End of the academic school yr.......4 day count down!

[8filltheheart]

Anyone else counting down the days?  I am soooooo ready for this yr to be over and have some down time.  Ready for being "knee deep in the water somewhere, got the blue sky breeze and it don't seem fair, only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair."

[Clemsondana]

Our last day is Thursday (and it's just co-op cleanup day followed by a trip to the Scholastic books warehouse sale to stock up on anything that we can find for next year).  The kids have worked really hard to be done with everything by Wednesday.  We'll still have baseball, Science Olympiad (our homeschool team won at the state meet and is headed to Nationals) karate, and some music practice, but I'm mostly a driver and less of a teacher so it will feel like a vacation.  The splash pad, garden, and pool at the Y beckon.  

[happypamama]

My big kids have some stuff to finish, but we will be done with most things this week. Any year in which you have a baby is a wonderful year, but it has also been a stressful year.  I am very ready for a break, and the weather is gorgeous now, so the littles are spending their days outside. 

[mom2scouts]

At this point, if my high schooler finishes his math and his literature book, we're done. My 12 year old is just doing some prepping for algebra next year with me and reading whatever book I tell her to read. I'm so ready to be finished.

[lovinmyboys]

We started our unofficial summer vacation on Friday. My oldest is going to school next year, and Friday was 104 days until his first day. So in honor of Phineas and Ferb, we are doing 104 days of summer vacation. 

It won’t be all vacation. We are moving 1200 miles away in about 6 weeks, then we have a vacation that was planned before we knew we were moving (which will be fun, but one more thing for me to organize). My kids are going to do math over the summer-mostly because I want to make sure my oldest is completely ready for algebra next year.

I don’t really feel relaxed, but at least I don’t have to worry about school for 101 more days.

[maize]

My brick and mortar kids won't be done until the end of May, my homeschool kids about a week before that.

Yep I'm ready to be done. Planning a tech break for the month of June; we did that last year--I had a vacation hold put on our home internet service for the month and we went almost entirely screen free. I'm looking to cut back on some extracurricular activities as well because I for one badly need a break from the go-go-go lifestyle of this past school year.

Edited May 7, 2019 by maize

[lewelma]

We are on week 2 of term 2.  sigh.  Four 10-week terms in total.  So very very definitely not joining you in your blue sky breeze. 

[Kerry Blue]

I'm so tired of New York. 180 days. Every year. About 30 more to go.

[klmama]

Another month to go here, too.  I'm not liking that very much.  

[8filltheheart]

18 minutes ago, Kerry Blue said:

I'm so tired of New York. 180 days. Every year. About 30 more to go.

That is pretty normal across the country.  The flip side is that we started our yr in July when it was hot and miserable and raining every day.  I asked the kids if they wanted to just start so we could finish early and they were ready.  But, I am just ending this yr in a fizzle, not a bang.  

[purpleowl]

We go year-round, but most of this school year's subjects will be wrapped up in about 4 weeks. I'll probably give the kids a week or two off at that point - there are some summer activities that would probably interfere with schooling around then anyway. 

DS's pre-k program ends on May 24, so he'll finish the year before the girls do. We'll have some adjustments as I figure out how to fold him into our homeschooling time, since this school year we've been doing most of the girls' school stuff while he was at school in the mornings. But he's very excited about having a daily checklist like his sisters, lol. 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

My kids have their required exams this week in the public school.  While it's not the technical end of the school year... let's be honest...  

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

My original plan was to be finished by the end of May. Then a lot of “life” happened this year and we got terribly behind. I’ve been cutting things for a couple of weeks now to where we are mostly just doing the reading for each subject but we’re still not making much progress catching up. I’m thinking we’ll go to mid-June and then just pack it all up. We usually do school year-round but this year I desperately need a break. Even mid-June seems too far away.

[Kerry Blue]

1 hour ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

That is pretty normal across the country.  The flip side is that we started our yr in July when it was hot and miserable and raining every day.  I asked the kids if they wanted to just start so we could finish early and they were ready.  But, I am just ending this yr in a fizzle, not a bang.  

For some unknown reason I had it in my head that it was otherwise.

I had good intentions of starting the school year earlier, but then Life happened, and School didn't. I was toying with the idea of taking a few weeks off after we are officially done, and then do school 1-2 days a week. That would get some days under our belt, and help keep the learning from falling out their ears over summer.

[8filltheheart]

4 minutes ago, Kerry Blue said:

For some unknown reason I had it in my head that it was otherwise.

