@LindeyD, oh no LOL! I wish! Well, sort of .. it can be a lot of work. We try to go about once a month and spend a few long weekends each year as well. We just go mostly to nearby state parks, but we love it b/c Daddy is there (he works about 12 hours a day) and it is just a great time to explore, be and enjoy each other's company w/out interruption (we always go electronic-free; well cell phones but only for emergency and they often don't have great coverage).

Just out of curiosity, LDIMom, your family goes camping every weekend?

While our Fridays are not free or off, we do have a lighter day ... well, sort of. We go to our weekly Bible study class (a Community Bible study group with homeschool classes for children) from 10:30-12:30. We have to be out of the house by 10 to get there on time, so we do our history read-alouds and other group time (prayer and Bible and either artist, music, map drill, etc.). This is from 9:30 theoretically.

When we get home, all I ask of our children is for a Quiet Hour while I put the baby down for her nap. This might include an art project, drawing, nature observation, reading or playing games. Sometimes we might watch a netflix educational show if the weather is not good for being outdoors.

I do have a math assignment for the older three as well as a writing or grammar assignment, but they are light in nature and should not take them more than half an hour total if they apply themselves. I expect these done before 9 when we sit down for group. At 9:30 when group is over, they are off to brush their teeth (for those who have failed to do this already), gather their Bibles and study guides, make their lunch for when we get home (12:45 so nice if we already have them made), and/or finish up the above-mentioned math/grammar/writing.

For the littles, I try to have them do their daily calendar work, handwriting and maybe play a math-related game if we have time before we go. If not, I try to get them on this in the afternoon before Daddy comes home.

And then on weekends we are going camping, this is all out the window except our Bible study class, because we are packing our clothes in the camper and preparing food for that night's meal (Friday) and putting other food in the camper.

LindseyD- Like nerakr, our Fridays are totally free also. We get up and go to the grocery store. (Which for us is an all morning thing. I have to go to our farmer for grass fed beef every two weeks, the health food store in our area and then the regular grocery store.) Then sometimes we hit the library. My husband works nights so he gets up at noon on Fridays to hang out with us. We eat lunch together as a family and then we all go to the chirpractor and run the rest of our errands together.
We love this schedule!

Thanks suzukimom and nerakr! That makes me feel a lot better! 

For us Fridays are totally free unless you count grocery shopping as educational. Ds isn't helping us with cost comparisons and such yet, so it's not math for him. If anything it's character/habit formation, but that's all.

Karen

If all their work was done, the only thing we did on Fridays was Math....  and then not every Friday.  

I am contemplating a 4-day/week school year for the coming year. In the past we have done 3 weeks on/1 week off. It has worked well for us, but recently my husband changed jobs and now has Fridays and Saturdays off. He has graciously offered to give me Fridays to myself, for running errands, having lunch with a friend, sleeping in, or whatever I want to do. I'm not about to pass up this offer!  He will use Fridays to have good times with the children, playing, going swimming, working in the yard, or the park, or whatever.

I'm noticing that most of you who do a 4-day week still have some sort of school on Fridays, even if it's shortened or somewhat easier. 

Does anyone strictly school only 4 days and leave the fifth day totally open? Not for catching up or independent assignments or art/composer study, but just nothing? 

My dc are 7 and 8, and this will be Year 4 for our homeschooling.

Blessings,

Lindsey

We also do four days year round, but we do Long Days and Short Day.  For the Long Days (4 days a week) we do all our regular subjects.  Our Short Day has math, logic, living math, map drill, Fairy Tale and family scripture study.  They are also responsible to read their personal scriptures and practice the piano that day.  It takes less than 2 hours and we have the rest of the day for errands, appointments or play.  If we have time on Short Day we're trying to add Family Game (playing all those educational games I never have time for) and on-line or DVD art lesson.  It's usually Friday but I move it around as needed.  On top of this we are also trying a 4-week On, 1-week Off schedule.

We "technically", on paper school 4 days a week year round. Fridays are our off day. We use that day for grocery shopping, library, post office, appointments, etc. We take tons of breaks throughout the year. My husband likes to take short, sometimes educational, trips a couple of times a year and his vacation weeks sometimes have to be taken during "off season". So, we have done this schedule for 3 years now and it works great for us. We rarely miss "school" days for other things because we always have our off day. However, like some others said, we could technically count that as educational because they learn so much still!

We also do a 4 day with Friday off.  I guess you could call it off. We usually listen to History on tape on the way to the library. We also do computer at the Library, Book Club, and educational games. :)  So, we could call it a school day bonus.... Tehe he.

                                    Blessings!

We do 4 days a week year round (with breaks when we need them, we take off a few weeks during holiday travel, we take of birthday week - all my kids birthdays are the same week, and some vacation). We do all our "book" work on M-H and on "Fun Friday" we do any craft projects that go along with history, update our Book of Centuries, science experiments, art, math games, language games, etc. We still read aloud a few things but mostly do hands on activities this day. This has worked well for us because being a small house, using the kitchen table for school (and Daddy eats lunch with us every day), I found myself leaving off alot of fun things because I didn't want the extra mess. If I commit to one messy day a week, I don't leave these things out as often and it gives everyone something to look forward to each week. 

We started 4 days a week last year when dh's work schedule changed and he was home on Fridays. It's basically an errand day for us. Granted, I only have 2 dc and they're still young enough we finish early. I try to start the Mommy read aloud subjects by 8am (I'm an early riser by choice so I can get some quiet time; for some reason the dc generally are early risers, too; usually by 6:30). Bible/geography/science/poetry/picture books/1 chapter from 3rd grade lit usually take 30-40 min. When I first started homeschooling, dd was still taking naps, so I got into the habit of waiting til naptime to do "table subjects." While I don't wait that long anymore, we do take off 2-2 1/2 hours for midweek errands, storytime at the library (we get books on Friday; this is extra if I remember), or for laundry and making lunch and stuff like that. Ds also watches one episode of Salsa per week during this time or I will play one episode of Classics for Kids each week. After lunch ds does math and copywork somewhat daily and language and picture study 1x each. If he cooperates and does his math w/o incident, we're finished well before noon. I'll be working dd into the after lunch schedule, and I'll be doing in-home speech therapy activities with both, but we should still finish early.

I would love to do a four day week and have it all planned out how to make that work, but reality doesn't work that way for me as I work mornings Mon-Fri.  I schedule independent work for mornings, and sometimes I can get my younger ds's guided work done in the AM if he's up early enough.  I have been trying to figure out a way to make year round school work, but it won't as long as I have to keep morning office hours.  I do try to have a short day on afternoon so that we can run any necessary errands.  I try to make that day Friday, but sometimes something else comes up that means a trip to town midweek, so I try to make those days flexible.

We usually do 4 days a week too (except math on the 5th day as well) - If the kids had all their schoolwork done - then we did something fun (swimming, library, nature study, etc) on Friday.... if they weren't done, we stayed home to finish.  This was motivational for them.  I have to admit, that Friday has slowly been turning into an errand day... sigh.