Transitioning to year round school...advice please..

[4pillars]

Hello,

I have made the decision to move to a year round schedule, after using the traditional school schedule for 7 years!! I decided this would prevent summer boredom, and so the children would not lose math skills, ect..

I am a little scared of how the kids are going to react to this. So I am wondering if anyone has any advice as to how to make this transition smooth? I have mentioned it to the kids and they looked at me like I was crazy. However, it just seems like there is sooooo much down time, which means loads of screen time!! YIKES.

If you do homeschool year round, when do you have breaks?

Thanks,
Jennifer

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

I want to do this too...I am anxious for the responses:o

[training5]

We take breaks whenever we need them. Our breaks are a day here and there. When the baby comes in July, we will take 3 or 4 off..depends on how I feel. I know other ladies on here are more organized than I am in that regard. I have read that some do 6 or 9 weeks on , 1 week off. We manged to take all of December last year off. That , I learned was a BIG mistake. Mine need the daily structure too much.

[Ellie]

Seems as if you could take off a couple of weeks or so, then start back in.

We always took off from Thanksgiving through about the middle of January and never had any problems starting back up. It doesn't seem to me that it's any different than taking off a whole summer, KWIM? Even during our time "off," we still did field trips and park day, and there was till *structure* in our day--morning routines, meals, bedtimes, household chores. I only have two dc, so maybe it would be different with more dc.

One more thing: Don't be scared. You're the boss. It will be fine.

[Trivium Academy]

I'd play math games- or to take a few weeks off from your math curriculum in between the years/levels. Since you've done the traditional schedule the end of this year's math would be around summer- what a great time to do real-life math or menu math with your family. You could even go so far as to hand out play money and menus for the meals.

[Beth in Central TX]

I school 36 weeks a year, which gives me 16 weeks to schedule off. I took 4 weeks off at Christmas, and I'll another 5 weeks off in July. This left me 7 weeks to schedule off during the time between our breaks. I decided to take a week off in September, October, November, February, March, April, and May. I like to take weeks off at a time because it is easier to plan our lessons.

To transition to a year round schedule, I would decide how you want your schedule to look for the 2008-09 school year. Then start school when you need to. It may be a shorter break than they are use to, but extra time off will come up soon enough.

HTH!

[Jennifer in NH]

We take time off when DH has vacation. In the summer we do school in the morning, and not as much as winter months. I take more time with History, we don't oficially do science...we do a small amount of math almost daily. Our summer schedual is just a lighter version. Hope that helps. Oh, and rainy days are usually a little more school than hot and sunny days!;)

[Sue G in PA]

My kids all thought I was crazy for even suggesting such a proposterous thing, but...it's for the best. I told them it would give us more freedom during the normal school year. They liked that. So, for this summer, I'm keeping it light. Math will be 4 days a week (either curriculum or math games). Reading every day but mostly books of dc choice (my approval of course). We must catch up and finish MOH so History will be 3 days/wk. Science will be Nature Study, bird watching and a simple study of birds and perhaps some misc. experiments. No grammar. No spelling. We will keep up with our new family newspaper for writing as well as writing to pen pals/family, etc. DD will continue Spanish and I'd *like* to start LC1. It sounds like a lot, but it's all flexible. They'll have lots of free time as well. Take it slow. Be flexible and remember this is a new thing for the kids. I'm trying to keep that in mind as well!

[Cadam]

i am right there with you. We are moving to year-round as well. I posted this same question a while back. I wonder if I can link it.

[Heather in MD]

This sounds a lot like our schedule. We start our new school year on the first Monday in August and we use a 'four weeks on, one week off' schedule. We take off for four weeks over Christmas/New Years. Then we end up with the last week in June and all of July off before we start the next new year. We've been doing this schedule for five years now, and it really works well for us.

Heather in MD

I school 36 weeks a year, which gives me 16 weeks to schedule off. I took 4 weeks off at Christmas, and I'll another 5 weeks off in July. This left me 7 weeks to schedule off during the time between our breaks. I decided to take a week off in September, October, November, February, March, April, and May. I like to take weeks off at a time because it is easier to plan our lessons.

To transition to a year round schedule, I would decide how you want your schedule to look for the 2008-09 school year. Then start school when you need to. It may be a shorter break than they are use to, but extra time off will come up soon enough.

