Any of you homeschool year round? If so how do you do it. How long of a break if any in the summer and do you have set breaks 2 to 3 weeks throughout the year? How do the children handle the breaks? I plan to homeschool year round. I am wondering how it works for other families. Please tell me how you handle holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and also holidays like Memorial Day, July 4th are there some holidays you chose not to observe?
We sort of do. We do all our main subjects during the normal school year (Sept-May) then we do our fun subjects in the summer and just a light load. Last year we did a devotional book, picturing America, and then any subject that needed work. We take breaks when we want, mainly when dad has a day off. My kids would rather do school everyday rather than going long into the summer. The school that we do during the summer they don't consider school - they enjoy it that much.
We school all year round. We don't do any major breaks; we just take days as we feel like. On a regular week, we take Fridays off because that's the day we do fellowship stuff with our homeschool group. If we take holidays off other than the really big ones, it's only because Dad has them off from work. He's a big distraction, so there's not much point in trying to do lessons when he's home. LOL
I am just starting homeschooling, but I also plan to homeschool year around! I plan on taking breaks whenever we need one! For instances I have a couple of weddings that I am really involved in so we will take those weeks off. Other than that we will school daily!
I do not school year round but we take breaks as needed and do not observe many of the holidays the public school observes. Sometimes I think of trying a year round schedule but the schedule we keep seems to work best, for us. But I like the idea of schooling for so many weeks then breaking.
We school year-round. We take a month off between grades. I use this time to finish plans for the upcoming year, put away all materials from the just finished year, make changes to the school material inventory list, make sure I have all materials needed for planned projects & experiments, and move all materials for the upcoming year to the proper area (I keep the stuff for the current year separate from the stuff we aren't using that year, to make it easier to find what we need). I plan for a 40wk school year, though we don't have to stick to that. If we finish our work in less than 40 wks, we'll find something else to study or take our break & start the new year (depending on if we've been able to buy the materials for the next year). If we go over 40wks, we just keep working until the work for the year is done, then take our break. We break for holidays we celebrate: 2 wks for Christmas (we have up to 7 Christmas celebrations to fit in), up to a week for Thanksgiving, Halloween, 4th of July, and our b-days. For some holidays - Memorial Day, Labor Day, St Patrick's Day, etc. - we'll still do school, and have some holiday themed activities and/or food planned for the day. There are some holidays we don't observe, mainly Columbus Day. For those, we just continue with business as usual. We only schedule the break between grades, and the ones for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, 4th of July, & b-days. Any other breaks are unscheduled & happen when needed. Sometimes, we just need a few days off. Sometimes, unexpected things come up (wedding, funerals, illness, once in a lifetime opportunities, etc.) and you just have to take some time off. I love year-round schooling for a few reasons: 1) With shorter breaks more often instead of a few large breaks, the kids forget less. That means less time spent on review & more time to dedicate to actual learning. 2) We can take those extra breaks when needed and not worry about falling behind. 3) The kids learn continuously throughout the year (they unschool on breaks, following their own interests), and still have time for fun & friends. 4) The kids prefer the shorter breaks more often instead of a few longer breaks. With breaks more often, they don't get burnt out on schoolwork, and they don't have time on their breaks to get bored.
Yes we homeschool year round. Our new year starts in January, and ends in December. We have a little ceremony when family is visiting at Christmas to celebrate the end of the year. And break when they are here just doing modified schedule. We are relaxed homeschoolers though. We don't do any summer breaks, but our school days take tops 2 hours. In the summer often times we school at night after the two little ones go to sleep that way the kids can get outside early after breakfast before it gets to hot. We just break as desired. Our state is very relaxed with rules though but even if it weren't I'd use this to account for any time or hour requirements: http://a2zhomeschool.com/homeschool/about/glossary/educationese-homeschool-reports/ Sometimes we do 4 day weeks, sometimes 5 and sometimes 6. It sort of just depends. Like holiday time we do a lighter 4 day schedule but I have found that if I break too long my older dd has trouble with math. So I try to do that with her break or not even if it's just an online drill so even on a 4 day schedule she does a 5 day math week. Sorry if that got confusing. We also like to have days off together when others are in school, movies, dining out, vacation etc. are way less crowded when PS is in session and during their schooling hours.
We used to school year round. I just took breaks as needed. Week or two at a time. Last year we took a FULL summer. Actually, 4 months! LOL My kids lost SOOOOOO MUCH....it was hard to get back into full swing this year. THEREFORE, this summer we will not be taking a full break. My kids will be doing Math, reading and sports during the summer. My evaluator tells me for each week we do this I can count some time towards the school year. This will be helpful, to, so that we can take some more casual days for fun stuff. My kids are fine with doing math during the summer, it doesn't take long. etc.
I took 6 weeks off this past summer and we started the same time as the local school district. We have moved in the middle of the school year the past two school years and have taken 6 weeks off for the move. Our move fell around Christmas and Thanksgiving so it worked out well for those holidays too. We'll coincide our other breaks with my dh's vacation schedule. We'll probably only have 6 weeks off this summer too.
Year-round here, too. This is our first "official" year of homeschooling. I've homeschooled all along, but I didn't realize it had a name (unschooling, maybe? go with the flow?). Anyway, you can see what we're doing in my siggy. The traditional school year is where the bulk of "school" takes place, but I've never been a fan of watching cartoons and playing video games for 2-3 months in the summer. I don't like the brain rot effect. (Believe me... I was a rotten-brained kid. LOL!) We'll do a tiny bit of structure throughout the summer with fewer subjects, but we'll also take 4 weeks (2+2) for summer camps and a week for VBS. Holidays for us look very similar. Maybe one or two subjects just to keep the momentum going, but mostly, we take a week for Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas, and a week for spring break. Any other breaks are taken on an as-needed basis.
