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for those of you who homeschool year round
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So with homeschooling year round I am wondering how to plan. Should I just make sure I get 180 days of school in? I am using My fathers world so I could just make sure we finish the curriculum in one calendar year? I am also not sure if I should have my kids do anything during a day off. I want to have our breaks BR breaks for me, but should I expect my kids to still do daily reading and math review? What do you guys do during days off and break?
My kids thrive on structure. We have a morning routine that includes personal care and chores along with reading and math review. We do this routine nearly everyday (not when traveling or days of extreme like “moving day”). I add in the other school work as needed to accomplish the goals / needs of each student (and me as a mom who needs to have some days off from formal teaching / planning/ etc) We get well more than 180 days in each day and so I have never had to worry about that.
We have 2 types of break day. Some days will just be easier days where we do just Math, reading, and some music or picture study. Other days are completely free days where we have no school work at all. We also will do more than 180 days a year so I don’t worry about counting to make sure. When we finish a curriculum year we will take a short break, if needed, maybe a week or so then go ahead and start with the next level. My son just finished his math book a few weeks ago so I gave him a week without math and then we started the next book. We don’t really go with a level per year, we just keep moving forward no matter what time of the year it is.
I’m not sure if my advice will help, but I’m thinking of the free time question and in my house this is what it looks like. We traditionally school sept1-June 1, but today we didn’t officially school since I spent today planning for our 4 week cross country trip..
We had a late breakfast inviting my mother, Grandma Dona and sister to breakfast. Grandma asked for a poetry recitation, as she loves our 3 children to recite. While we planned, our 14 yo boy, worked feverishly on build an r/c boat with the design and building of it all done by himself, 10 yo daug. spent time sitting working in her teaching textbook 3rd grade mathbook. She found it in the basement in the math tote and asked if she could work in it, being careful to write the answers on stick notes, completing 2 lessons voluntarily with no prompting from me. THEN 7yo BOY PLAYED WITH HIS LEGOES, asked sister to review yesterdys science experiment with him and helped him to start the cd player so he could listen to easy reader real life animal stories. Then the youngest played with there rabbits outside, rode bikes and hid from each other in the evergreen trees on our lawn, while they talked about the songbird club they wanted to start with my niece.
So, I prattled on painting this sweet picture to say that I believe these free time days are the fruit of the CM method thinking in our kids,and that maybe at first you can give some hints of ideas. I feel this testimony shows the backbone of thinking and development and the love of learning all cultivated in CM. I hope this helps, as I intended it to. Blessings in your home, Martha
Thank you ladies. All of the posts are helpful. I don’t have to report school days to my state, so maybe I don’t need to count. My oldest is 7 and he too likes to play with Legos and play a lot. I am still figuring out cm and homeschooling ☺
I schedule year round. I use this SCM organizer and I schedule for 6 days a week. I have 3 “individual days” where kids do Math, spelling, reading, vocab, typing, grammar, writing, and penmanship. Then I have 3 “family days” where we do religion, geography, literature, foreign language, PE History & Science. We also do a family math Life of Fred. On the 3 family days I have kids do one individual assignment of math, spelling, & reading. So that they get in at least 4 days of math, reading, and spelling per week. Each of our days takes about 2-3 hours, so if we have to skip a day for whatever life throws at us, then I can either double up and make a long day of it or I can divide it out and just double up a few subjects for the next 3 days and incorporate that day into the others and kids really don’t even know it is happening because I never have them double up reading math or spelling I get those done later. My husband works shift work and has 7 days off each month and during these times, the kids just do reading spelling and math which helps make up for any lessons we missed at other times. If kids are moving right along, then I will let them take a break while Dad is home and just have family time.
This is the benefit of homeschooling. I also take breaks around the holidays and birthdays and I usually take a month off between years for me to plan and schedule the next years resources. We use extra time for home projects and we volunteer at a local pet shelter and the kids help the librarian at the library with toddler time once a week. Another cool benefit.
I do well more than the 180 and the organizer keeps track of all that for me. We do not have to report attendance either.
Hope this helps.
Next year will be our first year doing school year round so I’ll let you know! We will start the last week of July this Summer. We plan to do some 4 day weeks quite often! I have 6 kids 8 and for this season there is still so much only I can do! Although I am steadily training my kiddos and in a few years it will get easier! So all of that to say, I feel like I need one weekday off a week to catch up around the house. We will do Bible reading and other read alouds but that’s typically it! It will just be an off day! We will take breaks for holidays and whenever else we need to! I am aiming to have atleast 4 or 5 weeks off in the Summer! We like routine, but it is also refreshing to have more time to go to the beach, play outside in the morning before it gets too hot (we live in the Deep South) meet up with friends and plan fun days out more often! Even in the Summer we will always read! taking breaks in the Summer also allows to focus more on habit training , potty training or any other project that is harder to do during school days :). We will not be doing any math review on our days off! Also, I don’t feel pressure to finish a certain curriculum, just moving at the child’s pace, but that would be a goal! 🙂
Thank you for your replies! So many ideas. After praying and much examining, I have decided My Father’s world won’t work for me so I am trying to plan my own cm education. We are Still schooling year round. We are getting ready to move out of state so right now we are just doing math, reading, copywork, and reading aloud for history and Thornton Burgess books which my kids love. We are packing after spending an hour on school work. I’m debating whether or not to take a complete break off, and for how long. Still figuring it out.
