crazy during the school year. The bonus of light summer homeschooling has been that my children don't seem to lose their math skills they way they did when I first started and completely took summers off.

 

My daughter is an avid reader, so I don't ever worry about that whether school is in session or not. I attempted math practice this summer, but was not very successful at doing it daily, because I was in the mindset of "no school" instead of "light school." That probably makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Peaceful Isle]

We do a 4 day week, sort of. We homeschool M, T, Th, and Fr. Wednesday is our day "off". The kids go to art lessons on Wednesday so technically it is still schoolish, but not bookwork. I also plan on library trips for Wednesday this next year.

[EKT]

My daughter is an avid reader, so I don't ever worry about that whether school is in session or not. I attempted math practice this summer, but was not very successful at doing it daily, because I was in the mindset of "no school" instead of "light school." That probably makes all the difference in the world.

 

 

Yes, reading is the same in our house...the kids read constantly year-round and we read aloud every day at bedtime year-round, but it's nice to keep our 45-minute "cuddle on the couch with our independent reading" part of our formal daily routine throughout the summer, too. Keeps our habits strong. But yes, the overall mindset of "light summer schooling" really has made a big difference for us! It works for me because nothing about it is overwhelming. We can start out our school day at 8:00 AM and be done by 9:30 AM and then...it's only 9:30 AM and a full summer day still stretches out before us! It feels easy, especially since the math and spelling curricula we use (Math U See and AAS) are both open-and-go. I don't have to do any special planning for light summer schooling, so it's pretty painless! Then the kids just spend the rest of their day doing arts and crafts and creative stuff and the pool, etc. 

[Desert Strawberry]

This doesn't sound like a "4-day week" to me--it sounds like 4.5 or 5 days, just with a different agenda on the 5th day. To me that 5th day "counts," at least as a partial, if not a full day. 

 

I agree. This is five days.

 

We have always done a four day week. We don't exactly go year round, because we take time off for summer and other breaks, classes, camps, etc. We do have more than 180 days total. 

We don't work on a normal yearly schedule. We work a couple of subjects until done, then switch .