Here is a chart by state: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab5_14.asp

I am someone for whom year round schooling is an utter failure.  I absolutely need weeks and weeks off with absolutely nothing directly related to teaching my kids required of me. I tried yr round schooling one time and I ended up mentally drained and it was my worst school yr ever.  It did not work out making our days easier.  It just sucked me dry. 

Hope you find what works for you.  Everyone's needs are different.

[Arcadia]

6 hours ago, maize said:

My brick and mortar kids won't be done until the end of May, my homeschool kids about a week before that.

Yep I'm ready to be done. Planning a tech break for the month of June; we did that last year--I had a vacation hold out on our home internet service for the month and we went almost entirely screen free. 

 

My kids have AP exams and then DS14 has outsourced classes’ final exams on the third week of May. We are celebrating after each exam though for both kids as a countdown.

If you cancel your home internet for a month, you could get a much reduced rate when you sign up again after that. We did that when we went on vacation since we could go to our nearby library for WiFi and leisure reading (hiding from summer heat) and not need to reactivate our home broadband service that soon. My kids are going to the summer school that doesn’t give WiFi access to students and use textbooks while I get to go to the gym to rebuild my fitness level 🙂

[Clemsondana]

We have to do 180 days here, too.  We start the first week of August and take very few breaks.  We have found that 1-day breaks (like the Friday or Monday breaks that schools take) are completely disruptive - we have a routine with certain subjects on certain days, and it seems off if we don't stick with it.  Obviously, we adjust if there's an event (sickness, field trip) but mostly we like our routine.  We take a week at Thanksgiving and 3 weeks at Christmas.  Spring break is hit-or-miss-  sometimes we travel and count it as school, taking math to do in the car and doing museums or national parks.  Other years we have to do standardized testing, which we count as school, and then we take off a day or 2 (that's why we're ending on a Thursday this year).  We find that the kids enjoy the breaks more when they can really get into them and get in the habit of entertaining themselves.  We know other folks who do much better with a different schedule, but we like summers with sports and outdoor camps, work in the garden, and later nights sitting on the porch watching fireflies and no school work.  I usually try to get the books for the next year put into baskets for each kid on the last day of school so that I can rest in the knowledge that we'd have everything that we need to get started even if I didn't think about it at all (I don't ignore it for the summer, but knowing that I could seems to relieve stress).  

[JoJosMom]

We've had a rough year, with a major surgery in mid-December. We'll be doing school until the Apocalypse mid-June, at least.

[CAJinBE]

Were done with our classes, just studying for AP exams. After next Wednesday we are done. And I'm done homeschooling. 

[Zoo Keeper]

10 more school days to go.  A few of my younger ones have finished up a few subjects already (spelling, grammar); my high schoolers have to finish up their stuff at the local high school, so they will finish that up around the middle of June (all their subjects with me will be done in 10 days!)

I have to do some grading, transcripts, and portfolio work after that. 😞  Necessary evil.

 

I did buy a new bathing suit yesterday. 🙂  Summer will come.

[hollyhock2]

My youngest 3 will be done end of this week. DS15 will finish end of next week, and DS17 will need a few extra days after that to finish geography and chem. But the end is definitely in sight!

[importswim]

I just got back from an unexpected 3 1/2 week trip overseas to help my parents while my Mom had surgery. The kids were with my inlaws and they didn't do much school so unfortunately that puts us behind where I wanted to be at this time of year. I think we're going to have to be doing math through the summer, though I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing if we can get it done first thing. 

I'm heading to the beach today, though, to sit in my beach chair and soak up the sun/blue skies while letting the kids swim. One of the benefits of living by the beach. The only problem is that it's so tempting to play hooky! 

[RootAnn]

The weather here is still unpredictable and not at all summery. However, kids and I are ready to be done. We have just over two weeks left. The oldest have finished several of their subjects but the two boys & I are still trucking through almost everything. I'm hoping to cross off some subjects by the end of next week and have a light final week of school. Local public school graduation is this weekend. 

Lots of activities coming up locally and end of year recitals (piano, gymnastics, tumbling, dance). Always something else on the calendar to look forward to. We might find out on the 18th if my dd#2 has a design picked for a community art sculpture which will be both awesome & stressful (for her) at the same time.

[theelfqueen]

I've only got the one homescholar now. Heading into 9th grade, we are tackling a new one-day-a-week aerospace program in the fall, and are trying to keep our one day a week co-op.  I'm nervous about the impact of that on our academic time so we've decided not to stop for the summer.... but I decided today that it is summer now and we won't do any Fridays until we start our Fall schedule. 

