When will your school year end?

[mafi39]

I am debating about going year round or taking a summer break. I talked to a lady at my co-op and she said they definitely take a break because she needs time to just be mom. I totally agree with this, because it's exhausting sometimes. But I don't want my kids to forget everything we've learned!

 

They will be in first grade next year. Do you stop in may and start back up in august or sept.? Or do you go all year with breaks? Or would you do a break and only school one or two days a week to keep it all fresh? Help from the experienced hs moms!!!

[patchfire]

Our official school year end - i.e., the end of our required 180 days - will be May 15. The following week we're going to do some additional writing and grammar, just to finish our curriculum up evenly, and dd will take the ITBS, because she's in third grade and our state requires testing at this point.

 

Over the summer we're going to do some science experiment kits with a public-schooled friend, and she has four or five books I'm going to require her to read over the summer. Other than that, she'll be busy with various camps and VBS.

 

Now, if I start any work with ds prior to the summer (phonics or handwriting, he's chomping at the bit for both of them), I'll keep going, simply because I wouldn't expect him to retain something for months at his age.

[Aurelia]

I'm not terribly experienced, but we go all year with short breaks in December (3 weeks) and July-August (about 4 weeks). We're pretty busy with the holidays and family stuff in December, so we need the extra time to relax, and it's SO hot in the summer here that it's difficult to concentrate. Plus, it gives us an excuse to go to the local pools to cool off. :001_smile:

 

I don't want DD forgetting everything she has learned, and this works out well for us, so we have plenty of other days throughout the year we can take off if it's just not a good day to do schoolwork.

[mchel210]

Last year we ended in May...pretty much early May.

 

But we started back towards the end of July and worked until mid Aug...took a couple weeks off before PS started and then started back up again.

[southmetromom]

I do need a summer break.

 

But I have them do a page of handwriting and a math drill most days except when we are on a "going away" vacation.

 

This year we are skipping spring break and ending May 15. I'll probably continue with Latin drill and some history reading over the summer, though.

 

HTH,

 

Sandy

[katemary63]

We're done May 30th. I don't school year round - it would be impossible with all the farm projects, 4-H activies, trail rides, hikes, and camping trips we take. But I do have plans for some light math and reading to keep her sharp. I have revamped our schedule for next year and we will be Starting Aug 1 and done April 30th instead. I want to be able to go camping in May since it is less crowded and better weather. Wish I had done that this year! Our only breaks during the year are 1 week for the county fair, 2 weeks at Christmas and 1 week at Easter. ( other then a day or two here and there)

Edited March 10, 2009 by katemary63

[springmama]

I have a friend who uses WTM and she schools year round, taking a break every 5th week. They do 4 weeks of school, then one week off. She says this allows her time to do a detailed plan for the next 4 weeks, and it is during this break week that the kids are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want- watch tv, play computer games, etc.

 

I think this is what we will do. Actually, they have a child who is entering 1st grade with SOTW Vol 1 and I do too, so we are planning some group activities with them so I will pretty much follow their schedule since she is the smart history major and has been homeschooling for much longer than I have.

 

Anyway, to make a long story short, I think the 4 week on, 1 week off thing makes sense for many reasons.....it makes learnign a way of life, they dont' need to relearn anything (I think WTM recommends not taking more than a 1 week break with math), and it keeps momentum and eliminates any adjustment period with a beginning of a new school year, while at the same time, no one gets burned out because you have frequent breaks.

[elegantlion]

We end our year in May and start again early August. I need the break, so does ds. However, we do continue with school lite to help retain information. At that age we did math, reading, and writing only. It was a light and very flexible schedule. Making the schedule flexible gave me the freedom to roll with the summer frenzy.

 

We generally take two full weeks off at the end of the spring term and right before we start again in August.

[Jenny in Florida]

I discovered last year that it is pretty much impossible for us to get any schoolwork done when my daughter is home on break. And, if I don't plan for the time off we need to drive up there and back during the year, we just get behind. So, this year, we started our school year the Monday after I moved her into the dorm. And we'll finish the Friday before her semester ends, on May 17.

