WHo homeschools year round? How does your schedule look? Do you just review over the summer? Do you do less but new lessons?
I plan to have lessons this summer. I am thinking mostly to teach myself to school more wit’s Charlotte Mason methods instead of following the curriculum we have. Or perhaps just to instill a love of learning regardless of the season in my children.
Please share your experiences homeschooling over the summer!
We school year around. Now I don’t know how much of a help I will be to you because I do not plan out what days we will take off. We have moved quite a bit within the last 6 years, so schooling year around works best for us. However, we have always done it this way. I think it just fits my personality. It cuts down my stress if I don’t have a box that was supposed to be checked by a certain time.
We take off when the need arises. For example, next week my parents are flying in to be here for one of my daughter’s 13th birthday. We’ll take the week off. Except for my oldest who has one online class. She will still have to complete the work for that. The rest of her subjects she will take a break from.
My general rule is that we do school every week we can. I don’t take weeks or days off just because. But, things always come up that are not expected. A few weeks back there was a homeschool convention. I planned on only going Friday and Saturday, and not taking off of school. Well, my dh is at a new job that happens to take almost every holiday off, however obscure. He was off Monday of that week and wanted to go look at property together. We ended up having to take the week off, because only 3 days of school was not going to work. I don’t stress over things like this because if I follow my motto “Just keep moving.” It all gets done, and my children are on or above grade level in everything (except for my dyslexic son). I plan out our curriculum, and I fill in a weekly schedule book for each child the weekend before. That is the extent of my planning.
I don’t know if that helps at all, but at least you can see that schooling year around can be very flexible.
We school year round. My kids are young, my oldest is in 2nd grade. So it works for us to have a consistent schedule. I don’t like long breaks unless we are on vacation otherwise we take a day or two off when we need a break or go on a field trip. I just try to do 3 weeks a month which adds up to 180 days a year but I live in a state that doesn’t require a certain number of days its more for myself. I like breaking up the school year throughout the year. This way the kid are always learning and not forgetting skills in math and reading. I know some people just do math and reading during the summer though. Or you could use summer to cover certain subjects like art, science, etc. Its really flexible
We homeschool year round and have for nearly 14 years. We prefer to take off when we want to rather than when the public school schedules it. We also like having all of the parks to ourselves because all of the other kids are in school. 🙂
We don’t really have a particular method. We simply do school unless we have a planned vacation or need a week or day off. We end up doing many more days than the public school and that works great for us as we like to keep lessons short as Charlotte Mason recommended. We usually finish a math textbook and a science textbook each year. Every thing else just keeps rolling along. We begin a new history book or literature book whenever we finish the last one. We use writing programs (and other types of programs) however we want to and whenever we want to, paying no attention to the time of year or the schedule within the program. We tweak everything so as to keep curricula as our servant in order that it not become our master.
We school year round, but I like to take scheduled breaks and allow for some breaks where needed. Kids got sick one week and we took 4 days off. We are off for each of my children’s birthday for at least that day, but I like to have the whole week off. And I like to have 4 to 6 weeks off between school years for a break to plan and get our new books ready, clean out desks, etc. We might take a trip then too. We prefer to travel and visit museums, zoos and parks when less crowded during the traditional school year. We like to be off several weeks in May and September when the weather is nice. I have a general plan for the year and cover a specific time period. But I schedule a week at a time in the student schedules. Our days are just numbered so it is okay if we don’t have five days in one week, M-F. I schedule one day per week lighter to allow for errands, cleaning, or field trip.
We’ve homeschooled year round in the past and will do so again this summer. DD9 will have a full schedule except science, as I haven’t decided what we’ll be using for that yet. She’ll be doing Bible, spelling, reading, math, and American Girl history. Ds13 will be doing Bible, math skills review, spelling, and reading and will be working on at least one written project as a possible fair entry. Both will also be working on art. We will take off as needed.
Littlefire, thanks for asking this question. I have enjoyed reading the responses because I have decided to do year round schooling as well this year. I have always done ‘something’ in the summer. (ie; we always do our devotion, bible study and I did reading and math) However, there are a few reasons I think all year would be better.
Carolloyd; I totally resonate with your style. I too, put our schedule for the week together each Sunday. I have an overall gameplan, but have found I rarely can keep up with the provided schedule. I just feel my kids will get everything they need and checking off a list or time schedule doesn’t seem to work for me or my family.
When I first started homeschooling I thought, I have to give my kids a summer break. Summer breaks are a must! I had them as a kid, have tons of fond memories of them and it just made sense from what I grew up with. However, I have realized that it definitely gets us ‘off track. My kids don’t bounce back to schedule well and it is just painful. (Especially my eldest, he just needs routine and gets really upset when play time can not be all day! The transition is too hard for him and frankly, me. )
Also, it makes so much sense that if your home is a learning atmosphere, then why not all year round. We take breaks when we are sick, something arises, outside time, etc… It seems to go so much nicer with calm, in the moment living.
So, I am excited to read that plenty of folks do this. I felt it was right for us, but it is encouraging to hear others say how it works for them and why they do it.
Blessings,
Renee
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