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Planning our first year CM homeschooling, what is your schedule like?
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I hate planning things, it overwhelms me, lol. Yet I want to get organized, but still be relaxed to a degree and go at my children’s pace. For this reason, I like the idea of schooling year round and have done that in the past.
How do you schedule your school year? Do you have a first day and last day? Do you school year round? How do you break it up into terms? One reason I have homeschooled year round is to avoid having a ton of planning of dates to start and stop terms, etc. I would like to have a bit more structure now though.
What we do is I set a start date in Aug. sometime that is good for our family’s schedule…and somewhat coincides w/public school since kids play a lot w/the neighbors. Then we just go from there at a steady pace, taking off usually a couple weeks at Christmas, and a couple weeks here and there for family vacations. If we need a day off for something we do it, but that’s rare. We’re usually done by the end of May doing this, but I’ve given myself more leeway and tell the kids that we may go into June if needed…and if we do it’s because we’ve taken off for fun things they’ve enjoyed doing, or have enjoyed a day off of school:) This was very freeing for me…I used to always feel crammed in May because I wanted to be done by the end of the month.
I haven’t done terms yet because semesters are easier for me to plan. But next year we’ll do 3-12 week terms since we’re using the SCM module guides for the first time. I like that the guides schedule by the day and not by the week, so we have freedom to skip a day here and there and not feel ‘behind.’ Good luck planning:) Gina
We do 3 weeks on, 1 off most of the year. Here are my files that might help:
Mini-Term Checklists – I make 3 weeks of work and we have 4 weeks to do it. If we finish in 3, we have an off week. If not, we have a light week.
Christie
Oh Christie, I love the idea of the mini-term checklists, with 3 weeks of work in 4 weeks. I think that would work really well with my DD as she gets overwhelmed quickly if she feels like she is pressed for time. This coming fall will be our first year ever with homeschooling (3rd grade) so I’ll take all the resourses I can get.
We school 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off so I schedule in 3- 12 week terms. What I love about this is that I plan our year out loosely then take it 6 weeks at a time. During each 2 week break I set aside a little time to see where we are and what we need to do the next half term.
Although we have a start date the first week of September, that is just to keep the children progressing to the next grade level in name. We just school and keep going, for example we will not be at the end of our math books in September and starting new grade levels. They are actually already in the next level. I will begin a new time period for history in September because otherwise we will never get out of the Middle Ages lol!
Since we only need 36 weeks of school We also take 4 weeks off in June, an extra week at Christmas, and an extra week in August(so we have two breaks that are three weeks, one that is four, and three that are two weeks. It works for us!
Sometimes I break it up if needed, such as when we took an impromptu vacation. We took the week off , picked back up where we were And then only took one week off at the next break. We are very flexible.
Tara
I love hearing what works for other families, that’s really what it’s about and it gives me ideas 🙂
Christie, thanks for sharing your links, you seem like one organized mama and they were so cool!
I am planning to start in August, doing light stuff throughout the summer though. I have to do some planning to feel
all set to go, but my hubby is helping with some subjects this year and he is sooo excited he wants to start like now! lol
I am looking at ways to change up our schedule for the coming year. Right now I am looking at basing our year on 36 weeks but only scheduling 33 weeks of work giving us one week each term for catch-up. I am looking at 4 weeks on and 1 off with longer breaks at Christmas and in the summer. We will take some time off for family vacation in the Spring as well. I will use the week off to evaluate and adjust plans as needed.
I have scheduled 36 weeks of work into 3 terms of 12 weeks each. BUT… Each of my terms on the calendar is 4 months long. Term 1 = May-August, Term 2 = September-December, and Term 3 = January-April. That way I can take off whatever days and weeks I want/need to because we just have too hard of a time sticking to an every day schedule. During the summer it tends to be a few days a week all summer long since we always have something going on every week, or the weather is just too nice to stay inside. Over the colder months we tend to be more regular with school and take off for the traditional vacation times when we visit family. I just started using the CMO and I think it is going to work really well with our schedule – flexing with life!
eawerner, I LOVE your idea on the 3 terms. THANKYOU!!! We too cannot stick to certain weeks on and off (though I plan to loosely follow the 4 weeks (or 5) on and 1 week off. Thing is, we have surgeries for our 3 youngest that are throughout the year, so those weeks off will correspond with surgery weeks.
Love the idea of setting terms of 4 months (to accomplish 3 months). Where is the LIKE button?!
🙂
LDIMom, While the surgeries, I’m sure, are no fun for anyone, it seems like those weeks would be a great time to get some fun reading done. Laying in bed with some cozy blankets, a milkshake, and mom reading you Mike Muligan would make it seem not so bad I suppose. 🙂
Yeah, no fun and they usually involve at least 3 nights in the hospital, which is usually Mommy during the week so DH can still work. He is self-employed so needs to work. 🙂 My Mom graciously watches our children during the day when one of them has a surgery, but yes, once we are home, we usually get back into the next week gradually and it often involves lots of reading and art and a slower pace!
As for milkshakes, yes, our youngest son calls his hospital food the “chocolate diet” after hearing me say that. His last surgery was a nasal revision (he was born with cleft lip and palate as was our oldest daughter), and a BAHA post implant. He was sore to say the least, and his Dr. had him on a soft foods diet for a week. He could eat chocolate pudding, shakes (which he always wanted chocolate), chocolate milk, you get the idea. The hospital food employees thought he was the cutest boy ever, and they would bring him TWO milkshakes at at time LOL!
As for Mike Mulligan, we love that book! Have checked it out so many times from the library. Imagine my joy (and son’s too) when I opened a box of gifted material and found a very nice HB copy of Mike Mulligan in there! definitely a keeper!
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