I am now contemplating if we will now start mid July! It just gets so very hot here in Alabama! Whew!!! We will be done by the beginning of June! I just need breathing room for life to happen…lol! I’m still not sure what my schedule will look like next year! One things is for certain… planning is important, but when you get into the year, plans always need tweaking and I am still learning myself so we are all a work in progress around here!!! The main reason I realized my need to do a year round schedule is that we moved at the beginning of the school year last year and wow, was it hard!!! I also felt like my littles needed me and while I am giving them time with me before school, I need some days where I am more available! My laundry is also insane and I struggle to keep up with my house! My oldest is 8 and slowly my kids are able to do more and more to help so I think it is a season of life for us! In a few years, I think I will feel a little more relief from some of the household things but for right now, I need some time weekly to focus on the little kiddos, folding laundry, etc…. I’m not sure if I will do a 4 day week most weeks or if I will just do a light Friday school schedule every other week! I also put our own Charlotte Mason curriculum together! A lot of it is SCM because it is just so great for us! A good balance! This was my first year doing CM so I am still learning so much from all the wonderful ladies on this forum! 🙂
We’re starting Kindergarten this year and a year-round approach has appealed to me from the start, but I’ve gotten a little creative with it!
I’ve worked with the calendars for 2016 and 2017 enough to plan out our actual school days, a regular 1-2 week break every quarter and a smattering of “off days” for special events and other holidays throughout the year. Love that the year-round schooling gives us structure, but there is also a rhythm to a quarterly break with the flexibility of other off days and a few “flex” days each quarter for illness, or other days when we just need to bump things around.
We have schooled year round for our entire 14 years of homeschooling. It’s just easier that way. We can school during the sweltering summer days in South Florida and take off whenever the weather is gorgeous through the Fall, Winter and Spring.
Honestly, I don’t really plan it all out. I choose my books and curriculum at the beginning of every school year and I do the planning to get an idea of what it all will look like and to make sure that I’m not requiring too much or too little of my children. After that we just move through, picking up each day where we left off. History is never finished. We simply keep reading through history chronologically, using living books. When my kids were little science was pretty much the same way, since we used mostly living books. I’ve always promoted my kids to a new grade when they begin a new math book as that has been an easy way to mark the occasion. They get a week off from math and then they start their new book whatever time of year it is. We do usually end up finishing a math book out around May or June. My daughter should finish her current math book by the end of this month. I do the same with science in the higher grades when we use Apologia text books.
We do schedule breaks for family vacations and holidays. Other than those, we just take off when the weather is beautiful or when a great field trip presents itself, or when mom is feeling a bit burned out. 🙂 We end up schooling more than 180 days which is nice because I can keep lessons shorter that way as Charlotte Mason recommended.
I am wondering if I just break up the 180 of school if I should have our days off just be free or should my kids read and do math review? I like taking days off when we want and I am going to do mfw after all, I don’t have time to plan, so I am going to break up the weeks over a year.
So to clarify my question, I couldn’t edit it, I am asking if I spread out 180 of school over a year is that enough or do I need to add in extra math and reading on our days off?
To do things legally spreading 180 days a year is all that is required, but I think whatever is best for your kids! If you notice that they really need a bit of math work, just do a bit on a day off, even if you don’t do school! Most of our days off, will be just that, totally off so I can catch up and to also enjoy other things or to go and do something. We will likely always be learning! We read every day, whether we count it as a school day or not! I plan to do quite a few 4 day weeks, but if I feel that we need to do one or two light things like review or work on handwriting for 5 minutes or do a picture study, or do a little living math or whatever, we will just do that. I hope that makes sense. The plan is
for us is to try 4 days a week for the beginning of school and see how that works! If it doesn’t, we will re-evaluate and go from there!!!
@Melanie32, your post gave me peace!
We never seem to be able to keep up with history. I think we are at least 4 months “behind” on that right now, but in the three R’s we are pretty much on schedule. I’ve been trying to let go of my “have to get it done” thoughts, and your words have really encouraged me to just keep reading the next chapter, the next book, and quit worrying about it so much!
We school year round too, and I think that switching grades when math/science are finished is a great idea. 🙂
It’s amazing to me how freeing CM can be for a mom of many, dealing with real life interruptions like sickness and grocery shopping days…and cleaning! Ha!
I started coming here back in October, with a boat load of worries and struggles, trying to find our way in this thing of homeschooling. I have found a lot of wonderful wisdom and grace on this forum! 🙂
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