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Is anyone familiar with Sabbath schooling?
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I am working on our schedule / # of school days for this up coming school year. I came across sabbath schooling ( following the days of creation in that you school 6 weeks on and 1 week off for rest ) Anyway , I was wondering if anyone here has ever implemented it ? How did it work? I guess if you follow (3) 12 week terms it would break them up nicely.
I am slowly trying to move away from the traditional school year . Last summer we took about 6 weeks off , which I felt was too long . I find that I really am wanting a short break in October – the fall seems soooo long ! And February is always a month that we struggle with motivation. This last year I purposefully only scheduled 1 week off at Christmas so that we could afford to take a week off in late February, but it kind of backfired on me . It was not an adequate amount of time to really enjoy the holiday season like we wanted.
What is your schedule and what has saved your sanity? What do you do to balance school days/ terms and still have adequate time for breaks? Does anyone here take the whole month of December off?
Looking forward to reading your responses and thoughts on this 🙂
Jamie
I’ve heard of it but not really formally implemented it. I like the idea. What I have found in my own life is that we tend to have too many interruptions to our days to take a week off every seventh week. This last month has been a perfect example – in the last 3 weeks we’ve had 13 dental appointments. On top of that my son with medical needs had some appointments. He tends to have a few appointments per month with his all time high being 22 appointments in a single month.
We DO take breaks when we feel like we need them, no matter what time of year it is. I don’t plan a lot of these, just see the signs of people needing a break and let it happen. I’ve also got the natural breaks built in for things like having babies (#9 is due this fall). So we school year round in some fashion and don’t stress over when we take breaks. I think that schooling year round makes it easier not to worry about the breaks.
I have accepted the fact that my kids don’t do well on a long break (more than 2 weeks in a row). However we do sometimes take a break from a particular subject for longer than that.
We do Sabbath schooling with 6 weeks on and 1 week off. We also break from Thanksgiving to New Years so that we intentionally turn our minds and hearts to Christ over advent. We take about a month off in the summer, but we are also flexible and life always takes priority to a schedule. As a framework, I like it very much and that week of rest is always welcome.
We schedule school 4 days a week instead of 5, so to actually do school more than not we are planning 7 weeks on 8th week off this year. We will end up with 2-3 weeks off at Christmas and a couple in the spring. I found this year that I had no problem go go going through the fall but had a really hard time getting it together after Christmas break.
We implemented the 6 on, 1 off schedule this year. We’ve all really liked it. I put the week off on our calendar so I’m not tempted to skip it nor can I take it early. We will adjust it as needed though. For example, Grammie came to visit on Week 5 so we took the week off then. We do work during that week off – they do 1 lesson of math, piano practice, read scriptures, and 30 minutes of reading. Then they need to use the rest of their time for creative play, exploration, being outside, pursuing interests, helping with the housework, etc. I work on school planning or house projects. We also try to get out for a field trip. It gives me a lot of peace to know that in a few short weeks I’ll have a break to readjust schedules and plan out their work for the next 6 weeks. I also don’t freak out about the state of the house because I know we’ll have that week to catch it back up.
We take December as it comes. Most years we take off from Christmas to New Years. Other larger breaks we take as needed based on deployments, vacations, relative visits, etc.
We do this and we love it. Six weeks is a good time to make a lot of progress, but a week break is not so long that you lose momentum. I get caught up on housework and outdoor projects during break week. Of course, we live in Florida, so I would teach through the summer anyways since there’s not too much else to do then except get dehydrated and donate blood to the mosquitoes…
Thanks ladies for giving your input on this ! This great and it will give me much to think about as I finalize our next school year . This forum is so wonderful for hashing out ideas & gaining insight from other moms. Thx again ladies ?
Blessings ,
Jamie
I know this is an older thread, but thought it might be nice to bump it.
I really enjoyed our Sabbath school schedule when we used it. Last year we were part of a co op that didn’t follow that schedule and it was too hard for me to make two different schedules jive for the year so I set aside the Sabbath school plan. I am so eager to return to it for the coming school year. I just loved the flow and vibe in our home and my children greatly looked forward to that week off. I agree with the others above that it gives a great short break without losing our momentum. I get time to catch up on things I need to let go of during our busy school days. And, with using terms now, it just has a perfect flow.
Right about the time I’m starting to feel worn and bored of the routine I’ll notice that our Sabbath week is just around the corner. It truly is a built in need for me. 🙂
We are doing a variation of this, I suppose. During our first term we will school 4 weeks on, 1 week off, which puts us right up to Nov. when our new baby girl is due. 🙂 I need the extra weeks during pregnancy to get the house back together and prepare meals for the freezer. I have two calendar plans for after baby, one 4 week and one six week, that I’ll decide upon then. I scheduled 4 weeks off around the baby’s due date, but we will keep math and reading going b/c our children don’t do very well with long breaks either. I’m hoping to buy a few sets of those movable figures that they cut out and put together with brads. They love those and sit there working on them for a remarkable amount of time! Um… “with rapt attention” may sound better. 😉
I know how that goes, planning around a baby. Our youngest will be 2 this November. Seems so strange to have a toddler without a new pregnancy to plan around. Maybe I’ll actually be able to keep up with the schedule I make this year! 😀
Quick question… For those of you who do the one week off do you let the kids have mostly “free time” or do you you still do some form of routine but lighter subjects? I wonder how that week works for those of you who do it. I thought of maybe just morning time and no independent studies or is that not really a break???
Contemplating…
We’re doing the Sabbath schedule this year and break week will be exactly that – a break. No school at all. 🙂
Hi Erin, Do you get all of your days in? We are required in our state to get in 180 days for the school year. Thanks.
We have decided to try Sabbath schooling out this year. It sounds like a good fit for us as we prefer short breaks to long breaks. We usually end up schooling until we get a bit burnt out and then take a break. I’m hoping this schedule will prevent the burn out in the first place. 🙂
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