The key to homeschooling success is to find what works best for your family. Beyond choosing a homeschool style or wading through curriculum options, there’s also the question of when you will homeschool. Will you follow the public school calendar? Or is year round homeschooling the best option?
Year Round Homeschooling
I grew up in the public school system. Then, I went to college and got a teaching degree. Aside from my passion for teaching, I loved that I had my summers off to be with my kids. So, when I decided to homeschool my kids fifteen years ago, I stuck with what I knew. I followed the public school calendar. It made sense to me.
We started school by 9AM, and we ‘did school’ until the neighborhood kids got home from school. We took off for teacher inservice days and holidays, and we counted down to summer break like everyone else did. It never occurred to me to do it any other way.
Then, I learned that there were people who homeschooled year round. And, while it certainly had some appeal, I could not motivate myself to homeschool in the summer. I couldn’t motivate my kids, either. So, we just kept on doing things the way we always had. There is always the option to send the kids to a private school such as Plenty Valley Christian College, but we were somewhat committed to the public school system at the time.
But is that the best way to do things?
For the past few years, I have had a child in our local public high school. For that reason, it made more sense than ever for us to follow the public school calendar. We could be off when Isaac was off. We started our school year in August when he started, and we planned to end when he ended each May.
Until this year, I was okay with that plan. However, I’ve grown a bit weary of it. You see, this year, Em had an extended illness that kept us from doing school for most of January and February. So, we are super behind where I wanted us to be at this point in the year. So, we will be schooling this summer.
But, really my discontent with our school schedule started before that. Two years ago, our public schools were shut down a lot over the winter for snow, ice, and below freezing temperatures. In fact, our Christmas break was about 10 days longer than expected due to weather-related cancellations. The first couple of days were a nice break and chance to recover from the holidays. The rest… BORING! Em whined at the thought of doing school while her brother was home, and no amount of talk about wrapping our school year up early could convince her to do any school work. (Yes, I’m the parent, but trying to educate a brick wall is pretty useless!)
Then, there’s summer break. Her bestie (and the only kid she plays with in our neighborhood) visits family several weeks each summer. Again, we enjoy doing some fun stuff together for the first few days, but then she’s bored. She doesn’t have anyone to play with or anything to do. Perfect time to squeeze in a little school, right?
We’re making the switch…
So, I’ve been prepping her all year that this is our last year of following the public school calendar. My son is a senior in high school, and he’ll be moving away to college in August. I will no longer have a child in the public school system. I am very much looking forward to doing my own thing!
I won’t have a set schedule like I’ve seen others do. And, I’m not sure we’d be considered ‘real’ year round homeschoolers. I’m planning to start in September, and we’ll just go until we’ve hit our 180 days. If that comes in May – YAY! If it doesn’t happen until July – that’s okay, too.
I won’t worry about falling behind. I will enjoy taking off a few extra weeks in December if Emma dances in our city’s Nutcracker ballet again this year. This winter, when the temperatures are so low it’s too cold to go outside, we’ll do a little school. If we want to go visit Isaac at college, we can.
I’ve tried to be flexible with our homeschool schedule even when I followed the public school calendar. However, I’m looking forward to being flexible without the extra constraints. I’m excited to switch to a four-day schedule next year, as well, to accommodate Emma’s desire to join a co-op.
Do you follow the public school calendar? Do you homeschool year round? Or do you just do your own thing?
This post is part of my ABC’s of Homeschooling series! To read the entire series, visit my ABCs of Homeschooling page. I’ll add to this page each day as the posts go live.
I am only in my second year of homeschooling but we do year round and I love it. We have a flexibility to go to the beach one day or out with friends without worrying about getting our school days in. I have friends who would never think of venturing out from the public school schedule. We have to do what’s best for our family. Enjoy your transition. Happy homeschooling.
Hi!
I am new to your blog.
We home school six weeks on and one week off, but we home school year round.
Love the freedom homeschooling allows. Last year was our first year homeschooling, and by mid- May we were all done. We did a nature study one day a week and a bit of other school stuff over the summer but nothing big. I needed the break and time to regroup/rethink what we were doing. This year I am thinking of 1-2 days a week of “school stuff” but I’m not sure how organized I want to go. My kids are young (7&8) and we are still learning some basics I would hate to lose over the break.
Honestly, you just have to do what works best for your family. We’ve been homeschooling 12 years and I love being able to take off when we want to here and there throughout the year. But, I will have to say, I need a summer break…although at times it’s been pretty short. #SmallVictories
I agree the boredom is exhausting! We have a light schedule in the summer, but everyone gets on everyone else’s nerves when we have long breaks! Oh, and I like to go on vacation when everyone else is in school!
We do six weeks on, one week off with 6 week breaks at Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s and May/June. I try to keep a light schedule- usually math going on during those breaks, although it doesn’t always happen! As for counting the 180 days, I don’t even do that. Like my evaluator said, if they’re awake they’re learning.
Sounds like you’ve got a great system down and a wonderful evaluator!
My children go to a traditional school, but just because they are not attending classes every day, does not mean learning stops during the summer. i have planned some learning activities to keep them active and ready when they start classes again in the fall. I am all for year around, all the time learning.
I love the idea of year round homeschooling. We take off a month in December and take a fall break that is much needed, but in the summer we still take an hour out to work on a book that we haven’t finished. It keeps them busy while I get work done. Thanks for linking to Talk It Up Thurs.
Homeschooling like anything on the parenting journey should be “what’s best for your family at the time”. Like you said, this year things were different and it’ll be nice to have that flexibility in your own mindset (and your daughters). Thanks for sharing on #FridayFrivolity
We do public school, but I have many friends who home school and they go year round. Most tell me it allows for more freedom in schedule and keeps things on track for them all year. However, I FULLY agree with what was said previously. It’s what works best for your family, and what works best may change at any time.