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Question for those who school year round
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Last week I posted some concerns about balancing extracurricular activities and academics, and some here mentioned how they feel less anxious about these dilemmas by schooling year round. We felt like our kids needed more opportunities to meet some new friends, and the 4-H and new co-op we have found are wonderful for this so far. Even so, I know my kids could benefit from the extra instrucion a year round homeschool could offer. The two oldest are 12 and 14; they both have some learning delays , and are not yet able to work independently in most subjects. That being said, it sometimes takes us much longer to get through the basics (like math and writing) and I begin to feel like we must be “falling behind”somehow, if measured up to others with kids their ages. So, without causing an all out rebellion on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, what would be some good suggestions to offer the family for a “light” summer schedule? We currently struggle most in math, reading, writing, spelling and vocabulary. I know one member (ServingwithJoy) said she does 4 days year round… would 3 be enough? Would you do everything those 3 days or dedicate 1 subject per day? What works best for those of you who do this, and what subjects/how many days per week? I think I would feel much less pressure (and so would the kids) if we could still have weekends and holidays off, but go year round to get “caught-up”. I have already tentatively suggested this, and their first questions were, can classes be lighter or not so many days (currently doing 4) per week as during “regular school”?
I tell my kids that they must get 180 school days in, whenever we can fit it in. I try to do as many as I can from the start and take days off as we need to. For us it is about 4 days per week and off on birthdays, holidays, a week at year end and most of June. They have their own schedule to mark off the work they have done. This stays basically the same and includes math, LA, and Bible. Our family schedule can fluctuate from one term to another as far as extras like science, history, the fine arts, handicrafts, etc. I keep track of that. They are ages 6 & 9 and we have done it this way for a few years and they are used to it. It is not necessarily lighter in the summer but I schedule one day a week to be lighter so we can go to the library summer reading programs. In the fall and spring we need this lighter day to go to homeschool group. This is also a day I play an audio book in the van for lit. If there is an all day educational field trip, I count that as a school day.
This ounds like a good plan; will se how others do. I just want to try to give different ideas so we can vote and find best fit. The kids are not going to be thrilled at first of having school year round. But if they see there can be more “adventures” with their 4-H cows, shooting sports, On my Honor group trips etc., we could avoid the pressure to try to squeeze it all in Aug.-June.
We are year round homeschoolers and it has worked out differently on different years. Some summers we are pretty much full course load with time off in small amounts. Other summers we choose focus areas of 2-3 subjects for the summer. Or a basics summer with the 4 R’s (Religion, Reading, wRiting, arithmetic). We always do math all summer, it’s just too hard to take a long break without losing knowledge.
Another way we’ve done it is to get a large portion of one subject completed for the next school year. So this past summer my oldest (7th) focused a lot of her summer reading on the 7th grade literature books we had planned. She finished them ALL over the summer, narrating to me as she went. That opened up her 7th grade year a bit so she can adjust to the heavier science load she chose. Next summer she may choose to really focus on her science and do most of an Apologia book that summer, or maybe she’ll do all her history reading during the summer and only plan a research project or two for history for the actual school year.
What about choosing a focus area or two they struggle in for summer? For example we love doing math in the summer because it takes the pressure off us to ‘finish’ a book in a school year’s 9 months. We no longer expect that, we simply start the new level whenever we are done with the last, be it July, February, or May!
Can 4 day weeks work? Yes, but as your child reaches these upper grades they’ll have to diligently work longer days to get the work done. 3 day week? I guess it could, but I think it’s really cramming and leaving a lot of unused time each week (more than half the week is off school with 3 day schedules). I think at the upper grades it’s really time to learn that a large portion of the week is spent doing ‘work’, and school work is their job really. Will they translate a 3 day ‘school week’ into believing they should continue to have most of their week free to do what they want as an adult instead of working a regular job? Maybe, maybe not. I’m sure it depends on the child. There are a few of mine I can see that a 3 day week would reinforce their tendency to do the minimum effort to get be, instead of building a strong work ethic. You know your children best!
We’re also not heavily involved in outside activities. It’s just not our family way. That plays a factor too in what you think is enough time to do academics. If you truly think all their extracurriculars are worthwhile education, you may not feel like they’re really getting a 3 day week. But if they’re not working independently yet and are facing several learning delays (which is what it sounds like from your post) then I would be doing LESS outside the home so you can focus on what needs learned academically first. They’ll make a lot less progress catching up to where you think they should be if they’re only spending 3 days out of 7 working on those delayed areas. There is a big difference in daily practice and effort versus sporadic practice (like a 3 day schedule). Pay the price now to strengthen those weak areas and teach them to work independenty before they become real stumbling blocks to the rest of their learning! ((HUGS))
Not sure I understand how a 4-day week would translate to longer days? We still do the same number of days in the year, they’re just spread out over more weeks (42, plus VBS and weekend field trips with Dad). The fifth day is sometimes a “fun” day, but usually we are still “working”–just doing errands, cooking, laundry, etc. to catch up in the morning instead of school (unless it’s a sick day or Dad is off work)–so I don’t feel I’m training my kids to have a poor work ethic.
I have general academic goals for my kids each year, and if I see we’re hitting them fine, I plan to pull back on the summer schedule in those subjects. Also we are planning to do more art and handicrafts during the colder months, vs. gardening and more “P.E.” in warmer weather.