[luuknam]

On 5/6/2019 at 8:28 PM, 8FillTheHeart said:

Anyone else counting down the days?  I am soooooo ready for this yr to be over and have some down time.  Ready for being "knee deep in the water somewhere, got the blue sky breeze and it don't seem fair, only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair."

 

I wish... 4th quarterly report is due June... 28th. That's too many days away for me to figure out how many there are too count. 😞

[SeaConquest]

On 5/7/2019 at 5:15 AM, 8FillTheHeart said:

Here is a chart by state: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab5_14.asp

I am someone for whom year round schooling is an utter failure.  I absolutely need weeks and weeks off with absolutely nothing directly related to teaching my kids required of me. I tried yr round schooling one time and I ended up mentally drained and it was my worst school yr ever.  It did not work out making our days easier.  It just sucked me dry. 

Hope you find what works for you.  Everyone's needs are different.

 

I am so completely with you on this. I could never school year-round. I NEED a break. A nice LONG break. My kids go to camp and I sit by the pool with a drink, work on my tan/skin cancer, read, and go to the gym. It's the only way I could do this.

Sacha finished his Python class today, which ate up a lot of time, so things are slowly starting to wind down. Finally. May gray is here in So Cal and the Jacarandas are opening, so summer is on the way, but it will be gloomy out for awhile. Bleh. I want pool weather! We will be totally done in 2 weeks and then will have from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day mostly off. Some of the online classes start back up before Labor Day (grrrr), but we don't completely start our school until after Labor Day. I am old school about summer break.

[ScoutTN]

We have 5 more days, but they are short ones. Dd has five days, plus a final that is due the following week. Piano recital, musical theater performance (4 shows), THEN we're really done.

Bring on summer!! Pool, camp, long leisurely days and companionable evenings. Reading lots of books for fun! Big band dances, VBS, pool parties and swim meets. Our summers are both busy and relaxing. We can't school year round. Tried it once and it almost killed our homeschool. Never again. 

At this almost-done time of year, I often think about the scenes in Anne books or in LM Alcott's books where the students pack up their books for the summer, anticipating the delights of boating, gardening, and picnicking. I think my kids learn plenty in the summer, just not primarily from books! It is a season of re-creation and refreshment.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

noit even mid year here in Australia - school year here goes from end of January to mid December 

[Farrar]

I'm honestly concerned about ds finishing everything before he leaves for summer intensive the final week in June. It's stupid Global Finals. I know I shouldn't complain about having the opportunity for the kids to compete, but it's going to take an entire week of our lives to drive halfway across the country and back and do this thing and it's going to be intensive enough that I know we're going to be exhausted when we get back. Sigh. I envy you all with the students who work at a normal pace. I love my snails, but they're sloooooow.

[Lorix]

Wow, we still have a few months to go...

[HomeAgain]

We're calling this year done.
DS completed 924 hours according to our tracker, and I'm good with that.  I wrote out his end of year progress report, I'll couple that with work samples, and turn it in along with our LOI/next year plan tomorrow.

Over the summer he'll do a bit of dictation and a bit of math, but that's about 10 minutes a day total. 

[2_girls_mommy]

My teen starts her summer job a week from tomorrow, so she's got this week to find a stopping place in a couple of subjects. She needs to rake her final in algebra, finish the Cicero translation she's on, and finish reading Macbeth, etc. Some of her books she'll continue reading over the summer, but we're do e with planning. 

Dd14 has to finish some science work- writing up sone labs she's on, etc. She's doing Macbeth with older sis, but will continue math throughout the summer with me. She's done with Latin for the year after this week. 

I have a five year old who is on the cusp of beginning reading which we work on organically, so that won't be stopping. So I guess I don't feel like I've got much of a break coming. I'm pretty burned out right now, but will just be moving into June's responsibilities- I've got a full time job one week on top of driving dd16 around, another job in the home I have to work on while keeping dd5 entertained, and I will be volunteering one week in our Church's VBS. So I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with June right now. I'll be thinking of vacation in July maybe when some of that stuff is done. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by 2_girls_mommy

[Mom0012]

Yes!  My dd will be done with almost everything in 13 days.  Things have already lightened up considerably.  I am looking forward to doing some hiking and shopping with her.

[fourisenough]

We will wrap up 4th grade/9th grade by the end of this week. 9th grader is finished with two classes already, but has two final exams to take Thursday. 

College kids have been home for two weeks and one is already working her summer job; the other begins after we return from vacation on 5/27.

I’m looking forward to purging and organizing our school cabinet so I can mentally switch gears into summer mode. Unfortunately, it still feels like winter here: we wore down coats/hats/gloves to DD’s softball game last night. It could be in the 80’s by next week, though. Sigh 😔 Midwest weather!