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When does summer end and school year start?
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We start back whenever the kids start fighting, generally. Although this year we have to take a trip to Texas to drop off ds#2 to his college on Aug 21, so we will begin that next Monday. Kind of decided for me this year, seems silly to start before that. We want to spend as much time with him as we can before he goes, and we wouldn’t be able to concentrate anyway. I had a TERRIBLE time last fall—we started school in late August, but my oldest left for training and then Europe in early October . . . none of us wanted to do anything else. We couldn’t concentrate. LOL Love on your kids extra for me. IT GOES TOO FAST!!!!!!
We’re trying out a different year-round schedule this year. My birthday is conveniently halfway through the year, along with 4th of July (which happens to be my favorite holiday). So we have two terms planned, 23 weeks each. Two weeks off at Christmas/New Years, and two weeks off at the beginning of July, plus Thanksgiving week and a winter/spring vacation week. So we just started our next “grade” earlier this month.
Of course we won’t be doing school every day of those “school weeks”, that would be a lot! Just loosely splitting our curricula down the middle and planning to get half the year’s work done each term. I’m hoping this gives me enough flexibility to manage my health issues and a new baby coming in January.
We also year round school. Summer we school 3 times per week since we have summer activities. I just take breaks when my dh is off, we take vacation or we just need a mental health day. I generally have the day after Labor Day the “first day” of the new year. That is when we start new with all subjects except math. I have yet to do math in 1 year. This is the day I make them pose for the new year picture so I can see how much they have grown.
We used to follow the school district schedule. I do like summer vacation. However, we found that the children needed more structure. And, I discovered that summer allows me to plug in some activities and books that we just don’t get to during the regular year. But now we have started continuing math, never really stopping, just moving on to the next level when one is done. They just don’t retain it otherwise. So, I suppose that in a sense we have become year round schoolers!
Just to be completely transparent here…. we will officially start the new year whenever finances allow me to get the rest of our new curriculum ordered!!! I thought that would have been a few weeks ago, but my husband’s truck broke down… again, a part of the front brick steps crumbled and needed repairs, an extra business bill needed to be paid, etc… Life happens!
We school year round on the calendar year, so we start early January, and are deep into term 2 now.
Reading these posts reminds me of what a blessing it is to homeschool and adjust our schedules to meet our family needs first!
We normally school year round as well, taking off the months of December and June. Our new year typically starts the first week in July, however, I took a 3-week course over the summer which dipped into July, then the kids had VBS/camp, and then my sister came with her children to visit, so we did not start until July 21. We had a light week to start, but today we picked up a little more and beefed up our schedule.
It does go by fast. I can’t imagine one off to college! I best not blink.
We do 3 terms of 12 weeks with a week off at the end of terms 1 & 2, and the summer break at the end of 3.
There is usually as much of December off as we can manage. We love all the holiday activity and savour it.
So start and end dates are built around that. I usually try to book off the week up to Easter for spiritual learning and
observations. This year we are doing math only in the summer because we need the extra time on it. I am always happy for summer break and try to fit in some home school mother culture, so to speak.
I like to start full swing the beginning of August. However, we usually go to a state park camping for a week. So, I count some school days since there are programs at the nature center. If we don’t take too many days off in the fall/winter, we will be done early to mid May. I did begin some bookwork the beginning of this month(JUly). I don’t want to be away from it too long since my daughter has a tendency to regress in certain areas if not done consistently. Or, maybe some of it is laziness, because she gets used to not having to think hard:)
As for the time with children going fast, I can tell you it does go WAY too fast. I have 3 graduated. If it wouldn’t be for our adopted daughter, I’d be done, and I can’t imagine what life would be like without her. Those with large families are blessed to be able to have more years with children at home, so cherish the time. I now have some grandchildren to enjoy, although they are out-of-state. So, I feel I’m entering a new season in my life. I can travel to see them. But, it is not the same as having some at home. I want to enjoy these last 8 years of homeshcooling.
Tristan – I have a 25 year old daughter who was born with spina bifida. I can tell you that having a child with special needs and making many medical trips and the time needed to care for that child makes life go by so much faster. It does take some time away from the other children. My almost 27 yo was not even 2 when my other daughter was born, and I feel I missed a lot of her toddler/preschool life because of hospital stays. My son was not even 4 when she was born, and I know it had some affects on him as well, in a different way. So, enjoy these years:)
psreitmom – I would love to hear more about your daughter’s life with SB as a child and teen if you want to PM me sometime! I know I’m learning to soak in and treasure the stages the kids are in and the time we do have because it gets interrupted by medical things frequently.
Tristan – I will PM you as soon as I can. We are actually at appts. with my 25yo 3 hours from home:) This is where we have been coming for 25 years (Children’s Hospital of Philadephia). I’ll be in touch. (I wish I would have kept a journal:))
I had grand plans of all sorts of summer schooling this year, but everything except read alouds and math games went by the wayside.
My husband travels a LOT in the late summer/early fall for his job, and there are times we can travel with him. I am hoping to start easing into school August 11, getting up to full speed by September.
Summer is flying by way too quickly for us, and it is my favorite time of year. So, with that in mind, I’ve decided to wait and kick off back to school the day after Labor Day. I had great plans of doing a little here and there, but frankly we all enjoy this time of year and the change of pace it brings. 🙂
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