I'm betting if you check, your district (for the actual schools) have a specific number of days BUT that count accounts for days of individual sickness. For example our school district PLANS 181 days...but an actual student according to their policy can have up to 10 excused absences a semester - meaning they only have to ATTEND 161 days. Where as my homeschool child - we have to account for 180 days of actual instruction. NOT FAIR! It shocked me to find that out.
In Ohio, it's kind of a combination of days/hours. We have a set number of days, and then they add anywhere from three to ten "calamity days" on to that. If we have no "calamity", then we're over the total number, and that's fine. But if it's an exceptionally snowy winter, we have to make up any "extra" days. Many of the rural schools will call a "one hour " or "two hour" delay for fog, rather than cancel altogether, because this won't count against them as a "day". However, a few years ago, Columbus Public decided to cut a whole class out of the day to cut money. That meant they needed to "make up" all that time in other ways. (Just think: one hour times 180 days, is 180 hours; that's the equivalent of 20+ 8-hour days!) They cut out Teacher Inservice Days (a waste of time to begin with!), and some holidays (Not MLK Day; that would be racist!!!), and cut the Calamity Days down to where we had close to zero. After several years like that, they're finally going to reinstate that extra time.
We lightened up during this summer, but never stopped. Officially--that is what I report on my attendance records--our start day is September 1st.
Wow, you know I just learned about this when reading an article. That the days they mention are more than you really have to have them in.. of course in ours I have learned we just have to keep attendence but dont have a set number again this year. So I am not worried, but it is nice to know that ten days if they did do it coudl make it okay, and I think you need to recheck your math kbabe... hehe
So far I have the first 26 weeks planed. I am making up my own curriculum as I go hoping I am making the right decisions. This is our first time homeschooling but it will be preschool so I can't see me making too big of a mess out of it. It will be just a hair more structered then what we do now. No clue how long we will last for. I'm kinda winging it right now. Our official start date is September 1st. I figure that gives me plenty more time to finish getting organized. If there is ever a true end to getting organized.
Public school here starts August 10th but that seems soooo early! My daughter's 3rd birthday is the 17th so I think we are going to start that Tuesday the 18th so we can go do something fun like lunch out for her birthday!
We're going to start with the full curriculum on August 24th. Through the summer we've been doing Math and reading/writing to keep their skills sharp, but we have no schedule right now. I LOVE summer and still want to be able to enjoy it every day. But.... the girls will usually ask me if they can do math :love: So we've been doing a lot. This will be our first year homeschooling, so we'll see how it goes in terms of a schedule. I'm not sure how much time we'll take off around Christmas and Thanksgiving, maybe not much at all, or maybe i'll want a break. Not sure, i'm not going to set any amount of "days off", i'll just see what will work at the time. Next Summer we have big plans, so i'd like to be finishing up with the curriculum by early May. So I don't want to take too much time off through the "school year".
I wanted to start August 1st but since one child will be going to school and one child will be staying home we're going to start on August 17th when the school child will start.
We've been reading all summer and doing some math and spanish with a sprinkling of ancient egypt. I am planning to start back Aug. 3, but ease into it. We are planning to take from Thanksgiving to New Year off, but we will throw in some school days too-like our "field trip" to washington dc in December. I just love that my husband attends a conference there every year. This will be the 3rd time I go with him and the 2nd time the kids get to go. They are already planning the trip for this year!
We've been doing math and latin over the summer. We are with a charter this year, and they start on August 24th, but we are going to officially start a week earlier to get a jump on things!
I will start a full schedule as soon as my mother leaves me alone!! We have been doing school as we can through the summer, but I have come to understand that for the month of July our life gets put on hold. My mom owns her own business moving fishermens vehicles down river. The month of July and the first couple of weeks in Aug are her busy time and she needs every driver she can find. The catch is she only uses those of us in the family, as we are the only ones trustworthy I guess. Soo our start date is sometime in about the middle of Aug. Then I try do do the nine on one off type schedule.
