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Scheduling Year Round
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I have in the past schooled year round and plan on doing it for our final two years. I love Sonya’s planner, but because of the terms, I find myself not quite knowing how to always make it work for me. I don’t know most of the time when we can take vacation because hubby’s job is not easy to plan around. We do take all federal holidays, because he is off, and when we do take our breaks we like to be off for the cool and cold weather (none of us like the hot summers) – so Winter, Spring and late Fall are the likely times for us to take a week here or there. I guess I am asking if anyone who schools year round like this, has any brilliant ideas how to make the planner work. We will most likely do school this coming year for 42 weeks out of the 52. The girls do not like a lot of down time, and with medical appointments happening frequently, there are times we need a day off or a half day off, to deal with it. Does anyone have any super tips for me, our schedule was much easier over the last years, as we did not have as many variables – I see this coming year being more of a challenge because of more disruptions in routine. Thanks to all who might have an idea. I am sitting here with Sonya’s planning book and I am on the page where you make the terms up, now I am stuck, stuck, stuck……HELP!
Hi Linda,
I use Sonya’s planner and plan 3 twelve week terms. I plan in a start-stop date for each term, but that’s simply a “written goal”. I NEVER hit those dates. For example, this year, I started term 1 on 7/7/10 and I just finished term 2 last week. I was sick w/ morning sickness, then had a new baby and of course, life just happens. I don’t worry about it. I “plan” to school 6 weeks and take 1 week off with 2 weeks off at Christmas and 2 in Spring, but in reality, I always school unless we plan a trip or sickness happens, etc. Our days off are never really scheduled (except trips). It works for us. I like the plan, but love the flexibility!
I hope that helps in some odd way.
~ Christie
So you use the plan and terms as just a goal, but in reality you are really flexible, and the plan is for guidance only. I hope I have that right. So I would plan 3 terms of 12 weeks, but then just keep going and stop and start when we need to, I suppose as long as we accomplish what we want to, then anything is ok. I guess I just need to drop the idea that I must follow the planner no matter what, just because I wrote it down – does this work with high school, I guess it must – I must have gotten out of bed wrong thismorning, because I can’t seem to make sense of anything today – except Doug’s April Joke – maybe that threw me off!
One thought is to alter the plan to divide things out by using 42 instead of 36 if you want to cover everything in 42 weeks. (If I’m understanding correctly.) You could just have your master list of resources/topics to cover and break it down by week instead of term…..Or decide that you will have 7 six week sessions and plan for a “mini” term of 6 weeks at a time. I don’t have the planning book in front of me, but I think looking at the year that way would be possible…..using Sonya’s guidelines, but just altering the time frame a bit.
Maybe that thought will help a little. (?)
-Kim
I see we were posting at the same time, and I was just about to write the thought you had….still plan for 36 weeks, and use the extra six weeks as wiggle room for the days when you don’t quite get everything finished. If you finished some resources “early” and the girls would end up with too much down time, then perhaps they could pick a book or topic of personal interest to study more in depth. But if not, then you would still have a very full year planning for the 36 weeks.
I use a year round plan as well. Our year starts July 1. Due to being a military reservists our schedules heavily revolve on when my husband will be home or his work schedule. We also tend to really be a family with “Spring Fever!” Due to this as well as health issues; we tend to go with most federal holidays off. (somehow my husband always has to work them the past 8 years!) We must do 180 days; I keep the kids going no matter when that time is reached. We take a week off For Christmas and a week off for Easter. When we get the the urge to drop a day; I just don’t worry about it. My calendar shows how many days we’ve homeschooled and I can always make sure that 180 is reached before June 30th of each year.
I’ve been looking at those “terms” as well. sigh… I’m not sure how to work around it. I just wanted to let you know; I with you!
STUCK! LOL! Are you near the Charlotte NC Conference? (I’m looking forward to figuring a lot out then.)
Meadowlark
Hi Kim, that seems to make sense as well – I guess I just have to try and do something to get over my usual idea of knowing where I am and what I am doing each day – I am really not so good with chaos, I like a bit of order. Looking at my calender for the next 2 weeks for example we have six medical appointments, all at awkward times of day – I hope by September, maybe that will have eased off a bit, but who knows, at this stage I don’t. I don’t like to stress my daughter with all the appointments by making her think we are not doing a good job with school, so I try and look like I have a plan – in reality at the moment I am winging it, and I am not comfortable doing that. I really appreciate the ideas, I suddently feel a little worried about the coming year, our past disruptions have been big ones, but these days they are little and often, taking a couple of hours here and there, and that has me worrying a bit. Ah, I will sit for a while and see what sense I can make, with these ideas from you kind ladies. Bless you.
Ah Meadowlark, so I am not alone – thank goodness for that. You seem to have similar issues and so maybe we will both get good ideas from this thread. No sadly I am in SW Illinois, so no conference for me – the book and DVD will have to do, the information is all there – Sonya did a great job, the only thing missing is my brain!
Linda, maybe thinking about the why’s behind the how’s will help. Let’s see, the main reasons you break down a year into Terms is to
- make your year’s pile of resources more manageable,
- help you figure out how many times per week you need to do certain subjects and read certain books in order to finish the pile by the end of the year,
- make sure you aren’t overloading.
Maybe if you already have a “feel” for how much your daughter will be able to cover and how many days per week you want to do various subjects, you can just skip the whole Term planning and just use the What’s Next method. On her good days, she might be able to do several Next things, and on crazy days she may do just one or two Next things. But all you need to do is have the big picture of where you want to end up and allow her to work at the pace she is capable of each day. Maybe this intermediate goals (end of Terms) during the year will cause more stress than help during this season.
Does that make any sense or just contribute to the general brain fatigue?
I still need help! ugh.
I think I can relax on the terms. My next big thing is 6 children! Let’s brainstorm this all together:) Mine are ages 17ds (special need using 7th grade curric,) 15dd (using 1st and 2nd grade curric) 13dd (soon to be 14..my right hand child:) straight A student will be dual enrolling before we know it.) 10dd using 5th starting in July, 7dd starting 2nd grade this July and 5ds starting K this July.
I saw CM years ago and was too afraid to go with it. Now, I see that I should have been here all along. I’m really struggling with which books to buy and where to start since I am teaching all grade level groups.
Big HELP!
Meadowlark
Sonya, thanks for that – I think you may be right – the whats next method may be best for us right now – sometimes when you are unwell, a schedule can be more of a stressor than anything else. Perhaps I need to just focus on the big plan and leave the minutiae for another time. I just love the way you have us lay things out, and wanted to use it – even this year we have had days when nothing got added to the organizer or the plan went haywire – so I know what to espect next year, if things don’t improve with the various issues. That is though the beauty of the organizer, we can ignore it for weeks, and yet there it is patiently waiting when we decide to do something with it. I just love that about it and it makes me feel a whole lot less worried knowing it is all there – worth every penny. Thanks Sonya for giving me permission to look big this coming year. Illness causes such chaos, and I want life to be as relaxed as we can be under the circumstances.
Meadowlark, I cannot advise you on much, as I am struggling at the moment myself – but one thing I do recommend, is combine as many subjects as you can with as many children as you can. Sonya has loads of helps dotted around the website to help with that and I am sure many others will chip in who have more age groups to deal with. I only have my twin girls and an occasional student I tutor in history and things like that, so it is easier for me in that sense. I do wish you peace and guidance though.
Blessings, Linda
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