Scheduling the School Year

happy@home · Post by **happy@home** » Sat May 17, 2008 8:46 am

I am new at this and just curious as to how you ladies schedule your school year. My oldest daughter is in public school and they run from the first week in August until the middle of May. But I just realized

that I don't have to go by their schedule!!

Do you go from August or September to May?

Do you have a Fall break and a Spring break?

Do you take off a week or two at Christmas?

Thanks for sharing all your wisdom and ideas!!

SoaringEagle · Post by **SoaringEagle** » Sat May 17, 2008 8:53 am

I'm just starting. I did Pre-K last year and this year we'll be starting K. I decided to start school the day after my daughter's birthday which is in very early September. I take breaks whenever I see the need to. Usually a week off every 6 weeks or so. We also school 4 days/week since 1 day is co-op day and we are just too tired afterwards to do any formal schooling. We end whenever our curriculum is finished.

annaz · Post by **annaz** » Sat May 17, 2008 10:41 am

We go year round. I take off around the holidays in December, family vacations and Vacation Bible School. The rest of the time we wing it

between how busy we are, but that's why we go year round. My dd would be bored stiff if we took off for the summer.

beandip71 · Post by **beandip71** » Sat May 17, 2008 10:44 am

We have been using Little Hearts for K this year and we have pretty much followed the ps schedule in our area. We began the last week of August, took a week off in Sept. for vacation, another week off at Thansgivng, and a 2 1/2 week break at Christmas. I did not take a spring break, I just took a few days off here and there when we needed it. We are currently in Unit 32 and should be done w/ this school year in the next 2 weeks. I will probably so the same thing for 1st when we use Beyond. HTH!

Gina

Tana in FL · Post by **Tana in FL** » Sat May 17, 2008 12:04 pm

We don't use HOD yet, but I can tell you what we do anyway.

We take lots of breaks at our own whim. We live in Central Florida where there is much to do and see, so field trips are a way of life to us. A beach day here, trip to Sea World there. Swim day. Trip to Indiana for a week to visit family. Disney. You get the idea. Plus, it's hot in the summer, and we would rather be inside than outside, so schooling in the summer makes sense.

We school year-round and defintely wing it as we go. I like to throw in unit studies about what we have done or will be doing. Every September my mom and sister come down, and we all go to the beach for a week. This always calls for a unit on the ocean.

Last year we found lots of sand dollars and star fish, so we took some time to study sand dollars, star fish, etc. after our vacation.

We definitely do not follow a public school schedule. Goodness, now that I'm writing this out, I don't think we follow ANY schedule. LOL! I do make sure we get out 160 days of schooling a year in, but we have no problems with that.

MamaMary · Post by **MamaMary** » Sat May 17, 2008 1:07 pm

happy@home wrote:I am new at this and just curious as to how you ladies schedule your school year. My oldest daughter is in public school and they run from the first week in August until the middle of May. But I just realized that I don't have to go by their schedule!!

Do you go from August or September to May?

Do you have a Fall break and a Spring break?

Do you take off a week or two at Christmas?

Thanks for sharing all your wisdom and ideas!!

Hi Happy@home! I have done it many different ways and change it around based on where we are in life. The only one that has not worked well for us is taking summers off?

My favorite is:

Taking Thanksgiving through New years off and then 3 weeks on, one week off. That didn't work for us this year because I needed to take a big chunk in March as we had a family wedding out of state, but I am seriously leaning that way this year.

crlacey · Post by **crlacey** » Sat May 17, 2008 1:10 pm

We school year round and just take off when we want to. As long as we get in 180 days, the state doesn't care. So we school most days and take off days or weeks whenever we feel like it. Also, we sometimes do school on Saturday or Sunday if DD wants to.

hippiechyck · Post by **hippiechyck** » Sat May 17, 2008 1:17 pm

happy@home wrote:I am new at this and just curious as to how you ladies schedule your school year. My oldest daughter is in public school and they run from the first week in August until the middle of May. But I just realized that I don't have to go by their schedule!!

no, you don't but in my experiance with having some in school and some hoem, it's MUCH easier on everyone to follow along with the school schedule...not strictly, but loosely

Do you go from August or September to May?