 

It makes for a short academic year, but we're getting everything done. And even when we're "off," we do field trips and projects and such. So, I'm trying to stop stressing about it.

[kewb]

We will end the end of June when our school district ends. I find it easier to start and end when my kids school friends do.

[Haiku]

Our school year is 40 weeks long. We go from the first week of July until the middle of June. We take two weeks off before we begin the new school year. We also take a week off every five or so weeks (i.e., we school for five weeks and take the sixth off) throughout the year, with two weeks off for the winter holidays.

 

I find that things work out much better for us when the kids don't have long stretches of time away from their routine. Maybe this will change as they get older, but as it is, the kids get restless and ready to start school again a few days into our weeks off.

 

I also like that, because we go year-round with frequent breaks, I don't feel forced to cram everything in to a rigid schedule. If we had 36 weeks of school with a 12-week summer break, I would feel anxious about getting "behind." The way we do it, we are never "behind" because we just keep on going 'round the year, switching to the next thing when we're ready.

 

We do have a somewhat lighter schedule for six weeks in July/August, where we don't so science or history. My kids go to a week-long camp in August, and after they get back from that, we resume our full schedule.

 

Tara

Edited March 10, 2009 by TaraTheLiberator

[Laura Corin]

We take the month of August off.

 

Laura

[nukeswife]

This year we'll end in mid June, We took a vacation to visit family in Oct so that bumped our year back by about 3 weeks. We usually finish by mid June. We had started in early Aug, but next year we most likely will bump that back to late Aug, early Sept for a start date.

[athena1277]

We started our school year after the 4th of July holiday and will finish the last week of April. We're new hs'ers, but I think I really like it this way. It's too hot in July and Aug to be outside much, so why not start early? It has given us a lot of flexibility to take days off during our school year, esp. when grandparents visit or we have a bad day. We'll do some reading and math during May and June. We'll still have plenty of time in our day to play outside while the weather is nice, and the park won't be so crowded because the PS kids will still be in school.

[Tree House Academy]

We count our 180 days for the state and school with all the subjects until those days are finished. At that time, we drop back and do light school throughout the summer taking lots of breaks and working in the am so we can play in the evenings. :) For us, 180 days will officially end on May 8 for ds5 and May 22 for ds9.

[prairiegirl]

We school year round. We take breaks during the year. We are taking a week off this week to clean our messy house :D During the summer, though, we are very relaxed. I try to do math every day with my dd and reading with my ds. If there are other things that didn't get finished during the school year then we do that as well. It only takes us an hour a day in the summer to finish our school subjects.

[charlotteb]

We have our school year round, Monday thru Thursday. The end of our school year is May 29th this year. We will take a short few week break and then start back up in the middle of June.

We've done this for several years now. We are very used to this schedule and the kids don't complain at all!

[katilac]

When the kids were younger, I schooled year round on no particular schedule, partially because I was trying to avoid the "school = learning" mindset.

 

Now that they are rising 4th and 6th, I am switching to more of a 'summer schedule' and we will not be moving forward in curriculum, because circumstances just make it too hard.

 

Oldest dd will have several weeks of all day camps, youngest one week or two if I'm lucky. And, with middle school, the teacher now needs more time to preview the curriculum; no more reading it over the night before! I also find that we are just more in need of a break than we used to be. I think it's a combo of both harder work and a busier schedule in general.

 

The kids are wiped out during camp weeks, so all we will do then is Latin vocab review in the car, and audio books. When I have the little one by herself, I'll spend a bit of time doing special things with her - - some fun projects in the garden or art room, break out some of the math games to cement those facts, and probably play some Polly Pocket :tongue_smilie:

 

The weeks they are both home, we will do some of the things that are hard to fit into the regular school day - - extra science and art projects, and we'll look through all those activity books we own (hands-on geography! learning with state quarters!). We'll play some games to keep up with math facts and Latin vocab.

