keep in mind, I am new to this. I just left my daughter's swim class and I was talking to a parent who's child works for 25 days (day1-25)continueously per month and then takes the remainder of the month off and then starts over the next month. she says that she still gets the 180 day requirement. She takes Holidays off, and just adds the day at the end of the school year. So for Christmas they work from the first up until the 23rd and then add the two days in May.She says it's great because then they can plan vacations at off peak prices. .I currently just stick to the five days (MTWTHF) because I still have one child in public school. I was wondering what other people do for a schedule. This site is great. I think I might become an addict fast
You just have to find what works for your family. I would not like 25 days straight, nor would my kids. Plus, we do family things during the weekend when dh is off. We pretty much stick to the ps schedule, except we don't take all the holidays. We just take off when we need to. I know some people who school 6 weeks and take a week off, some who school 9 weeks and take 2 weeks off, and some who school Mon.-Thurs. It's about finding what works for your family.
We stick to normalish schedule of m-f, but have done four days a week for a while one year. I am a stickler for scheduling though, even if I don't write it down all the time so I go from approx8-2or 3 daily. Off on weekends because baseball games and church take up weekends , technically I could call those learning times too if I chose to as they are taking classes and learning things , and sports is PE credits. But I don't.
We do electives (music, drama, PE and art) on Monday's at academy. It's a half day program for homeschoolers. Then we do just about everything else Mon - Fri. Sometimes Ds will ask to do some school work on a weekend. I rarely tell him no. Sometimes we take a weekday off because I have something going on or we're taking a field trip (which is technically still a school day).
We aren't quite so scheduled around here... Hubby is off on Th and F so those are our family days and we spend most of the weekend with my parents and siblings so we generally try to 'do school' M-W and a little on all the other days. I try not to sweat it when we don't seem to get much done - mine are still pretty young though. I tried really hard to be more structured this year, but it hasn't worked out that way. I'll try again in September I guess...
We usually do work Tues-Sat. Mondays my Dh is off work so we do stuff together then. We don't have time regulations here (if you're 3rd option and not in high school) so we typically do a couple of hours each day. Of course DS is only in K so I know the days will get longer as he gets older. Our work usually starts right after lunch. Morning is when I do our business work and house work.
I know of one family that claims to do homeschooling ever single day, even Christmas, although I don't know what she counts as homeschooling. We do Monday through Friday, maybe some on Saturday if my husband is working. Thursdays are mostly taken up with errands and music lessons when we go into town, so it is a short day for formal lessons. I live in a state--the only state, I believe--that requires us to send in attendance reports monthly. We have a requirement to meet the equivalent (a key word in our laws) of 4 1/2 hours for 180 days a year. Unless we are really taking a holiday, I check off Monday through Friday whether I can show formal work adding up to 4 1/2 hours or not, because we homeschool year around and some of what we do is not something that I can really document. For instance, last night we spent over an hour observing and discussing the lunar eclipse.
I'm new to homeschooling. I have always had the kids (3 & 6) home, but this is our first year of actually doing organized schooling. For the most part I stick to Monday through Friday schooling, we take a day off when we need to, and we have done some projects on weekends when Daddy is home. My state does not require any form of documentation, or a certain number of days. I do plan to try year-round schooling this year and see how that goes for us. I think it will work well so that we always stay in the habit and then we can take days off whenever we choose to.
We do homeschool 3-4 days a week and on Tuesdays we go to Bible study. There's a homeschool class there, too, so I guess that adds another half day. We either go to the library or run errands or just play for the rest of Tuesday. I've been fairly relaxed about doing things every single day because we're going to homeschool all year long this year and see how it goes. I'll decide in the fall whether I want to continue doing that. It has worked out nicely for us this year... The couple of times I've gotten sick I haven't felt pressured to do homeschool, too; and when something fun comes up, like Katie's zoo field trip yesterday, Joy & I drop everything and go. It's too hot in the summer to do much outside here, so we play outside during the cooler months and hibernate in the a/c in June-the beginning of September.
We currently do m-th and then friday afternoons is our co-op time. When co-op is not in session we do go over work on fridays. 1st and 3rd fridays I also have MOPs in the morning so sd does not really get much done. She usually has work she does on the weekend and then a test or two (usually math and spelling or vocabulary nothing major). We have to do a minimimum of 247.5 hours per quarter and 990 per year. We normally go over that. We take off standard holidays and the occassional day here and there. Right now it looks like we will end most of her classes mid June on time but her Global is probably going to the begining of July since she got behind in it.
Hey you just gave me an idea of how to bring more to my Ladies Bible Study.. I have in the past 10 years or so taught LBS and brought the kids with, some years we have had other kids there and some we have not. I always give them assignments to do while there then they get to play in the Gym or on the play ground with the school kids that are at the Church. Maybe I will invite people from our homeschool group to join us.. its a non denominational study, just Walking through the Word of God. So how does your homeschool group and bible study time work ? Maybe you can help ME ( not intending to higjack so please pm me if you can Marylyn_TX)**
We usually work M-F. We work through some holidays and take others off. Sometimes we make our own holiday. We usually plan vacations at the last minute because Handsome's work does not offer vacation time. So when work slows or he is at the end or beginning of a job, we can try to take off. I taught a women's Bible study on Wednesday mornings for seven years. I counted this as school because this counted as a play date with other children. We also did a small amount of work these days. Sometimes more. My friend has taken over the study and now we go to her house on Tuesday mornings. Thursday mornings we clean the church or other peoples houses. Sometimes we finish school before and sometimes after. Sometimes not at all. It all works out at the end.
