We have been HSing for 5 yrs. now, but have always followed the typical PS schedule as far as dates. However, I want to start HSing year round, but now that summer is here I'm wondering what in the world am I thinking. Any tips on how to carry on year round from those of you that do so?
I do not follow the public school schedule, but I do not school year round either. We begin school the beginning of June and go until Thanksgiving. We break from Thanksgiving in the the New Year and resume lessons after the 1st. We do not take off all the major holidays and do not take a spring break. We take off when necessary. Our schedule allows for us to take last minue vacations, days off, and still cover more school than the public schools cover.
I think it's easier (for us anyway) to hs year around, mostly to stabilize our 3 year old into a solid routine. We can homeschool for less time through the day and make it up easier if we don't have a set schedule. It leaves more time through the day to do other things like run errands, and activities for the kids and summer fun! We tend to keep things really loose and make school just "one of those things" that we do before anything else. Our kids are really young and we've never done PS sceduling so we havn't had to switch. It might be difficult to switch if you're kids are a little older and used to the way things are.
We are going to try year round schooling for the first time starting in September. My plan is to do 3 terms (September, October, November then off in December, January, February, March and off in April then May, June, July and off in August. We have only been hsing since February so my ds is used to the ps calendar. I think he will do okay though. Even in the summer months we can be done in time to swim in the afternoons (which at the time seems to be his biggest concern about schooling in the summer! LOL!)
One of the reasons I was wanting to start year round. My 14 yo doesn't have a choice, he is so far behind in math that he has to keep going this summer, so while my little guys really didn't know any different I wanted to start them off year round. But now that summer is here I just want to say, "No school today, go outside and play," but know that I would be thankful is we did some "school work" now.
We school year round with a very flexible schedule. I just keep track of 180 days and take off when we feel like it. When I hit day 180 the year is over & we start the next grade. A new school year could start in mid-late May or up to late June depending on how much time we took off. We usually do 2-3 days per week in the summer. Right now we have fun plans for Mondays & Fridays. We'll try to do school Tues/Wed/Thurs but if something fun comes up we'll ditch it. But if we have nothing planned we may as well keep things fresh in their minds. It's too icky hot to do much outside unless it's swimming. If I took more than 2 weeks off my kids would almost forget their names.
I will be working heavily on Math with my oldest this summer. I will be working heavily on Reading with the other two. We will work 2-3 hours each morning.