Although I'm not homeschooling full time yet, we've been after schooling/homeschooling year round since my daughter was 4. Since I am a teacher, we have homes schooled int he summers for the past two years. My daughter frequently asks to homes school on the weekends during the school year too. So, when we start full time homeschooling, we will continue with year round education.
I have homeschooled year around for nearly six years beginning when my daughter was three. I do not plan breaks in advance. My husband's work schedule and just the real life stuff life happens that will cause breaks, so I take them as needed. Most years I homeschool way over the requirements in my state, but because of family illness where I needed to go help out one year and husband's injury then unemployment another, we would not have been able to get all the requirements in if I did not homeschool year around. I do not do grade levels at all; weeks ago I was struggling to figure out if my daughter would be a third grader by age because we need to test to fulfill state law requirements. I simply continue to the next level (if I am using a resource with levels) when we finish the one prior to it. None of the subjects we cover have the same start and end times as to time of year; they are all staggered and layered. In fact, most of our subjects are not done in the school traditional way as we use a classical/living books/journaling approach. So, I can take a break from one subject, if I need to do some planning/prep work and take it up again without having to be concerned about deadlines. Now, I will say that in the summer, as well as sprinkled in "nice days," I tend to do lighter and less formal lessons, so that she has plenty of play time with neighborhood children, but we still do formal lessons also. She also has some activities with horses and 4-H during the summer and this year we plan to take a week or two visiting family where her god-mother will be having a week long "camp" kind of thing going on. Usually around Thanksgiving to New Year's Day we are pretty busy with piano recitals, church, 4-H activities and charities, and baking that we do quite a bit less also. I take off for religious holidays and any holidays when my husband is actually going to be home or we have plans to do something special, but other than that I pretty much ignore holidays as to taking time off.
Patty I don't know if this was directed to me or not. We start our K year May 24, 2010. I scheduled our breaks/holidays around the time hubby is off from work. So we will be off Memorial, Independence, Labor and Presidents Day. One Week for Thanksgiving, One Week for Spring Break and we will be traveling to Nigeria for a month this Christmas. I have allotted 12 days off during this trip. With the time difference I am not sure how we are going to feel about school and adjusting but I am going to attempt to do at least one week of school. Keep in mind we will not school on Fridays as we will attend a co-op on those days. I have not figured out summer. I will see if I finish my year early what I will do. I will probably take one to two weeks off during the summer.
I have homeschooled year round from day one ( 8+ years now). Some years we take 2 weeks for Christmas, a few days for Thanksgiving, it depends on if family comes here ( then only break we have are the days that family is here) or if we travel ( then its up to week or 2 that we are off). Now if its a public school holiday we do 1/2 days ( til 11am) because their friends call and want to come over or do something with them. Since their friends are home I let my dd's go light on schoolwork. For summer months we take 1 week off for church camp ( in June), 10 days for my kid free vacation ( they will be w/ granny) and 1-2 weeks for out of state trips ( either with us or they go visit family). A typical summer schedule is Math, Spelling/ Eng. worksheets, Science experiments (Fridays only), History ( either reports and/or Timeline work) and CD-Roms of their choice. We are usually done by 11:30 am and so free to do what we want.
This coming year we plan starting our year the 2nd week of July, and go 5 days a week for 6 weeks at a time. Then we'll take a week off, and school 6 weeks again, 1 week off, etc. We'll take a week for Thanksgiving, 3 weeks at Christmas through New Year's. Then we'll have about a 4-5 week summer break, between grades.
We homeschool year round. I guess that depends on your definition of HS. We use lots of videos for science geography ect. We also do puzzles, board games, ect. They do some math on the computer ect. We do art, guitar lessons. ect If you look at it that way, it doesn't seem like school. I have found if I don't keep something in front of my kids most of the time, they end up being naughty lol We take breaks often though, and especially like nice weather as we garden alot.
Our schedule has run in what I consider a year around style for a few years. We begin in the middle of July and have 9 weeks of school, take a week off and then have another 9 weeks of school. This brings us to the week of Thanksgiving.. we take off starting then through the New Year. The first full week after New Years we start back up for 9 weeks, take a week off and then do our last 9 weeks for the year. We are done in early to mid May and have an 8 week summer break. Really though, we are always learning something so every day is a school day in my eyes... those are just the days I make sure we do something specifically focusing on learning.
Well I am glad to know that we are not the only crazy people. LOL. We hs year around. We take breaks when the kids need it or I do, or when life demands it, or when the weather is too nice to be inside. We also (shhh don't tell anyone) do school on Saturday. But that is just because we spend at least one day a week out delivering parts or something else for the business some times up to 3 days a week out delivering. I have no idea how many weeks we school, or anything like that. I have no plan and no schedule of what to do when. I have found that if we have a schedule I push dc to hard to meet the schedule instead of taking time to make sure they learn it. But that is just my weirdness. We work through a book or subject and when I see we are getting near the end I figure out what we need to move on to next and gather it then.
I can't do that. I have to have a plan for the year. Our plan is always very flexible, though. I estimate how much time we'll spend on each topic, but the actual time will depend on interest level, effort, projects/activities/experiments, etc. High school level classes are different, though. For those, we just work until all the course work is done. Part of my need for a schedule/plan is that I prefer to buy all the materials, for the year, at one time. I actually save money by buying it all at once, and I could never buy all at once without my plans & schedules. Plus, my OCD tendencies & perfectionism won't allow it.