 

Basically, an hour or two each day of what they consider 'fun' school. I will also try to guide them toward optional mom-approved activities; my kids are nice and suggestible most of the time!

 

We will take some time completely off to recharge, but honestly, I find that they tire of this after a week or so and really prefer a short period of guided activity each day. It still leaves them oodles of time to sleep late, play, and do nothing. They both read every day, so no worries there.

 

That's June & July, and in August we move up to the next grade and ease into the 'new' school year. We always start with grammar, spelling, and other simple subjects; that way, we finish those a bit early in the year and can concentrate on what else needs to be finished (we are not a family that likes to mix our ancient studies with our medieval ones, lol, there must be a separation).

 

This coming year, we are also going to concentrate on 'study skills' for that first month: note taking, writing reports, etc. as the middle schooler will be taking on more complicated papers and projects.

 

In the current year, we were doing a few weeks of book work followed by a project week (when you do experiments, art, all the messy and time consuming stuff). It worked quite well, and we got to more projects than normal. As the year progressed, I got better at incorporating those into the school week as we had time (a running project list helped greatly). I think I'm going to adapt that to take a longer break at Christmas (time off plus projects); we really don't NEED a break just a few weeks into the year, we are all still full of enthusiasm!

 

Um, did you WANT a novel? :001_smile: I LIKE planning out the year, can ya tell?

[Gamom3]

dc are wrapping up things now and are doubling up in other areas to finish.

 

I plan on continuing writing, science, grammar(computer),math(worksheets) and have them read at least 4 book over the summer...sounds like a lot written out, but it shouldn't take them over a hour or so to do it all.

[Free Indeed]

We just finished our "school year". We take breaks in the spring and fall since it is too hot in the summer to do much anything else besides school unless you are fortunate enough to have a pool.

[2cents]

 

It ends in about 2.5 hours!!!! Whoo hooo!

 

 

Our tester is here and the girls are taking the Stanford right now. Soon as they are done we party!!!

We'll take it easy for about a week then go into the summer schedule which is lighter but includes: math, learning Japanese, and a fun chemistry unit along with lots of fun summer activities.

[hsmamainva]

We're ending June 19th, then starting up again in September.

[PeterPan]

You have to do what seems best to YOU. There are so many options or ways to combine this, and it's really personal, just what you want to do and what fits your dc best. If you want the freedom and more flexibility during the school year, it's helpful to school during the summer. We always have, but we don't have school kids for neighbors or close friends to make it a problem. You might have a totally different situation. Summer is busy for my dh, so we're more likely to take vacations in the fall or late winter. You really want to find a set-up and plan that fits your family, your situation.

 

Yes, your dc can forget things if you take off a long time. Also, your dc might ENJOY continuing schooling or benefit from the continued structure. We school year round, but I have different seasons and try to break things up. We'll finish our regular work by the end of April, then in May do what I call May Term (oddball, different, or unusual things we don't hit during the school year). We usually take off June, though we may not because of missing so much time with the baby last fall. Then we start back in July, ramping up slowly and pretty much having picnic blanket school outside or tent school. :)

 

Find what works for you. As long as you put in the time, it doesn't really matter.

[MamaT]

We will end May 30. We will take June and July off and start up again the first of August. I find we need the break. We will do some review over those two months, and read of course, but that's all. We will spend June and July going to the pool, visiting family in Florida, and taking a family vacation.

[Ellie]

When we hsed, our school year began January 1 and ended December 31.

 

We were off from Thanksgiving to about the middle of January; a couple of weeks in the spring; a couple of weeks in late summer/early fall; and whenever we just needed a break.

 

For the sake of Sunday school teachers and grandparents, I "promoted" the dc in the fall, but we mostly just started stuff and worked on it until we finished, then moved on to the next thing.

