Pacing and "semesters"

[Alana in Canada]

We are on our eighth straight week since the Christmas break. This is the first time in our homeschooling lives we have gone beyond the seventh week mark.

I decided to go for 9 weeks this time, because last year I noticed we were often just hitting our groove at about 4 weeks!

However, this has been a remarkably tough term--and I'm wondering if 9 weeks without a break in the dead of winter was wise.

What says the hive?

oh--and how do we avoid taking our "break" so thoroughly we'll never come back--but sufficiently so we'll be refreshed when we begin the grind again?

TIA.

[elegantlion]

We are in our 5th year of homeschooling and traditionally follow a public school schedule. We take two weeks off at Christmas. I've noticed this year the need to take some time off about now. We've taken three sporadic days in the last week, so I've decided next year that at the end of February we will take off an entire week.

Granted our winter weather is about gone, but I'm still suffering from cabin fever.

[Sahamamama]

Because I'm curious about this question!

:bigear:

[one l michele]

We school year round, either 4 or 5 days a week, then take 3 weeks off in June, and another 3 in December. We school in the morning, then I bundle the kids up and send them out to sled. I find that anything longer than 3 weeks is too much. 3 weeks is just right for us to clear our heads and for me to tackle some projects around the house. Because of schooling year round, when we are burning out, we just take a 3 day weekend without feeling guilty.

[RaeAnne]

We school year round, either 4 or 5 days a week, then take 3 weeks off in June, and another 3 in December. We school in the morning, then I bundle the kids up and send them out to sled. I find that anything longer than 3 weeks is too much. 3 weeks is just right for us to clear our heads and for me to tackle some projects around the house. Because of schooling year round, when we are burning out, we just take a 3 day weekend without feeling guilty.

No other breaks than those? At all? Just trying to picture it. :001_smile:

[Amber in AUS]

I have littles so this might not continue to work for us when they are older but ATM we school 4 days a week having Wed break. We only school in the morning. Whenever things are getting tough i plan a few extra 'schooly' field trips and make a point of not doing anything formal on those days. If i plan trips on Mon & Tues then we get a good 5 day break before getting back to it. Long enough for a little refreshment but no so long that we don't want to work anymore.

At Christmas/New Year we took 2 weeks and it was hard to start back up. We didn't do anything at all during that time.

[Alana in Canada]

Yes, I was thinking we should perhaps do some trip/museum type things--but in order for me to have transportation we have to get up at 6am and take Dad to work (and then there's picking him up again in rush hour traffic!) and my nephew, well, he has to be worked into plans, too. (As well as drop off and pick up times with his caregiver which could get really hairy!)

I had planned to school 42 weeks this year--4-9 week segments and one six week. Our "longest" break (on paper) all together will be two weeks in the summer. (Annual camping trip--so you know there'll be "light" school days on either side, lol!)

Thank for all your replies. It's really interesting to me to see how other families structure their year and how it all works for you.

Oh--and I should mention we school 4 1/2 days/week. The 1/2 day is Saturday (Dad is off on Sundays and Mondays)

[Melinda]

We are following what the local schools do. I am thinking of switching to year round school, though. If we do, here is how I want to do it:

Month on, week off -- except December and August, where we would take the whole month off.

-or-

3 months on, 1 month off repeating.

[one l michele]

We school mornings only though, so really everyday we have time to pursue other interests. Sometimes in the summer I'll flip school to the afternoon so we can get outside before it's hot or if it's supposed to rain that afternoon, etc..

[bodhi tree]

oh--and how do we avoid taking our "break" so thoroughly we'll never come back--but sufficiently so we'll be refreshed when we begin the grind again?

TIA.
We school pretty much year-round, too, and we take a long break around the holidays (Thanksgiving - Jan 1). Amazingly, it's not that hard to get back into the swing of things. The kids get bored and they're ready to get down to business again!

If you don't want to lose momentum, how about a long weekend or two? Nine weeks is a long time to go without any time off... but a little bit may go a long way!

[patchfire]

This is the first year we've really done long stretches without a significant break. We took about a week and a half over Thanksgiving, since dd2 arrived one week before Thanksgiving, and we took three weeks at Christmas. The difference is, dh now has a job where he works from home one day a week (makes a big difference for schooling 'around' ds) and my mom is currently unemployed and generally comes over at least one day a week, which again makes a big difference with ds.

Dd and I both want to get this school year wrapped up by May 15, which we are on track to do with just one week of break for 'spring break' between now and then... but next year my mom will be working again, so we'll probably take a February break again.

[OhElizabeth]

Well I'll be weird and say I wouldn't break now. I'm doing the calculations of what we need to get done to stop formal stuff by April. I'm not going to break now, when the weather is yucky, and be doing school work when it's nice! So we'll work through, even when it's hard and not fun, and we'll enjoy spring while y'all are sweating to finish things out. :)

That's how I've always done it, and it's worked great. We try to wrap up our regular stuff by the end of April and do fun stuff (unit study, subjects we missed the rest of the year, intensive focus on something) in May. I call it May Term after a similar program we had in high school. This year for May Term I want to do photography with my dd.

So I say work through the ughs, perservere, and reach your goal! :)

[Wendy B.]

I plan to do 9 weeks of school each season which last 13 weeks. So each quarter we have 4 weeks that we can take off. We take off for illnesses, vacations, grandparent visits, birthdays, or when we just need a break. I try not to take more than 3 weeks at a time because it is hard to get back into the swing of things.