Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

This topic has 23 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 1 month ago by my3boys.

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April 24, 2012 at 11:03 pm
Laura.bora
Participant
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/year-round-schooling-how-long-are-your-breaks

April 25, 2012 at 1:03 am
chocodog
Participant
We started year round schooling last year for the first time. I really liked it because I loathed reteaching many things the year before. I do take off for vacation in November, We start back slowly in September because we are usually canning ect… We take a few days off for Thanksgiving, Hannukah- New Years. Sometimes we break around my sons Birthday in Feb. and slow down about now for Spring..Tehe he 🙂
   I am in my next year curriculm zone. I am trying to figure out what I want to teach them threw the summer. When they are done with math (in about 3-4 weeks) We will start math games. This is to refresh and keep alive their skills. We will finish up other subjects here and there after that. Then we will call it a break for about a month. Ususally this happens somewhere end of June. This year I think it is going to be earlier. This will be good because we will do some planting and education will be more outdoors. They will be doing more of an informal education. :).
   We will do more afternoon studies in July. August will be more studies with a reward of going to the beach or waterfalls after we are done with the homework and housework. 🙂    (Great incentive! :))
Then we will take a little bit of a break to slowly come back around to Sept. harvesting and canning time.
I like it better now that we homeschool all year. This way they are for sure to have their brain on all year not just during the school year. 🙂 They are constantly learning something new anyway!
                                                                Blessings!
April 25, 2012 at 1:36 am
memomo7
Participant
Thank you, everyone! Your posts have been very helpful. I’ve even searched and found many other posts on this topic…thank you!!
@chocodog – Yes, that’s what I’ve been thinking…I don’t want their brains to “turn off” during the summer, but it’s hard to figure this out because I was brought up doing the traditional school year and that’s all we’ve done so far. Change can be difficult, but good. 🙂
So, I’m going to ponder and mull this over, but here’s another question…how do you schedule math? The book comes with 130 lessons…give or take a few. How do I stretch that out over a whole year??
Thanks for the help.
April 25, 2012 at 1:57 am
ibkim2
Participant
Speaking of the traditional school calendars, our school system is moving toward what they call a balanced calendar year with a shorter summer and longer fall and spring breaks. I suppose they are finally catching on that the long summer breaks don’t benefit as well as once thought. I’m going to see how it goes, but hope to school during the hot days of summer and take extra time off during the beautiful days of fall and spring as they arise.
April 25, 2012 at 2:18 am
Britney
Member
memomo- For math, we do it every school day and then when we finish the boook, we msy take a week or so break and then move on to the next one. Any curriculum that we buy that may be geared for a “regular” school year we just finish it when we finish it and just move on to the next one.
April 25, 2012 at 2:51 am
chocodog
Participant
Well, Here is how I figure it out. I go by 2- 15 week semesters starting in Sept. If you did 1 lesson a week that would give you 30 lessons out of the way. If you did Math 4x a week that gives you 120 lessons with 10 lessons to make up somewhere near the end of the year. It is really only 2 extra weeks. That is why I put 17 weeks down of homework in my folders. Whwn we are done with the folders we are done with the regular school year. The summer is for things I want to teach them. Things I feel they didn’t get good enough and need more practice on. Review, things I forgot to schedule during the year. Things that I wanted to cover but there wasn’t enough time. Preparing for the upcoming new school year. This is what I try to cover in my summer. Sometimes we cover it and sometimes I carry it into our new school year and finish it up.
If you wanted to do Math 5 days a week then you should get it done before the end of the year and your semesters end…. If it takes you longer then that is ok too. You just take it into June. If it is shorter then just start your next year in Math during the summer. You can start it slow and still be ahead and play some games. This year we are going to play more games and I am going to start them doing their Next years Math in Aug. when we can get it done and then go to the beach…. More of an incentive to get them started in it. 🙂 We may even start it in July depending on how restless they become. 🙂
       Hope this helps…. 🙂

April 25, 2012 at 12:35 pm
memomo7
Participant
Oh, this DOES help! I’m still pondering, but I think it’s going to come together…yay!!
@Britney – That sounds easy enough…don’t know why I couldn’t figure that out.
I also like chocodog’s way of thinking…review, games, etc…taking it slow if need be.
@ibkim2 – That’s interesting. The long summer break just seems “wrong” for us lately. I’m sure it’s right for some and they can make it work, but I’d really like to give this year round thing a try.
Thanks!
April 25, 2012 at 1:22 pm
MonikaNC
Participant
We are also schooling year-round for the first time this year. Following the traditional school calendar just burnt.us.out. I’m still not sure why I did that LOL! Live and learn, I guess 🙂 So when I read all of the posts from the brave moms on here that use a 6/2 or 3/1 week schedule, I decided to try it for awhile….all I can say it WOW! What a difference.
Not only are my girls really ready by the end of 3 weeks, so am I. We get 3 SOLID weeks of school in. Then on our break,I have my oldest continuing her independent reading each day, although I don’t really need to encourage that, as she always seems to have her nose in a book anyway 🙂 I have also found that if we take off more than 1 week, then it takes our first week of school to get them “back” to where we left off, mentally, once we begin again. Then they’re bored and complaining, and I am so frustrated. Not anymore…this schedule is a God-send for us! We use the week off for all of the things that we “need” to do (doctor appts, games, haircuts, field trips,collecting resources, etc) and then I plan for the next 3 weeks. I started planning for a full term and then found I had to make adjustments all to often as we went along, although by the end of the term, we did finish where I intended, if that makes sense? We don’t use the online SCM planner, but I do have the schedule figured out from using the Planning Your CM Education book. I LOVE THIS resource!! I am more confident about what we’re doing, going into our next year than I have ever felt before. Good luck and enjoy!!
April 25, 2012 at 1:58 pm
my3boys
Participant
We are year-rounders, as well. I decided to go this route because the summer break was just too long. Did we enjoy it?? Sure, but it was still too long with the kids getting restless, looking for something to do anyway. So now we do a 3/1 (or at least we try) and enjoy it all very much. I found that 3 weeks is plenty of time to put forth good effort to then have a little break, for all of us. I use that time to weed through notebooks, deep clean, readjust what is not working, purchase/learn how a new (or old) resource works, extra field trips, and just plain “down time.” We all need it and trying to press through 9 months to then have 3 months off seems so stressful, especially now that we’ve had this schedule. Plus, it feels like we actually have more time to complete our resources….this has worked out great for us.
HTH