I have been debating the idea of schooling year round for a couple of reasons -- fear of losing math and printing gains comes to mind in particular, but also because I like a four day school week, leaving Friday for the library, grocery shopping, etc. I would certainly prefer a much more relaxed schedule in the summer. Fill it with nature study, life skills, handicrafts and good literature and other things it's hard to squeeze into a shortered school week year long.
In my province there are no restrictions as to how many days or hours we are required to spend on school. I like saying that we are only going to do math and copy work this week because we have company. I like being able to take extra time at Christmas and March Break. I like being able to say "no school on birthdays! Or starting a week later in September that the PS kids and ending a week earlier.
I also like to get things done and see real progress.
It's been out first year hsing, and we have one term left. I've not expected a whole lot from any of us because it's new and we are feeling our way around, learning what works, but I've been making sure skills subjects are covered at least 4 out of 5 weekdays (all 5 for math usually). It hasn't been as easy keeping up with science, history and Worldview, but we are going to try to finish these three subjects to the point where I intended to leave off in our last 12 weeks of this school year. If we don't get to all the read alouds I'd planned for lit, not a big deal -- we always have something on the go year round as just a part of our regular family routine. We'll just continue them into the summer or even next fall, or drop them as something else comes across our path that interests us more.
SO, for those of you who school year round, how do you make it work without your kids rebelling that all their PS friends are off all summer? What alternate schedule do you use to break up your year and how do you line it up with holidays?
Thanks in advance!
We had a picnic every day last week at lunch because the weather was so beautiful. I love having freedom to do small things like that which end up being really special. Our kids don't know the concept of "summer break", "Christmas break", etc. This last week was PS Spring Break, and I had to explain what that was. Oddly enough a break was scheduled for us last week, and that was just the way it fell in our rotation. But we had sickness running through the house the week before, so we took off that week and did school during PS Spring Break instead. I LOVE the flexibility!!! We have tried 12 weeks on, 3 weeks off and 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off. Both were too long. This schedule is just right for us.