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Question for those who school year round
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This is our first year homeschooling and my ds is 12. I would love to school year round but I am not ready to fight that battle, lol. However because of my husbands work schedule we do 2 light days and 3 heavy days. But lately that has became harder because we now have a day a week that we are getting 9 boys(ages 12-15) in our community together and going to the rec com or on field trips. So now we are having to readjust again. What works great today may not work so well next month. I tell people often that that is the beauty of homeschooling, we can make it work to fit our schedule.
We have a loosely-based plan of 4 weeks on, 1 week off. For our first month, it took us some time to get back in the swing of things so our scheduled week break in October has been reduced to two days. Math is my son’s biggest struggle so I have scheduled math for 220 days of instruction. If we need more time for a lesson or even to completely repeat a lesson, then we have that flexibility. I love Tristan’s idea of having a subject focus for the summer break. I think I am going to borrow that!
This past summer, I sat my son down and we made full year calendars for each of the main possibilites for getting to our 180 days (with 220 days of full math instruction). We did a calendar for 3 months on with 1 month off; three weeks on with 1 week off; 4 weeks on with 1 week off; 6 weeks on with 2 weeks off; and 4 days per week year round. I wanted my son to see how our schedule would work, in general, with each option. He liked the idea of 4 weeks on with 1 week off. We are also flexible for the actual days that week constitutes. For example, if my son has an activity or play group on Friday, we may do half the day’s work and then pick up the other half on Saturday morning.
My son knows he needs more frequent breaks so the traditional school year schedule just does not work for him. I think it has actually relieved him to know he has more time (1 whole year) to get through with his lessons.
“Being relieved to know we have more time to get it done” sounds good to me! I also like the no specific schedule/ just get 180 days per year idea; I think that will make life easier. One last bother, would you count a co-op day as “credit” towards this 180 day goal? The co-op does not involve math, grammar, etc., but it does offer some of the enrichment ideas (music, art, field trips) the curriculum guide SCM has suggested. We are not able to fit these in our regular school mornings; my son is just not able to work fast.
I think whether you can count it as credit will depend on your state’s laws. If there are no specific requirements for what a “day” has to constitute, I would count the enrichment days toward the 180. While the basics are important, I think having those enrichment studies is what saves “school” for a lot of struggling kids. For us, I had no idea my son would love poetry so much – I have actually added reading poetry to our daily list!
Also, public schools count field trips, assemblies, picture days, weeks worth of testing, class parties, etc., as school days, so I think we can count those educational opportunities as well. I know in our area the pre-teen/teenage boys have airsoft once a month. I do not count those hours as part of a school day, but I know a lot of the parents do count it as PE.
I think your co-op enrichment day has more to do with how long they are there. If it is only 2 hours, they may need to have a light day scheduled for school work to cover basics at home or in the van, or 1/2 day Saturday to make it a complete day. If the co-op day is a full day field trip for 4 hours or longer, then I would count that as a day. srlord is right to look into your state rules, but our rules are silent on this. I do what makes sense to me – if it is enough learning time for school.
I agree about the co-op day. If it is a full day, then I would count it. We are a part of a co-op but I still have my dc practice their instruments on that day, do chores, and I read them a bedtime story, etc.
Our Co-op Day is 4 hours long. I count it as a full day. We do not have any other work this day and do not practice instruments this day. Occasionally, some of the kids will do some work in the am before co-op if they are behind or want to get ahead. Here is what we cover on co-op days just for comparison:
RCHA Co-op (9:00 – 1:00)
- Feast Studies (everyone) – 2 hours total
- Hymn Study
- Folk Song Study
- Artist Study
- Composer Study
- Poet Study
- Nature Study
- Elective 1 – 1 hour
- DD12 – Logic
- DS9 – Night at the Museum History
- DD6 – Hola Amigos Spanish
- DS3 – Seasonal Adventures
- Elective 2 – 1 hour
- DD12 – All About Shakespeare
- DS9 – Phys. Ed.
- DD6 – Color, Line, & Design Art
- DS3 – Outside Play, Lunch, Storytime
Lunch & Masterly Inactivity (1:00 – 3:00)
- After co-op, we go to a local park for lunch and Masterly Inactivity (play time) for a couple of hours.
Extracurricular Activities (3:30 – 8:30)
- 3:30 – 6:00 – dd12 and dd6 go to a riding lesson
- 3:30 – 7:00 – ds9 sometimes has a golf match
- 6:30 – 8:30 ds9 has baseball practice.
This is our only crazy busy day per week and I structure accordingly.
Wow I wish we had a co-op like that around here! We do not have any state laws for homeschool here in MS; we only have to send in a card once a year with a general school plan. Our co-op is 4 hours, so I guess I will count it for a day (esp. when reminded by srlord about all the twaddle that is sometimes called “school” in public!) I already feel relieved! Since we may switch to this, I am also thinking about spreading out the daily reads. The kids are begging me to scale back to “one book at a time, mom!”. When we read a living book for history+geography+ a literature pick (and then a fun family read at night) they get oversaturated. I know that SCM encourages the feast approach, but these two (my older) are slower learners, and are not yet at a point to read very much on their own (reliably). They do have a book each to read during free time, but we still read aloud the others to make sure they are getting it. I thought about just making a list of all the extra recommended SCM books (for history, geography and a grade 7-9 literature pack), and just read a little more per day in order to complete all within the 12 mos. school year. Hope this is not a poor decsion.
So, is the issue you are facing that you are trying to read aloud all of the scheduled books?
Only some of the recommendations included in the guide were intended to be read by the entire family. The other recommendations are for independent reading.
If you need to transition by reading more aloud, I would say DON’T try to fit all the books in!
Just choose one of the selections to read aloud from History, and one ‘Read Aloud’ or Literature book. Choose the other recommendations based on your children’s independent reading levels and assign them at their pace.
Look at the recommendations and choose one or two. Then give them a time frame to complete that book. Since your kids are close in age and you are working at increasing their pace, you could probably choose 2-3 books per month that they could share.
Also, are you trying to do all the reading at one time? That can burn you and the kids out quickly! Try to read at different times throughout the day.
Does that make sense?
Go at their pace! There is no rush and they will move more quickly as they get accustomed to the methods and regular reading.
- Feast Studies (everyone) – 2 hours total
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