POLL: Scheduling

[mommy25]

Curious as to how you schedule your homeschool.

[nmoira]

We school year round, though lighter and only four days a week in the summer.

[Veritaserum]

It works out better for us if we stick to the public school schedule as much as possible so they can play with their neighborhood friends and do organized summer activities in the community. ETA: I also think we all enjoy the break (especially me :p). :)

Edited March 11, 2009 by Veritaserum

[eternalknot]

We school year-round for the most part. Somewhat because of this, we comfortably take any public school holidays and breaks so the kids can spend extra time with friends and cousins who are off. The only exception is summer, when we take off June completely and then do school-lite (reading, math) during the remaining weeks of summer break.

[Deece in MN]

We school year round and take breaks as needed. We usually end up with one month off in the summer to accomodate camps and a trip to IL to visit family. We usually also have a lighter December as I like to slow down and enjoy the holidays.

[sgilli3]

We kind of school when we like...lol

 

We school Sun - Thurs ( as that is the working week here), with Thursday being a lighter day.

 

In some aspects we still follow the southern hemispheres terms etc- but e are really, really flexible.

 

We school right through the summer here, as it is too hot to go outside (temp sits around 50 deg/122 F), and most expats head home for the summer.

We stay and school, then the weather is pleasant ( Dec, Jan, Feb), we take those months off.

 

We tend to have a break around March/April, June/July, and Sept?Oct as well.

 

As we travel a bit, we also like to take off for a few days here and there ( sometimes longer).

 

We are very flexible with our timings etc- helps that we dont need to keep records though.

[Tree House Academy]

We school year around, though we use summer to "catch up" or "finish up" as needed.

[The Governess]

We'll school year-round with two week breaks after each quarter and a month off for summer. The breaks are mostly for me, so I can get some planning done. We'll probably do math even during our breaks, and some review activities. I expect that during our breaks we'll probably still be doing at least 30 min a day of school activities.

[Parrothead]

We school during the public school schedule. The main reason is that winters are so horrible here that I like dd to get outside as much as possible in the summer.

[mazakaal]

I follow the British school year loosely. I start our year at the end of August, usually a week or two before the British schools. We take a week 'half-term break' in the autumn, but not usually the same week that the schools take. Our breaks usually revolve around when we have trips we need to take. Then we take 2-4 weeks break in Dec-Jan depending on whether we are travelling, while the schools usually take 2 weeks. The schools here take a week in February, 2 weeks around Easter, and a week in June, ending their year in mid-late July. We take off a week or two when needed through the winter and spring, again revolving around travel and thus not always lining up with the breaks that the schools take. And we end our year whenever we're finished with our work, usually anywhere from late June - late July. I think this year we'll end up finishing in early July.

 

I actually really like the way the British schools run their school year in three 13 week 'terms' with a week break in the middle of each term and a two week break between the terms. It gives a shorter summer and spreads the school year out really well.

[Jenny in Florida]

When both kids were home, we more or less followed the public school calendar for start and stop dates. We never took off as many days as they do, though.

 

Now that my daughter is away at school, we follow her college calendar. Because I have to be on the road a few times a year to drive her back and forth--and also because my son just can't concentrate on schoolwork when his sister is home--this works best for us these days.

[kat19]

We follow the public school schedule.

We have a supervising teacher from the school district come once a week and check on us, so we get summers off :001_smile:

[koko]

We've been starting a few weeks before the public school schedule so we can take extra time off during the year, but next year we are going to do year-round. We're going to school for three weeks, then take one off. This should prevent burn-out and help me keep up household projects. We'll take extra time at Christmas and in the spring, and finish in June for a month off between school years.

[Nakia]

We start the first week in August and school six weeks on, one week off until the middle of May. We do take two weeks off at Christmas. This was our second year following this schedule and we all really like it.

[Kim in Appalachia]

which around here starts in August and ends in May.

 

We follow it because of sports. My kids swim in a summer league, this has a greater amount of practice time then our swimming the rest of the year (because pool availability). The long practice, combined with the long drive make it hard to do school in the summer.

[MicheleinMN]

I voted *other* because it's a combination of the two.

 

We start back to school in mid-August (before ps does), and we continue into mid-June (after ps lets out), but we take a couple week break in the fall, and another in the spring with a 6 to 8 week break in the summer.

[Cheryl in NM]

We school around our lives. We are required to hold 180 days of school. We start in the 2nd week of August. Ds goes hunting for 2 weeks in September and a family reunion in October. We take off a month during December and January. Ds gets Spring Break around Easter. I also try to plan 1 day per month off if there are no other breaks that month. This year we will be done June 23. So that will give us a shorter summer break so hopefully ds won't forget so much! He likes to spend the summer with his grandparents so we don't school year round.

[MamaMamaMama!!]

We school year round and take breaks as needed. We usually end up with one month off in the summer to accomodate camps and a trip to IL to visit family. We usually also have a lighter December as I like to slow down and enjoy the holidays.

 

This is us except our trip is to Colorado. :) Usually our breaks are about two weeks at a time and there has been about 3 two week breaks a year, plus little one or two day breaks here or there. :)

[Punks in Ontario]

mostly so they can take part in activities with their schooled friends. We don't take bad weather days, but take good weather days off instead. We're also done a few weeks earlier as a rule. I also do some light teaching with the younger kids in the summer.

 

Karen

4 boys (12, 11, 6, 5)

[joannqn]

We follow a weird schedule based somewhat on the requirements of our virtual school. They require that we start the last week of August but I like to start the first week of August on kind of a half day schedule because we can bank any hours completed in August. Banking means saving up to use as time off when we want/need later without being "absent".

 

The school gives us the entire month of December off but we try to do some work because we can bank anything done in December.

 

Then, we are required to school through June 30th but we use our banked hours to quit our school year early.

[MamaT]

I put "other." We usually start the first of August. We then usually take a vacation in September, a week for Thanksgiving, and three weeks for Christmas. We do not take any snow days or Monday holidays like ps, but we usually take two weeks off around Easter. We finished day 128 of our required 180 days today. We usually finish around the end of May and take June and July off. We will do some weekly review and read, but that's it.

 

This is always subject to change if and when my son in the Marine Corp happens to get leave. We just all enjoy being together and do not school if he is home - but this is rare. The last time he was home was their Christmas break. It looks like he will be going to Afghanistan for 9 months the middle of May and will not get to come home until he gets back.