Planning the year: Calendar link

Heather, we’re doing 3 on and one off this year and it’s wonderful. We take a few longer breaks, but this basic schedule is great. I plan 3 weeks of work and we have 4 weeks to get it done. I make a checklist with the 3 weeks work and as long as we finish in the 4 weeks, I’m pleased.

In our area, the schools go for 36 weeks. I plan 3 twelve week terms of work. While we don’t have attendance requirements in FL, I’d be uncomfortable schooling less than the 180 days schools require. I do think the time is reasonable.

The first thing I do is sit down with a calendar and mark off any trips or big vacation day chunks and I plan around those. I start in September and finish in August with our year round schedule.

Typically, I plan 3 weeks of work followed by one week off. We take the off week to do whatever’s needed – shoe shopping, dentist appointments, big projects around the house, fun things. However, if we didn’t quite finish our 3 weeks worth of work, we do continue schooling albeit at a much lighter pace. I find it’s a very good schedule for us. If I have closets that need organizing, but I know it will take a chunk of time, I know I have time for it within the month. That helps me not get so sidetracked.

We take ~ 3 weeks off at Christmas, 2-3 in the spring or fall and 2-3 before the new school year for me to plan. Later, I’ll link our calendar for the 2013-2014 year. I find visual examples helpful.

Andream – start with the number of days/weeks you’re required or need to school. Work backwards from there, penciling in weeks you wish to be off. You’ll be able to see if your goals line up.

Blessings,

Christie

Here is our family’s 2012-2013 school calendar, broken down by terms. Planned breaks are highlighted in yellow. Nothing ever goes exactly as planned, but with this schedule we are much more productive. 3 weeks of diligent work = 1 free week. Sickness or unplanned off days = 1 lighter week. It’s been a win, win for us.

I had a 3 week on, 1 off schedule planned. And then we found out that we’re having another baby! Due in Jan. so I want that month off instead of Dec. Can’t remember why but the 3/1 didn’t look like it would work. After hours of figuring and erasing, I had an Ah-HA! moment and settled on 4 weeks of school then 1 week off.

Our baby break will happen before our second term is finished. I’m a bit worried that this will cause some difficulties when we get back to work in Feb.

missceegee – I looked at your calander and laughed…. although dates etc are different – we do this the same way except I just used a highlighter and pencil on a printout.  We even picked the same calander!  I write the week numbers to the side, highlight breaks/vacations, etc.

Just wanted to say thanks to Heather for starting this thread b/c I had this on my to-do list! Now I have printed out calendars for 12-13 as well as 11-12. OOPS! I had one for this past year, but I can’t find it! I have done on-line attendance records with our umbrella school (that we are registered with for state law), but I like having a paper copy for myself.

I wanted to link to the one I chose from donnayoung.org.

I like that it is in rows and columns. Weekend days are a different color but not grayed out, which is nice for the occasional field trip on the weekends. I used the 12-month vertical at the top of the linked page with the year starting in August.

http://donnayoung.org/calendars/calendars-green.htm

missceegee, I am going to use your highlighter idea as well. Thanks!