[laughing lioness]

Ours will end mid-May when my 2nd dd graduates. My oldest will be home for a couple of weeks before traveling overseas again so we'll be gardening, playinig and enjoying each others company. As soon as oldest takes off we'll start with "summer school." My littles just get too antsy without some kind of routine and directed study. We also live OUT in the country- no neighbors, lots of wide open space so our schedule provides some structure that others might have just by where they live.

[Beth in Central TX]

Our last day of school is June 12th. We will take 6-weeks off and start our next school year on July 27th. I like taking off more time during the school year, so I shorten our summer break to 6-weeks & our Christmas break to 3-weeks, which allows me to take off one week per month during the school year.

 

HTH!

[Pensguys]

Our is May 20th.

[sweetbaby]

Shooting for July;)

[sweetbaby]

When we hsed, our school year began January 1 and ended December 31.

 

 

 

We had this schedule too. We were the only ones in our hs group schooling like this but it was fun and flexible. Our dates have change but we are still year rounders.

[rafiki]

.

[Guest]

This is our first year being structured, but I liked our schedule. We started beginning of August and are ending end of June. We took about a month off between Thanksgiving & Christmas, and will be taking most of the month of April off. Then we will take July off before starting "a new year" in August. I like having time in the spring off because we have 3 birthdays in April and also the weather is beautiful at that time. As dc get older I'll probably see how many friends that have in ps - I would like them to have breaks with their friends. If we take longer than a few weeks off at a time, I do plan on having some kind of remedial work - when they get older.

[Basketmaker Amy]

Not soon enough!

[Dixie]

We will finish the middle of June and then start back early August.

[Elohcin]

We finish end of June and start up the first week of August. We school year round and take breaks at scheduled and needed times.

[FO4UR]

I school year-round. I don't dare break for more than 2 days at this point with ds6 -phonics and math are on par with brushing teeth:tongue_smilie:

 

I'm pretty relaxed with everything else though.

[Carrie12345]

09/10 is the first year I have to register with the state. If I get my paperwork in by July 1st, we can start counting our 180 days from there. I don't plan to do a lot of seat work over the summer, but I'm planning to use the time for "educational field trips" and other countable aspects that are best done in good weather. Along with a lot of reading, of course.

 

I'm worried about feeling stressed out during our first year on record, so I'm hoping this will help me to relax!

[Matryoshka]

We school pretty much year-round but start the new level of curricula the first week of September and I aim to have it finished up by the third week in June.

 

In the summer we do academic things, but other than history (reading at bedtime) and some year-round supplementary stuff I try to do something a bit different (last summer and this we'll do LOF instead of Singapore, for example).

 

This year will also be a bit different in that I'm aiming to get most things (especially math) done by the first week of May, as I'm sending one of my dds off to Germany for 6 weeks, and I'd like to have things wrapped up by then. She'll be back just when our regular summer activities start, so I don't want to have to finish up then.

[DeeDeeMarie0]

We will end in mid-June with full days, but the boys will still do math, piano, and reading throughout the summer, except for real vacation and scout camp weeks. I find that if we do not have a morning routine to focus them in on starting their day, everything is too chaotic. We will get up eat, do chores, do work, and then they are free. This routine seems to settle them in, and they go off and play outside or play creatively. If I leave it open, they wake up, follow me around and say "what can I do?"

[swellmomma]

Our year end assessment is April 28 but we will keep working until the end of June, take a week off for family camp then they have church camp for a week. We will start up again July 15 for the next year. I plan on schooling right through the summer because we took most of first term off this year. My new curric though willnot be ordered until mid august for the most part though, so until then we will keep working through our current stuff and start the things I have bought but it will not be a full load until September.

[Strawberry Queen]

We'll probably take off July and begin again in August. I'm trying to do 9 week semesters to break things up. We're on our 3rd break right now. I have another week off scheduled in mid-May and then a 5 week term until summer break. OUr 5 week term will probably the 3r's and science. My dd is doing Apologia birds and it's way to cold to do any bird feeder stuff. (it was -28 when dh left for work this morning):eek: It's sad when a 30 degree increase will only take it just above zero.