HTH!

[Alana in Canada]

It's always so interesting to see how everyone does "year round" schooling.

I agree with keeping the summers light--of course I have read of someone whose summers are so hot, they prefer to get lots of school done in the air conditioning!

I'm still feeling my way with this, but I have planned six on, one off. We did skip our first six weeks off though--we had JUST got up and running after a long, long break and I didn't want to lose momentum. We're also taking a three week vacation in May. So, the way it is going to work out is 18 weeks straight until then. But we're also doing a four and 1/2 day week. (I had planned six days but that's a recipe for burn out, here).

[WendyK]

I take breaks when I or the kids need them. We are on a break right now in fact. I haven't gotten into scheduling exactly when breaks are, but so far that is working out fine.

[Tracey in TX]

Thanks for asking the school year-round question. I've been pondering the same thing. Kiddos already know we won't have the traditional brain drain this summer. I considered 4 wks off and the rest of the summer 2-3 days/wk. Not sure if that is too haphazard to attempt.

[Donna]

We school 4 days a week and take days off whenever we need a break. Usually take a week around Christmas and a couple weeks in the summer depending on vacation plans. Sometimes we take work along with us on vacations. Some really nice spring days, I call it a spring break and we spend the day at a park or go to the zoo.

On Fridays, we have no formal work planned but use it to catch up on missed work or for "fun" learning or trips. Some weeks we just use Fridays for catching up on housework or relaxation.

[TwinMominTX]

is in April. I LOVE the weather in April while I dislike the weather in July. I figure as long as we're sitting inside in front of the a/c we can do school!!

TK

[AngieW in Texas]

For the summer, I make everything either M/W/F or Tu/Th, except for reading which is daily. I drop history when we finish the program we're using and then start up our new program in the fall. I do the same for science.

I usually have the kids do one research paper and one big story for the summer for writing.

[Beth in Central TX]

Okay, well, see the frugal side of me kicks in around July/August, and my motto is "Let's go use someone else's air conditioning."

[CalicoKat]

Hello,

I have made the decision to move to a year round schedule, after using the traditional school schedule for 7 years!! I decided this would prevent summer boredom, and so the children would not lose math skills, ect..

I am a little scared of how the kids are going to react to this. So I am wondering if anyone has any advice as to how to make this transition smooth? I have mentioned it to the kids and they looked at me like I was crazy. However, it just seems like there is sooooo much down time, which means loads of screen time!! YIKES.

If you do homeschool year round, when do you have breaks?

Thanks,
Jennifer
than wondering when to schedule breaks. Life too often interrupts school. :)

We started year-round schooling year July 2007. Since we can always count on illnesses mid-year taking us away from our studies for about a month or so. By starting in July we were able to avoid loosing momentum towards achieving our required 180 days of school.

We also do 3 days of at-home academics each week. The 4th day is for Community Bible Study. And the 5th day is a full day of Co-Op classes.

For us we struggle to keep going despite the interruptions of life, babies, and illnesses. :) The only planned days off are over major holidays and those are kept short (just travel & the holiday). I haven't heard my kids complain about needing a break.

The summer time is when they get to do more out-of-the home workshops, day camps, week long park district lessons. I guess you could say that we take breaks in between those experiences. This summer though we will continue the 3 R's all the way through.

[pixelroper]

My fourth year--always year around, it sounds worse than it is.
Why I like it-

1. summer is often better for any outdoor science, camping, animals
2. holidays/travel are less stressed when I know we have time to use
3. any illnesses or whatever life throws at us
4. move through some curriculum quicker & it gets finished
5. none of the summer brain erase*
6. house gets scrubbed at least twice a year- quickly
7. do not have the 'didn't finish it' problem some of my hs friends have (believe me I have others:) but not from doing a year around program.)

usually 4 wks on- 1 off- very flexible & two floating weeks

*my first summer I didn't have her do much math, apparently there is alot lost during summer break during K-3 grade, it was painful returning to math in the fall- more for me, I thought 'where did it all go?'

[angela in ohio]

We break for two weks at Christmas, two weeks in late July (dh's vacation,) sometimes a week for Thanksgiving (if we have out-of-town company,) sometimes for Spring Break, and then another week or two as needed. We end up with 44-46 weeks.

