When we first started homeschooling at the end of August, I had planned to basically follow the local public school schedule (end of August to end of June). I planned to take off the same 2 weeks at Christmas, 2 weeks at Easter, and 2 months of Summer. But instead of taking off all of their random Professional Development days, we would just take off days whenever we needed/wanted to. As of today, our local public school has had 9 PD days, and we have taken only 4 days off (not including the 2 weeks at Christmas).
Seeing as we have taken off less than half the days our public school has, coupled with the fact that all of our "in school" days actually consist of doing school work (as opposed to having assemblies, watching movies, having parties, etc.), we are farther ahead than we "need" to be. If we continue at our current pace, we are set to be done most of our subjects by the beginning to the middle of May! That is a whole month and a half to two months early!!
So, seeing as I really don't want to take 3-4 months off of school in the summer, I have started looking into the idea of year-round schooling! Now, I realize that the kids need breaks, and trust me, they will still get them. We are hoping to go to SK for about a week in May, and then again for 2-3 weeks in July or August. We are also looking at going out to Vancouver Island sometime this summer. So obviously, we would take those weeks off of school.
I have really begun to realize that our house as a whole, functions better when we are on a schedule, and everyone has something to do. Too much free time leads to too much fighting, and crabby kids (which in turn creates a crabby Mommy!). So I am thinking about doing a 4 day school week for the summer, with a lighter, flexible course load. I am thinking grammar and math worksheets for Jade, typical preschool letter/number stuff for the triplets, and some fun unit studies that we can all do together!
Now like I said, for now, I am still toying with the idea. If we do this, I want it to be totally flexible. So if we wake up and it is a gorgeous day, and we want to head to the zoo, we can totally drop school for that day and go! I also want the kids to have tons of outside time when the weather is nice, so I don't want summer school to take more than a couple of hours each day.
To any homeschooling readers out there: Do you do school through the summer? Why or why not? If you do, how do you homeschool through the summer - 4 or 5 day weeks? Full courses or fun courses? Any input/advise would be appreciated - Thanks! :)
6 comments:
Hi Jenn!!
Sounds to me like you are on the right track. I like that you are thinking out of the box and making things work for your family. :)
We currently have a 4 day school week, Mon. - Thurs., with Fridays for errands and out of home classes. We homeschool year round as well. It allows for more flexibility, and also keeps our routine in place. I also find that the kids fight and get into more trouble when there is no structure. I work better with some sort of daily framework in place. Summers have been busy with babies and moves the last few years but this year I plan on continuing math, grammar, and reading for sure during the summer, and allowing the rest to be more fluid depending on what else is happening that day/week. I look forward to hearing more about your plans. :) I always find them encouraging.
I'm not a homeschooler but could you incorporate some outdoor units that are not "School-related" like swimming, nature, building a garden, etc. over the summer that would be routine as in every-day, but un-routine as in not-by-the-book. I'm sure there are tons of great subjects out there- photography, etc.
Thanks for your comment Mel! :)
Special K - Thanks for your input! I am definately thinking of doing some outdoor type stuff, such as gardening. But I would like to do some small unit studies on some outdoor related subjects as well - how plants grow, insects, thunderstorms - for example. I am thinking of having some indoor school stuff, to relate to our outdoor activities! :)
I'll throw another idea... another friend of mine schools year round but they do a 4 weeks on and 1 week off schedule. They go skiing, white water rafting etc. on their off week.
We do a 4 day week starting in August and ending at the end of May. We find that 2 months off is a good amount. We also take most of December off. We don't worry so much about what/how much we finish over the course of time. Learning is continual. We are just as likely to stop in the middle of a book as we are to move on to the next one without waiting for the next year.
This is the very thing I am wondering in my blog also
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