[Psm73]

We take off 3 weeks in December, 1 random week in the spring, and then 2 to 3 months in the summer. My dd struggles with math quite a bit so for our long December break this year, I had her do 10 problems a day on a math sheet during our 1 hour household quiet hour. It would take her literally only 1 minute. But guess what? She didn't forget a single aspect of math when we started up again in January. I was soooooooooo glad!

 

So as far as how that translates into our summer - I'm going to have her do 2 math worksheets per week throughout the summer. I will not do any formal teaching (because I totally agree - I need time to just be a mom and to play and plant and paint and swim and read with them) but I will check her worksheets at the end of the week for accuracy. I don't think this will be robbing her of her summer break since it will only take her about 3-5 minutes per day. Math can easily be "lost" during a long summer break and that's just one struggle I refuse to have every September. :) I'm sure this depends quite a bit on the child but since math is our weak area, I'm willing to enforce 3 minutes of math a day throughout the summer.

[CalicoKat]

I was just mapping this out tonight--in 12 weeks, June 8th.

 

BUT that's just when we're finishing a couple of the major subjects. We're year round schoolers.

 

Done

MFW Adventures

Apologia Botony

Prima Latina

and dd 10's finishes her 3rd grade Pathway Readers

and dd 8 finishes MUS Alpha.

 

All of my kids will have finished one math program this year, one handwriting workbook, and one reading program. A pretty successful year for us.

 

But we'll quickly roll into the next 12 week session and start BiblioPlan Ancient History, Considering God's Creation, Latina Christina or Power Glide Latin Junior. AND dd 8 will start MUS Beta and the other kids will continue with their math programs. There's also OPTGR to finish up with ds 6 and dd 8.

[LaurieinCA]

We "stop" the second week in June and continue in mid-August. However, I always do some schoolwork intermittently in the summer, because I don't want them to forget their math. This summer we are going to use CTY "Descartes Cove" software for math review. We are also going to do "Artistic Pursuits" (it has been sitting on my shelf all year!), lots of independent reading, and maybe some science projects (in other words, make a mess).

[Reya]

We school year-round but take off as we go places or have a pretty day or have camp or whatever...

[chaik76]

We go year round, July 1 through June 30. We're required to log 180 days, I usually get in around 220 with plenty of time for vacations. I like going year round because my son needs a lot of structure. Because we go year round, I can also take off any time I want to visit, etc.

[Closeacademy]

We stop at the end of April and start back in mid-May. We do go year round and I introduce new curriculum in May, September and January so we don't get bored.:001_smile:

[Wee Pip]

We're weird and I wouldn't expect others to do what we do...

 

We don't take breaks. We school year-round. I start "counting" my days on the day after the public school ends - that way I'm excited by hitting 180 days before public school does, LOL.

 

If we take a vacation, then we don't do school during vacation (of course). And we have 14 homeschool co-op days during the year. We have the occasional field trip. And this year we took 2 days off for Christmas, 2 days off for New Years. I occasionally take a day off when the house falls apart and I think I'm going to loose my mind - then we clean and I pick up on school the next day. But there are very few "breaks" for us. I'll probably burn out eventually. But I just keep going. The kids run amuck if we take time off, and that lack of structure seems to drive us all crazy (I'm not a structured person, I should add). My husband doesn't want us to take time off because he wants our kids to get ahead. And I have to say, my firstborn is NOT ahead despite going year-round. I can't imagine how behind she'd be if we took breaks.

 

Lunatic ravings from an insane homeschool mom...

[GoVanGogh]

Our "school year" ends December 31.

DS has a late December birthday and we school year-round. The first year we homeschooled, I tried to start/stop the school year mid-summer but it seemed so... arbitrary? I decided I liked the idea of running our school years in sync with DS's age.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We'll take a six week break starting around the middle of May. It gives me time to order and plan while my kids enjoy the beautiful spring weather outside. My plan is to start back up in July, but keep it light because I also want to work on their swimming skills this summer.