I would just be very positive with them about the change, but also let them know it is not negotiable.

[mamalotsoftots]

"Okay, well, see the frugal side of me kicks in around July/August, and my motto is "Let's go use someone else's air conditioning."

LOL. I just had to say that hit me so funny, as that's how I think too. Thank you for your responses to this. I have been wondering about it also. :p

Do you think it would be a good idea for the homeschooler just starting out to take a couple weeks off, then start right into light schooling? More of review I think, but I think this would help me grasp where he is at, where I should begin teaching the 'new' stuff. ? . What do you think? ? Should I just leave him go the summer and start this fall, or should we just jump right in? I agree that for science & social studies (history) things, it seems it would be most profitable to do these during the summer!

OP: I'm sorry to hijack the thread. . . I just hate to add a new thread for a very similar topic. :D

[Mrs. H.]

That's why we school year-round. Every year, it seems like we either move, have a baby, have a health-crises (minor or major), or 'stuff' just happens, and we take the time off as needed.

Examples: dd had her tonsils out the week before Christmas, so we took three weeks off instead of two because of her constant Dr's. appointments, surgery, recovery, catching up on errands/housework, etc.

Dh will probably have minor surgery in a week or two, and he will be home for a week. We will do as much school as we can manage with him here, but it won't be much.

We had the flu for two weeks this year.

All this, and yet we are still on schedule. We will do school until the middle of July (4 days per week, 45 weeks total = 180 days per the state laws), then take off about three weeks to decompress until the middle of August. Any child who finishes any subject (math, grammar, latin, greek book) can be done with that subject until the following school year, but I keep math games and fun workbooks around the house, ask them to write letters or short compositions, we do a musical latin program during the summer, and fun word root games to keep things fresh. We also use the extra time for field trips, experiments, and topics we don't have time for during the regular school year.

[K&Rs Mom]

I find that year-round is much more flexible. Why not start taking advantage of that now, so they can see the benefit BEFORE their ps friends get out and they think they're missing something? Then take off the first few days you had previously planned as "summer" anyway, and use the rest of that month to catch up the stuff you've been flexible about. That way there's still some transition, still a short summer break, and maybe you can head off some of the complaining by showing them the advantages first. If you've been working 5 days a week, proposing a 4-day week year-round would probably get a good response from the kids.

Mamalots - do you mean just starting as in just coming out of an outschool? Maybe you can give him a few weeks off to get used to things, then start slowly. I wouldn't wait until fall to start a "full" program, but also wouldn't jump right in after a big change.

[Lisawa]

I’m toying with this idea too... I am thinking 6 weeks on, one week off.... maybe a bit longer in December. I just decided this yesterday after a wonderful conversation with a new acquaintance........

I'll have to report back what we decide. I know I will take a week maybe 2 in June and all of July this year....

[chiguirre]

I'm lucky that my kids' think school is year round because my oldest's is ;). This year I'm planning to send them to day camp twice a week and do school 3 days a week. We'll be able to get a bit ahead in math and LA and have less stress later. Last year we did a 5 day a week 3.5 hour long summer school program at our local Montessori school, but it's just too hard to sit down and work after coming home from "school".

[Karin]

We take breaks at various times of the year. Christmas holiday time, February vacation time (if my parents pay for a family reunion trip), a week here and there in the summer (usually a total of 2-3 weeks off in summer), about a week around dance recital time and whenever we have relatives come to visit, which isn't all the time as none of them live that close to us. Also, we usually take a spring cleaning semi break and 5 days off for Thanksgiving. Also, we do school light for much of the summer, mostly core subjects, rather than try to do it all as my kids do swim lessons, or now swim team for 5 weeks during the day instead of late afternoon or evening.

As for how we work, we are a do what comes next bunch, although I do plan the curriculum and the schedule for each day. I'm saying this because I know some parents divide subjects up by a certain number of weeks. Each child is requried to finish at least one grade per year, and we do the whole book for the most part. The exception to the whole book comes when there is more review than a child actually needs as then it becomes busy work. Periodically I check where they are with the calendar to see if they need to work more (because things have been very busy, which happens at certain times) or can ease up in certain subjects because they're ahead and need more time for something else. Today each of my dd's is finishing something they need to have done by half way through the year, and early March is half way in this case (Sept to end of August).