Our Year-Round Homeschool Schedule
Are you curious about how year round homeschooling really works? In this post I’m sharing our year round homeschool schedule and breaks to keep learning consistent but flexible. Whether you’re new to homeschooling or considering a year round approach, this episode will give you practical ideas and encouragement
Hi friends Welcome back to the blog.
Today I want to give you a behind the scene look at our year round homeschool. In the next post I am sharing a look at our daily and weekly schedule so if that is of interest to you be sure to join the newsletter so you get notified when podcast episodes and blog post come out.
This is just a sit down chatty conversation. So if I don’t cover something that you want to know more about email me so we can chat.
When I first started homeschooling I followed a traditional school model as far as our schedule went. I really didn’t know any other way. I grew up in that model and my husband was working as a teacher at the time we started homeschooling so that model fit our lifestyle. But as I dug deeper into learning from other homeschoolers through blogs, books, and podcasts somewhere along the way I heard of a sabbath homeschool model which consists of 6 weeks on one week off.
That model just sounded so refreshing. Knowing that I would have breaks woven in regularly was something that drew me.
Over the years I have tried a variation like taking the last week of every month off. Or going longer and taking a week off in between 12 week terms. Or just taking breaks when I felt like it. However, I have come back to 6 weeks on one week off and for the past few years have stayed here. I have found that I can work diligently for 6 weeks and still have a break to look forward to.
Instead of a full summer we take a 6 week summer break that starts right after Memorial Day and ends early July. That’s when we start our school year back up.
As far as planning for the year: When I am ready to put the plans to paper I start with a year at a glance from July to June and begin by marking off the weeks I know we will have off like Christmas week, or vacations.
Then I start counting off the weeks from July to the end of May. I aim for at least 36 weeks of school on paper. This school year not all of the terms fit perfectly into 6 weeks on 1 week off. I have a five week term that leads up to Christmas school and we also have a vacation that will be in the middle of another term. But my goal is to have 5-6 week terms, an exam week and a week off. I know we will have sick days and other things that come up. That’s life.
Exam weeks are new to us this year. We haven’t really done exams. Teaching textbooks, which is the math program two of my children use, includes tests and my teen’s apologia science curriculum includes tests as well. But Most of what we do is read and oral narrations. This year I am including exams as a way to look back at the term and further think about some of the things learned and have some documentation. In those weeks my plan is to have 2 -3 days of morning written exams and then Nature hikes or field trips in the afternoon. And following that with a week break.
When it comes to our breaks which feel like little rest stops on this homeschooling journey.
During our end of term breaks I take time to consider the season both the actual season but also what is going on in our life. It’s a placeholder to declutter spaces, and to look over my plans for the year and make adjustments as I fit that plan into our next term.
We take the month of December off from our regular studies minus math. We instead do Christmas school. I don’t consider this a traditional break because we are doing school. It’s just a much more Christmas themed focus. We shift to our advent traditions of lighting candles, eating chocolates from the advent calendars and reading from Unwrapping the greatest gift book. As well as reading all of our favorite Christmas and winter books. We bake, and work on any other inspired projects or activities. This time is such a sweet time for us and always feels very relaxing. Then we take about a week off for Christmas and new years eve and New years day.
And like I said before we take a 6 week summer break. My kids attend vbs and summer camps during this break.For me having a whole summer off does sound nice but I always felt like I have so much more energy in the summer than in the winter and it seemed crazy to not do school in the season where I want to do more fun projects. Plus our pool doesn’t open until noon so it works out that we can do our school work in the morning and head to the pool in the afternoons.
Alright that was a general overview of how I break our school year up into a year round model that fits my family. I hope that all made sense but If you have any questions please email me. I would love to chat with you. Don’t forget to follow the show so you are notified of the next episode. I will be sharing our daily and weekly school schedule.
Bye friends!