I’ve only been homeschooling for three years though, so a lot of this is still working itself out as I go! 😀
I see; just to clarify, I thought of proposing 4 days/week + Fri. co-op/enrichment day during “regular school mos”., the fall back to 3 days or lighter loads per week in summer. I like the idea of focussing on the weak things such as math; maybe if we just did math 4 days through summer, they would not completely revolt! I see the point about giving them the wrong impressions about the real world (hard to work part-time and support a family!). I just wondered how some out there compromised during summer to avoid the complaining that “all the other kids are off, why do we have to do this?” It sounds like husband and I need to just lay down the choices; either we need to let go of other things and hit the books hard week by week (Aug.-June), or agree to go year round and enjoy the extras without the pressure. I am also beginning to think, maybe compromising should not be an option at all. If they were in public, they would no doubt be placed in summer school regardless I suppose.
It takes some time to find the right balance for your family. For us, 4 days works out well, and we take about 5 weeks off at different times during the year.
As long as they are showing consistent improvement on the 3 day a week summer schedule it could work. But if you see that they are falling behind you can add a day back in. And you don’t have that ‘lag’ after summer when they are just reviewing old concepts and catching up again so you can really get them up to speed much more quickly by going year round.
Once you get the rhythm of 4 days, you may just want to stick with it. It really helps to get habitual about your school schedule. Don’t know if you have read “Large Family Logistics” but she has a great chapter on organizing your homeschool week.
Hopefully you guys will hit the right blend of activity/home schedule soon! Blessings!
The 4 days year round sounds like the way to go; I don’t want them to be any more behind than they already are. The outside activites have been a bit stressful lately; thankfully, weekend cow shows are winding down! These events have been educational, but I agree we need to keep our comitment to the books and practice to get our learning objectives accomplished. Thanks again, now I just need to convince everyone this is the best way to go!
I’ll offer another perspective …
We school year round and do five days a week. We cover everything (subject wise) under SCM & AO. And we don’t set schedules of when we’re off or on. We simply go with the flow of our lives. Sometimes we end up taking a day here or there. Sometimes it’s a week or two. If we’re traveling it might be a little longer. But in all that time off there is usually some schooling going on. I can think of only holidays really where there is absolutely nothing related to our subjects happening. Even then they’re always reading so I think that counts too! 🙂 I “count” absoulutely everything because that is how we’ve written our philosophy of education for our children.
Why consider times outside of your lessons as “not school time”? 4H has a lot of subject lessons within it, if done well. Co-op’s would seem to as well, depending. I think it’s always a shame to say “this is school” and then say “this is not” … All of life is a learning opportunity, if that is the philosophy of the family.
Just my thoughts! I hope it helps.
What we have done is that during the summer I plan our school in just the same way as usual, but then expect to complete one week’s material in two weeks. We might take a day off here, work only half a day there, or do several days worth of Nature Study on a weekend camping trip, and then spend the time we normally would do nature study on other things. Basically during the summer we are more flexible with taking advantage of opportunities to do good weather activities, and fill in school when we don’t have other plans. We keep all subjects moving forward, but at about one half speed.
There are so many ways to do it. Figure out what meets the needs and priorities of your family right now, and do that. You can always adjust later as needed.
There are lots of good ideas and ways of doing year-round school here. Here’s one more: we school 4 1/2 days a week; Fridays are limited to 2 or 3 very short subjects. We use Friday to do running around stuff, and my oldest (16) does an apprenticeship on that day. He works ahead during the week to get Friday’s work taken care of ahead of time. I do count our Fridays as full school days, because of the other educational activities getting done!
We do school, typically, 5 or 6 weeks at a time. Then we take a week off. Repeat. We take off a little longer (2 or 3 weeks) around Christmas time. Our summer break is 5 or 6 weeks long, but if we need extra time, that can be shrunk to a 4-week or even 3-week summer. This way, our kids (and I!) feel like we’ve had our summer vacation, without losing necessary school time. It works out so that at least some schooling gets done every month of the year, but December and June tend to be very light months. We always get in at least 180 days.
HTH! Tara
All these suggestions are wonderful; today removed all doubt we need the extra days, weeks, and mos. year-round school could offer. I think my son especially will benefit; he struggles so much. He got bogged down in Math U See today, and it took most of the morning (even with dad’s help) to complete just to complete one math lesson. This was one of those days I felt like I needed to “drop” a few of his daily subjects to prevent burn out, yet felt guilty and the need to press on since we have already missed several days due to cow show stuff etc. We managed to get finished, but it took us until 4:00 and wwe were all frazzled! I saw a post today on Audible books and will check into this as well, to supplement during our drive time to co-op and other longer road trips. I didn’t know they could be downloaded; our library may have some as well. We also checked out some Yutube selections that parallel the History of the Greeks study we are doing. We watched a History channel documentary about Zeus and the Olympians; the kids loved it and were not bothered by “watching” a history lesson of sorts. I forget to make use of audio and video supplements that could be used when times ae busy
I plan 12 weeks (3 months) of work and give us 20 weeks (4 months) to complete it. We school year-round and I no longer plan specific days off. We take off when needed or when we feel like it, but if we average 15 days of school per month, we meet my goal of 180. We always meet the goal.
From September. – April, we participate in a weekly CM co-op that I lead. While we don’t schedule other things for that day, we certainly count it as a school day!
Our goal is to be finished around lunch time each day. Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen as other things bump the schedule around, but we try to focus on school from 9-1 each day.
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