We do Monday - Thursday regulard work, Fridays for fun stuff or field trips. We take off when we feel like it. We took the week of Halloween and Thanksgiving off plus almost the entire month of December and we will be taking another week off in about 3 weeks. We have no regulations to worry about.
Generally, we do school M-F (but Tues is co-op and I typically don't have them do any other work at home...even though its only a 2 hr co-op). Some weeks we do LOTS of work on M & W so that we can attend park day, etc on Thurs or Fri....just depends on the week. We just spent today freezing our fannies off at Colonial Williamsburg (its Home Ed days there until March 5). It was awesome because it was so deserted compared to our last trip. The kids basically had each shop to themselves and could ask as many questions as they wanted. Last time, we squeezed in places and had a hard time getting questions asked before my 5 yr old would get antsy. Anyway, we started our year in late July/early Aug with a light schedule and plan to end of school year in mid-May....although I do plan to do "light school" a few days a week during the summer (mostly reading and math...and some fun science). I wouldn't mind schooling year round but my kids are used to PS schedule (we've only HSing for 11 months) and there is so much to do here in the summer....they'd revolt without time to hang out at the beach, etc. Rhonda C.
We do 4 days a week, if we don't have anything going on during the week we take off on Friday. If there is something special we'll take off that day and have school on Friday. And then there are some weeks, like this week when we'll only school 3 days and last week or the week before we only did 2. We usually are so excited that we start the first or second week of August. I plan to stop in May or when I get to busy with the garden, whichever comes first. Lisa
We do 5 days a week, but not generally M-F. Our two days off usually correspond with my husband's days off, but I have been letting my oldest pick which days he takes off each week and so it's been varying some because of that. (I let him set his own schedule. I decided how many days each week he should do each subject, and made that many "tabs" with the subject name. I handed him a pocket folder calendar, told him to decide on which 2 days he wants no school work, and put the tabs wherever else he wants them. This way he isn't doing the same-ole, same-ole every week, and if he doesn't finish something he can physically move the tab to the next day's lineup of work. Works well for him.) Anyway. Occasionally we'll take an extra day off for whatever reason, sick or field trips or Mom doesn't feel like teaching today, or maybe it's an "unschool" day. :lol: I don't worry, as we generally school year-round with our "slow time" being the late fall (Oct-Dec) for family stuff. I had to quit worrying so much about a schedule, because if it wasn't done that way then we trashed it all, and nothing was getting done. So out the window that went, and since we've been doing it this way things have worked much easier.
I am really considering doing some schoolwork this summer. We have never done that, because dh's work took him away from home for the summer, and we went with him or visited as often as possible. With his new position, he'll be home during the summer, so I'm thinking a light school schedule may work for us. I still want to be able to go to the pool and do fun stuff. Plus, we just got season passes to Sea World, so I intend to spend lots of time there this summer. But that is educational (at least some of it)!!
I am going to school year round, I dont want to have my kids forget the stuff we've been working on. I think It'll be more of a 2-3 day week, just get the basics done like Math, Reading, and Language. Also I wont feel so guilty over days like today where only math and language got done.
We are a M-F kinda family...but hubby has a very normal work schedule. M/W/F are NORMAL days, full school, all subjects. For my eldest Tuesday is our "bible school day" (the kids have their own class while I attend bible study). They do "school" work in the homeschool room, so I count it as school - they usually do a science experiment or something of that nature, as well as gym and art and stuff like that. She has handwriting and Math to do those days - they give them 30 minutes while half of the class is in gym as "study hall" to do schoolwork from home. My son (1st grader) will do handwriting and Math when he gets home (he's technically in the kindergarten class b/c of how his birthday fell - but most of his friends are there too so it works out for him). My middle does official school M-W-F. He does handwriting and math on T-Th...but nothing else except reading and "fun school" work like projects, experiments, etc. Thursdays are sports day for my son. My eldest gets most of her work done before we go. Whatever she doesn't get done we take with us...or do when we get home. One Friday a month we take off completely for MOPS. But my middle and eldest are in the homeschool room and again, they try to make it very educational so that we can count as a school day. I would say Handwriting, Math and Reading are done EVERY DAY. But the rest are 3 times a week at least and sometimes at most! Hope that makes sense, I'm tired and on all sorts of decongestants right now! LOL
We stick to normal M-F. Fridays are fun learning days or finishing up projects kinda of thing. I even allow computer use on Fridays to take the place of some "class work." Mondays are not always the same...sometimes I use Mondays as fun days or art, history or science stuff....makes starting off the week easier. This year has not been as consistent though...so my schedule is not the norm. Normally.... Monday: Normal day...get new spelling lists Tuesday: Regular studies/fun math game time/History Wednesday: Regular studies/Science Thrusday: Regular studies/fun language game time/History Friday: Fun day/Science/projects, etc. I never do school on weekends. I will, however, do school on most minor holidays.