Do you have a Fall break and a Spring break?

Do you take off a week or two at Christmas?

Thanks for sharing all your wisdom and ideas!!

we go usually all year, especially now that i only have the two younger ones at home, no one else's schedule to follow

but we usually try this:

start "new" curriculum/units in August, first full week

break at Thanksgiving-New Year, doing a loose study on Pilgrims and then doing Advent in December...no 3R's, just enjoying lots of reading and crafts

start up again first full week of January and go through to Easter-ish and take another 3-4 week break, preparing for Easter (since we moved in all that time this year it didn't work out as well as i hoped)

start again week after Easter till end of June and have July off

it doesn't always LOOK that neat on paper

but that's roughly how i try and keep us scheduled

Mommamo · Post by **Mommamo** » Sat May 17, 2008 1:21 pm

We did Pre-K last year and are doing K this year with LHFHG. We're just planning on schooling year round. I don't think at this point DD knows the difference and we don't have any neighborhood kids (we're out in the country) who are out of school. Plus, this lets us do things at our own pace and take time off if we're sick or busy or want a vacation or whatever else come up.Plus, my DD doesn't do well off of a routine, so this helps everything to be the same all the time, and she behaves better that way.

susie in ms · Post by **susie in ms** » Sat May 17, 2008 1:24 pm

We go year round and wing it as Ann said.
We have gardening to do. Planting season and canning season we have no school. We take off Part of Nov, all of Dec, and a tad of Jan. When my husband needed out sons to work they went to work. If we have the money any give year we take off for vacation during the month our little hearts desire, so we avoid big crowds and high cost of travel season. (This year will be a bit diff for us though). Anytime we need to take off we do, but we school when others are out of school.

Amey · Post by **Amey** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:05 pm

We will be schooling year round as well. This year we took off a month when baby was born and another few weeks for our international move. We usually take a big chunk of December off and then we will be taking another month for furlough each year as we have to come back to the US to renew our visas, register our vehicle etc.
I find there is more freedom this way to take off whenever the unexpected comes up. I also think my boys would be bored to tears if they didn't have any type of scheduled activities!

Homeschooling6 · Post by **Homeschooling6** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:09 pm

We take 2 weeks for CHRISTmas, 1 week for Easter, 3 weeks in the Summer (broken up) 2 weeks for sick days & 4 weeks sprinkled through out the year. Sometimes we just need a break

That gives us 40 weeks out of the 52 weeks to get school done

Blessings,

Jessi · Post by **Jessi** » Sat May 17, 2008 8:56 pm

Wow. I hadn't thought about schooling year round but you all seem to be leaning that way. I was just planning on starting Emma in Sept but after reading your posts I am wondering if I shouldn't start her in August and then school year round. That makes perfect sense as things come up and we can just plan around that. Plus it helps me be more focused and intentional in planning our lives.

happy@home · Post by **happy@home** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:28 am

Thanks ladies!!

I think I will start in July and give myself a few weeks to get really "organized"

and then just see how it goes!!

I appreciate all the "sneak peaks" at what you are doing!

Ruth in FL · Post by **Ruth in FL** » Mon May 19, 2008 6:59 pm

We start in August, take two weeks off in November because mother in law comes for a Thanksgiving visit.
We take the week of Christmas off, then do not take anymore time off in large chunks again.
We take days off here and there, sick days, nice days in the winter days....it is SO hard to do school when it is 70-75 in January!!!! I have a friend who is a teacher(husband homeschools) and we take a day or two off during her vacation so we can do things together!
The flexibility is priceless!!
I try to finish up by second week of May.
Remember, field trips count as a school day!!!

Ruth

heartofdakota.com

Scheduling the School Year

Scheduling the School Year

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